Posted on 01/08/2017 1:40:03 PM PST by EveningStar
Maz was one of my favorite players growing up a Pirates fan. But he’s a stretch for the HOF. I think the voters were swayed by Bill James’ declaration that Maz was the greatest defensive player of all time, at any position, plus one of the greatest home runs of all time.
I have a ball signed by the entire Pirates team back when Maury Wills was with them, so it has 4 HOFers original signatures (Wills, Maz, Clemente, Stargell). Wonder what it’s worth today?
If you want to see a guy who.looked like he stepped from a pizza counter is Pedro Sandoval (Kung Fu Panda), Boston really got a bad deal (so far), but I heard he is already in Ft. Meyers training and he lost weight. Red Sox got a good starting pitching with Sale, Price and Porticello. The line up should be unchanged except Ortiz retired, but I can’t wait for baseball and NASCAR.
Couple of years ago they were saying the steroid cheaters would never get in now the young liberals are replacing old conservatives in the voting and most “experts” are saying all the steroid cheaters will get in soon. I basically quit watching baseball when these overpaid airheads starting muscling up and started hitting 5 times as many homers as they hit in previous years not on their natural ability but on drugs that make them bigger and stronger. When Bonds and Clemens, Sosa and the rest of the cheaters go in the Hall of Fame I am 100% done with baseball. There’s no incentive at all for a young kid to keep himself clean and be great on his God-given ability. It all comes out of a bottle of pills now or a syringe stuck in your arm.
I’m 67 years old now and I’ll continue to recognize Hank Aaron as the home run king. Only a matter of time before the game allows women to play on men’s team. After all, we have to be “inclusive” in all things.
FYI BD
“Personally, I’m not sure I’d vote to induct any of these guys into the Hall of Fame who looks like they stepped out from behind the counter of a pizza joint before putting on their baseball uniform. LOL.”
I think it’s cool you have players with obviously different levels of fitness and natural athleticism being wildly successful in MLB. It’s the nature of the game, where very specific motor skills count just as much as raw athleticism.
As far as PEDs players, I hope the obvious known ones don’t get in but I think they might. The Hof is flawed enough, but it is the least flawed of any of the major Hofs.
Freegards
It’s only a HoF. I’m not letting it take away my enjoyment, even with the PEDS stiffs it would still be the best one any how.
Seems like hitting and and homeruns have been way down for the last few seasons. That doesn’t mean it’s clean for sure. But if it’s there it isn’t affecting the game the same way it used to. The last few years have been very exciting baseball seasons, the game is pretty good now, despite the terrible 2 strike approach that has become popular.
Freegards
As far as PEDs players, I hope the obvious known ones don’t get in but I think they might. The Hof is flawed enough, but it is the least flawed of any of the major Hofs.
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Let in Pete Rose too then.
I don’t think I have the description reversed in Sutter’s case. He had arm surgery after being signed by the Cubs and his old pitches stopped working. He learned his signature new pitch from an instructor in the minor leagues, to whom he’d return for years whenever he was off. Early in his major league career the Cubs made a big deal about how the pitch had saved his career. He had shoulder problems late in his career, after the Cards were smart enough to trade to the Braves. Perhaps they were from all the splitters.
Great
We may both be right on this. Sutter may have developed the pitch to cope with shoulder issues. I seem to remember that the splitter was a suspected culprit in elbow trouble for guys like Mike Scott.
I am kind of ambivalent about it, but I can understand the bias because I have always had an affinity for multi-dimensional athletes in any sport. To me, a DH in baseball is a lot like a punter in the NFL. Even the best of them are tagged as "incomplete" players in many ways.
MYbe has m wrong about this, but aren’t the HOF vote totals declining each year for some of these notorious steroid users? That’s probably a good sign.
Good point. LOL.
If Ozzie Smith, Phil Rizutto, PeeWee Reese and Luis Aparicio are in the HOF, then it is long past time Davey Concepcion be enshrined. His career long records meet or exceed practically every record of those four. He defined “shortstop” for the decade of the `70s and was a vital part of the Cincinnati dynasty of that decade.
My daughter’s cord blood is supposedly stored in the same cryogenic facility as Ted William’s head!
Rubbing elbows with the stars, so to speak.
Ortiz is going to run into issues for sure. I suspect in 5 years more younger sports writers will replace the old guard & Ortiz will get in, but not for several years, or more after the first vote.
“We would go to the Feller museum when he was alive and he would tell my now 20 year old son stories about having a steak dinner with Lou Gehrig and Babe Ruth.”
Bob Feller was at a minor-league game in Winston-Salem in the early 1990s signing autographs. I took my then-girlfriend’s nephew to meet him and sign a couple of baseballs for us. I realized that nobody else was in line so I sat down next to him and started a conversation. I asked who the toughest batter was for him to get out. I expected him to say Ted Williams, but he said, without hesitation, Joe DiMaggio. I also talked with him about his Navy experiences in World War II. Very nice guy.
The museum would bring in a HOFer and Bob would be there. We met Boggs, Yount, Sandberg, Dawson and Bob would be sitting off to the side by himself. My father told him a story about meeting him because his father knew another Indian Mel Harder. Feller starts telling stories about former Omaha mayor Johnny Rosenblatt coming out to see them play in Chicago. Man had an amazing mind.
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