Super Mario
Well-known member
I agree that the Hall should be taken more seriously and should be reserved for the best of the best rather than the borderline 10th ballot kind of guys.
I don't have as much of a problem with Santo due to his contributions to the game even beyond his playing career. Based on his playing career alone, I would have left him out too, but he meant a lot to Cubs fans, as I understand it.
As for Biggio, 3000 hits should be a guarantee for the Hall of Fame, but not a guarantee for the 1st ballot. I don't think he deserves the prestige of a 1st ballot induction, but I would like to see him in the 3rd or 4th time around.
See, I'm of the belief that you're either first ballot or you're not. And I know that people will throw out Joe Dimaggio's name in defense like they always do, but like I said before it's a very flawed system.
It drives me insane when people take years to get in. If it takes you several attempts to get in, you clearly don't deserve to be in .
My saying is always 'You're first ballot, or you're not.' But you can't help ignorant voters. I wish there was a better way.
And it's even more of a sticky situation NOW. With the 'steroid era' guys finally coming up on the ballot.
Guys like Clemens, Bonds, McGwire, they're 100% first ballot no-doubters to me. And it drives me INSANE that they weren't voted in on the first ballot.
WHY exactly does it bother me? Because EVERYONE in baseball turned a blind eye to steroid use in the steroid era. EVERYYYYYONNNNNEEEE! I was a XXXXing 16 year old KID watching Big Mac and Sosa during the home run chase, and I knew there was something fishy going on. So some naive kid knows there's something up, but you're telling me Bud Selig, Tony LaRussa, and everyone else in MLB didn't know what was going on? COME ON MAN! Don't be a moron.
THIS is what bothers me. Everyone accepted it at the time, and I believe the majority of the players WERE doing it, so it was more or less an even playing field.
So for Selig and the league, and the voters to come out NOW and want to crucify and murder these players, when in my belief they HAD to know what was going on then......well that's just beyond my Midwestern little weak minded brains capacity to comprehend.
Sometimes people really baffle me.
And a lot of times, it's the Hall of Fame voters.