The Empty Hall of Fame Class of 2012

So the writers in the Hall of Fame decided to pull the act that your middle school teacher pulls when she decides to punish the entire class for something a couple of students did.

Nobody is in the Hall of Fame this year although there were plenty of wonderful candidates. And this is only, solely because the likes of Roger Clemens, Barry Bonds, and Sammy Sosa were in that same ballot. So we now have legends like Tim Raines and Jack Morris as well as instant classics like Mike Piazza and Craig Biggio missing out on baseball immortality because of the slew of controversial figures being in the mix. And just like in that middle school class, unfortunately everyone suffers, everyone is grumbling, and it really doesn’t solve much of anything.

I am going to be very blunt here: Bonds, Sosa, McGuire, Palmerio do not deserve to be in the Hall, end of story. Not now, not ever. No questions asked. It is over. I am not going to change my mind about this. Not at all. Clemens is the only unique case because the United States Government couldn’t convince the courts he’s a liar. There have been plenty of clean players with magnificent and similar numbers at around the same time like Derek Jeter, Frank Thomas, Jim Thome, and of course, the players I have already mentioned in this article.




But…………


How can you deny a player that has over 3,000 hits and is the ONLY member of the 50 doubles-50 stolen bases club? How can you deny a man that was a beast as a catcher AND a 2nd baseman? Denying Craig Biggio a Hall of Fame entry is a pure travesty. One would only wonder what had happened if he was a Yankee or a Red Sox as opposed to the low-key Houston Astros.


How can you deny the most offensively dominating catcher in the history of baseball? How can you deny the catcher with the most home runs in history? 12-time All Star. .306 career batting average? 2,100 hits? As a catcher!!!!?!?!? Mike Piazza is a New York legend and hands-down one of the best players of his position ever.


Worst of all, Tim Raines. And I have written about this inexcusable travesty before. Tim Raines is the second greatest leadoff man in the last 50 years, with more runs then oodles of actual Hall of Famers while posting numbers that people can only dream of reaching. My favorite: 808 stolen bases. How many players nowadays with 500 stolen bases? One.

Yes, there are lots of players that cheated their way into the record books. But the writers did not have to also shun those that played the game correctly. Dale Murphy, Curt Shilling, Lee Smith, Alan Trammal is other examples of players that played the game with plenty of class and have numbers decent enough to be enshrined in the Hall. The voting process needs fixing. And so do the writers. The Hall of Fame should be reserved for the players that best represented the sport. Underneath the shadows of PED users is plenty of worthy talent that unfortunately is intertwined in this scenario.


Don’t punish them for playing and existing at the same time period as the guilty. It should be innocent until proven guilty, not guilty by association. Worthy players did not make it into the Hall of Fame today. And today, the legacy of baseball took a hit.