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The Hall's Blunder

By bsd987, Section MLB
Posted on Tue Jan 09 2007 at 6:28 PM EST
More on: MLB, Baseball Hall of Fame (all tags)

The Major League Baseball Hall of Fame at Cooperstown is the biggest disgrace to the game.

Never, not even in refusing to induct Pete Rose, has the Hall proven to be as flawed as it did today.

And it's that second one that makes me vomit because there will never be another Tony Gwynn. Never.

There will be another Ripken. There will be someone who finds his spot and play every game for 15 years. There will be someone who average 25 home runs and 170 hits from 600 at bats, batting an acceptable .276.

There will be another Ripken. There will be someone who is a reliable fielder, winning a couple of gold gloves and using his mix and persona to make the All-Star game every year, even though more than half the time he probably shouldn't be selected, over a 20 year career.

There will be another Ripken. There always is.

But there will never be another Tony Gwynn. Not ever. In the 70 years since Roger Horsnby retired, there have been two great pure hitters: Ted Williams and Tony Gwynn. Williams came right after Hornsby; Gwynn came when almost every other great hitter was already dead.

Yet, somehow, five more people cast votes for Cal Ripken Jr., a player who take away one artificial streak would be a borderline hall-of-famer, than Tony Gwynn. And it is insulting.

I usually accept that the process is screwed up, how people would vote based on whether or not a person is a "first-balloter" or not. But I never thought it was this screwed up.

My oldest concrete memory of baseball is the strike in 1994 and how it cost Tony Gwynn a chance at batting .400. I remember my dad trying to explain to me the significance of batting .400, although I did not understand.

Yet it wasn't a fluke season like when George Brett pressed the record in 1980, when he finished at .390. Brett never had another season above .335. Gwynn's career average was three points higher.

Gwynn batted at least .350 seven times in his career, including a remarkable five times in a row from 1993 to 1997. Ted Williams never batted .350 more than two seasons in a row. Ripken only hit .300 four times total.

Oh, and Gwynn also had three more gold gloves than Ripken.

Yet, despite being the best hitter of the last 50 years and despite having better defensive accolades than Ripken, somehow, solely because of his ironman streak, Cal Ripken Jr. is more worthy of being in Cooperstown than Tony Gwynn.

That is an insult.

Not to Gwynn, he probably could care less, but to baseball.

Gwynn was the last great hitter, the only one in 50 years and one of only two since the 1930s. Only a few can be great.

Anyone with heart and the right situation can be an ironman.

I'm not docking Ripken; I honestly believe that his streak is one of the most remarkable in sporting history and I do believe that that alone is enough to enshrine him in Cooperstown. But let's be realistic for a moment.

Even with the streak, how can you say that Ripken should get in ahead of Gwynn? How?

If Ripken had missed one game in the middle of the streak, he would not have gotten in this year. If Gwynn had missed an entire season in the middle somewhere, he still would be standing here today.

And that's the difference.

Ripken got in because he didn't take a day off, Gwynn because he was one of the handful of best players of all time.

And it's sad that that is the criteria some voters take into account when casting their ballots, leaving Gwynn off and putting Ripken on, when if anything, it should be the other way around.

That is the problem with the Baseball Hall of Fame. Even more so than McGwire. Even more so than Rose.