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Posted By: William Heitman

Who should be in baseball's Hall of Fame? I spent two wonderful days with Joe Sewell, the hardest man to strike out in the history of baseball, and, a man who received votes in just 6 out of 22 years on the ballot(1 vote 5 times, 3 votes once) and then 23 votes in his 24th year(Joe said that Ty Cobb lobbied for him that year, 1960) and who then got in via the Vets in 1977. He is not unique when it comes to many who are in the Hall of Fame. And a waiver for Tommy Lasorda? Because he had heart problems? If you can find some scientific measure of who should be in the Hall of Fame then you should be the only HOFer. Closers are the beneficiaries of one of the most ridulous statistical measures in baseball--the Save. Ever since I first started paying attention, I learned that the pitcher had, on any given day, the vast advantage the first time through the opposing team's line-up. Well-closers (a term that is hardly deserved) never do anything close to going through that line-up even once. Sutter invented the split finger? Isn't the split finger just another name for Elroy Face's fork ball? McGwire was just about home runs? Well, major league baseball put him on the all-20th century team. You have a problem with his use of an over the counter dietary supplement that he openly used?
Do you have a problem with the insulin Ron Santo used? Voters vote for who they want to. When given a chance. Should Pete Rose be banned from the Hall as a player when his transgressions were as a manager? He's all about home runs? Isn't the game today just all about home runs and strike outs? Babe Ruth was not only known as his day's home run king, he was known as its strike out king, yet he never struck out 100 times in any season. That almost qualifies him as a contact hitter today. Yes, and we're coming up on the year of Ripken. I would think that his streak shouldn't even be considered, but it is. Why--because the "record" he broke was Lou Gehrig's. Do you think it would have been as significant if that "record" had been Everett Scott's? (And, by the way, Everett Scott received more votes on the ballot than many, many who have since gone into the Hall of Fame) How about the case of Leo Durocher? Roy Campanella said that everyone on the VC thought the Lip belonged in the Hall of Fame, but would never vote for him while he was still alive. Personal agenda is what the VC looked for. What all of a sudden made Travis Jackson a Hall of Famer? Ted Williams openly lobbied for Bobby Doerr, his teammate and friend, despite the lack of support by the writers. And this just goes on and on. Andre Dawson will be made to wait as further punishment for his crimes. Jim Rice will pay for his lack of cooperation. And Ty Cobb will sit high above and laugh at it all. Babe will toast it all as he downs a few more hot dogs with yet another quart of beer. And Willie, Mickey and the Duke will still be a pretty good song just as Tinker to Evers to Chance was a passable poem.