FIVE MO' THINGS, 1/9/13
1) The Baseball Hall of Fame class of 2013.  Few things are more fun than a baseball HOF vote.  It's one of the ultimate discussions to have over a few beers, along with "would you rather" and "which coworker would you tag first."  This year though, it's been cut into by the miserable, insufferable opinions of moralists or writers who believe their ballot is more about making a statement and less about deciding who should be inducted. 

I dislike the process, simply because I feel it should be more inclusive.  I respect the Baseball Writers Association of America immensely, and I think they deserve their ballots.  Most take their voting privileges very seriously.  Some take it almost too seriously. 

But to not voting privileges to people like Marty Brennaman, Vin Scully, Bill James, Tim McCarver (guy has called nearly every World Series over the last 25+ years), and others who have objectively covered the game for decades, is silly. 

My ballot, if I had one.

Barry Bonds.  Best player I ever saw.  The job is to vote for the best players, not retroactively clean up a sport that for years, no one showed any interest in cleaning up.  Do I think Barry Bonds lacked the integrity and character the Hall of Fame insists that voters consider?  Yes.  Is the Hall of Fame littered with people also lacking these traits?  Undeniably.  I judge players against how the stack up against other Hall of Famers, many of whom were either taking advantage of whatever was the popular method of improving performance at the time (the question about "greenies" and amphetamines is not one about science, but about character), and I think Bonds, steroids or no, would hold up against almost any player in Cooperstown.  I also judge players against the context of their era.  And Barry Bonds was the best player of his era.

Roger Clemens. 1) Don't minimize his first seven full seasons in Boston. 2) Everything I just said about Bonds.

Mike Piazza. A Hall of Fame induction weekend that included both Piazza and Clemens would be fun, right?  The argument that Piazza cheated is flimsy, one perpetuated by a columnist that concluded that Piazza did steroids because he had back acne (very shaky), and an SI article about Clemens where the author mentioned that Piazza's PED use was suspected by other players.  Pure speculation.

Meanwhile, he was never implicated in the Mitchell Report, never believed to have failed a steroid test, never linked in sworn testimonies by other players, and never even implicated by Kirk Radomski, the whistle-blower who worked for one of teams Piazza played for.

Yes, Piazza played in an offensive age, but his numbers dwarfed the best offensive catchers in Cooperstown, and compare favorably to other players of his time, all while he played the sport's most demanding position.  And his two primary teams played in very, very, pitcher-friendly parks.

I know Hall of Fame voting is purely subjective, part of what makes it fun, and what makes ballots neither wrong or right, but an exclusion of Mike Piazza would be an egregious one.

Curt Schilling.  While I would dread his Hall of Fame speech, he deserves to be in. Yes, he has a relatively small win total (216), but we've come to devalue win totals in a more advanced statistical age.  He finished second in the Cy Young voting three times, each time coming in second to pitchers who had put together simply phenomenal seasons (Randy Johnson twice, Johan Santana once).  He is 15th all-time in strikeouts, with 3,116 and amazingly walked just 711.  But what should get him in, in my opinion, is his postseason record.  He came in big in October for three different teams and went 11-2/2.23 in 19 October starts.  Five times, Schilling got the ball with his team facing elimination.  His team won all five of them. Schilling got the win four times.  Then probably talked about each win for six straight hours. 

Craig Biggio.  He's one of the top ten second basemen of all-time.  The question here is do you reward consistent goodness, even if there was never, or rarely, greatness? yes.  Biggio has more hits than Carew, more doubles than Aaron, and more extra-base hits than Mantle, Stargell, or McCovey.  He's one of five players with 250 homers and 400 steals. He played three of the most important positions in the game, catcher, second, and center, and was a Gold Glover at second four times.  He might not have been great, but he was very good, for a very long time.  He deserves to be in.

Jeff Bagwell.  One of 31 players with 1,500 RBI and 1,500 runs scored, and one of only eight to do this with less than 10,00 plate appearances.  He was one of the dominant first basemen of his age, and like Piazza, any link to him and PEDs is a flimsy one

I wanted to pull the imaginary trigger on my imaginary ballot on Tim Raines, because he was one of my favorite players as a kid and he was the best player in Nintendo's RBI Baseball.  I declined on Jack Morris because aside from pitching, and winning, the most iconic baseball game of the 1990s (Game Seven, 1991 World Series), there was just little dominant, spectacular, or especially noteworthy about his time in the Majors.  He was good for a very long time, just not very good for long enough.

2) Interview hats.  Stupid concept. Dumb-looking hat.

3) The return of Aaron Craft.  He was fantastic in the second half last night in the win over Purdue.  He hasn't been very fantastic for most of the season.  Shannon Scott wasn't bad carrying the load in the first half, either.

4) Cake to the face.  Real or not, this makes me laugh.

5) The ESPN1530 Katherine Webb gallery.  She's on minute number 15. 

We've got the radio show today at 3:04 on ESPN1530.  It starts at 3:04.  Meanwhile, pay attention to these changes coming to YouTube....