WINNEMUCCA - The calendar still says January, there is snow on the ground and many in the United States are under a deep freeze.
With just a month to go before pitchers and catchers report, the newest inductees of the Baseball Hall of Fame were announced on Wednesday.
There was a time when 500 home runs, 3,000 hits or 300 wins meant automatic enshrinement. Thanks to the suspicion of steroids, that is no longer the case.
Barry Bonds (762 home runs), Sammy Sosa (609), Mark McGwire (583) and Rafael Palmeiro (569) would have been shoo-ins in the past, but none are likely to ever get elected by the Hall of Fame voters because they've been linked to steroids.
To me, Bonds was a Hall of Famer in his Pittsburgh days before moving on to San Francisco. Did he use steroids? Probably. He sure did get bigger as a Giant. Did we care when he was hitting all those home runs? Did baseball care? The answer is no. Baseball was enjoying record attendance at that time, so why step in and stop it.
Palmeiro was in the same boat as Bonds, with all the home runs he hit and his 3,020 hits. But, he waved his finger at Congress that he was innocent of steroid use and later tested positive and disappeared forever. Palmerio received just 4.4 percent of the vote. A player has to receive 75 percent to be elected.
Sosa and McGwire thrilled us with their home run battles in the late 1990s, but to me they are not Hall of Fame material. Being a Cubs fan (full disclosure), I enjoyed watching Sosa, but he didn't do much beside hit home runs.
The 3,000 hit barrier was tested again on Wednesday as Craig Biggio, who was never accused of drug use, fell two votes short of reaching the Hall of Fame. To me, Biggio is one of the better players in the past 20 years. He went about his play without much fanfare.
It has gotten more difficult on the Hall of Fame writers, who can't help but have their own biases, positive and negative, seep into their ballots. Some won't vote for anyone associated with steroids. Other players might be perceived as compilers or not being worthy of first ballot induction.
There are only 300 that have been inducted since the Hall of Fame was founded in 1936 and, honestly, several of them, especially the old-timers, have dubious credentials.
If we are going to let players in associated with steroids, then we have to enshrine Pete Rose. No one can deny Rose is a Hall of Famer as a player but his gambling as a manager will keep him out forever or until Commissioner Bud Selig is gone.
Writers are allowed to vote for 10 players on their ballot and this is what I would do. Jack Morris was the only player with his final chance on the ballot. You get 15 years, this is his 15th. Bert Blyleven and Jim Rice made it in Year 15. Morris did not.
1. Greg Maddux. This is a no brainer. Maddux never threw hard, but quickly found out that he didn't have to. There are some high schoolers that throw harder, but none could place the ball better. He had 355 wins, 3.16 ERA, four (straight) Cy Young awards, 18 Gold Gloves, 13 of those in a row.
2. Lee Smith. In his 18-year career, Smith had 478 saves. He held the Major League record for saves in a career until 2006 when Trevor Hoffman surpassed him. The problem is he is a closer and you are not getting in unless you are Mariano Rivera. Back in the 1980s, if you needed three outs, Smith was the guy.
3. Frank Thomas. The "Big Hurt" didn't need steroids. He hit 521 home runs with a .301 average. He won two MVP awards, was in the top four in MVP voting six times. He was a slugger, but walked 1,270 more times than he struck out.
4. Tom Glavine. If you win 305 wins games, win two Cy Young awards, and finish in the top three in voting six times, I am voting for you. When he pitched with Maddux, the duo were unstoppable.
5. Craig Biggio. This is an easy vote. He had 3,060 hits, was named to seven All-Star teams. He won four Gold Gloves and led the league in doubles three times and runs twice. He could play any position on the field. He hit .281 for his career, but that is not a bad number.
6. Jack Morris. If you wanted one guy on the mound in the 1980s and 1990s, Morris was your guy. He won 254 games over an 18-year career and struck out 2,478 batters. He was named to four All-Star teams and consistently earned votes for the Cy Young award. All one has to look back to is the 1991 World Series and his battle with John Smoltz. He pitched 10 shutout innings to beat the Braves.
7. Tim Raines. He played when stolen bases mattered, and ranks fifth all-time with 808 of them. Raines was not a power guy, but a little bit of everything. He also hit .301 with 2,605 hits. A seven-time All-Star, he led the league twice in runs scored.
8. Edgar Martinez. OK I know he is a designated hitter. The claim is that being a career DH means you are a horrible fielder and bring the team down. Martinez is a rarity. Even today, we don't find many players that DH for more than half of their career. It seems silly to punish Martinez for being unique, simply because we can't get our heads around how to value his contributions on the field. Martinez batted .312 for 18 years and had over 300 home runs.
9. Roger Clemens. Clemens, like Bonds, didn't like anybody. I won't let him throwing a splintered bat at Mike Piazza keep him out. He was one of the best pitchers in history and brought the heat unlike Greg Maddux. He is third all-time in strikeouts (2,478), ninth in wins (354) and finished with a 3.12 ERA.
10. Barry Bonds. The numbers are crazy nuts. He is first in home runs (762) and walks (2,558), and third in runs (2,227) and RBIs (1,996). Managers would walk him with the bases loaded. He was already better than everyone else and he knew it. Bonds hated the media, and everyone else he bumped into.
There you have it, tear it apart if you like. Oh by the way, the ones that voted for Armando Benitez, Jacque Jones and Kenny Rogers, you should have your voting privileges taken away forever.
Winnemucca Publishing sports editor Tony Erquiaga can be reached via email at t.erquiaga@winnemuccapublishing.net.[[In-content Ad]]
