The Baseball Hall of Fame drifted further toward insignificance when third baseman Scott Rolen somehow made the grade.
Rolen is a ham-and-egger. Mid, no better.
Rolen hit .281 lifetime with 316 home runs and 1,287 RBIs. Former Pittsburgh Pirates outfielder Dave Parker has better statistics in every category but isn’t in the Hall. Rolen’s numbers are meh.
Rolen won eight Gold Gloves, but so what? He’s not Brooks Robinson.
But with the morality police still patrolling the ballot box, somebody who didn’t “cheat” had to make it, so Rolen did. He is the lone member of 2023’s class elected by the baseball writers. (First baseman Fred McGriff gets in via something called the Contemporary Era ballot. At least his stats are better than Rolen’s.)
If I’m a member of the Hall, I’m not wasting the trip to Cooperstown to honor a medium talent like Rolen.
You could assemble a lineup of those not in the Hall of Fame that might beat representatives of Cooperstown:
1. Pete Rose, 3B. All-time hit leader with 4,256.
2. Shoeless Joe Jackson, RF. Third-best lifetime average at .356.
3. Barry Bonds, LF. All-time (762) and single-season (73) home-run leader.
4. Alex Rodriguez, SS. Fifth all-time in home runs (696).
5. Sammy Sosa, DH. Ninth all-time in home runs (609).
6. Mark McGwire, 1B. Eleventh all-time in home runs (583).
7. Carlos Beltran, CF. 435 career home runs.
8. Thurman Munson, C. 1976 AL MVP.
9. Lou Whitaker, 2B. Five-time All-Star, three Gold Gloves.
Roger Clemens (ninth all-time with 354 wins) is the right-handed starter. Ron Guidry (25-3, AL Cy Young Award winner in 1978) is the lefty. Dan Quisenberry (244 career saves) is the closer.
The bench includes Parker (1978 NL MVP), Rafael Palmeiro (569 career home runs) and Dick Allen (1972 AL MVP). Bill Madlock, too. The former Pirates third baseman hit .305 lifetime, 24 points higher than Rolen, and won four NL batting crowns. But when Madlock was on the Hall ballot, he didn’t have PED users clearing his path. Rolen did.
You could start Palmeiro at first base and Allen at DH. But let’s ride the steroid train with Sosa and McGwire and bomb the foe into submission. (Not that Palmeiro didn’t take PEDs, despite his vehement denial. Remember him shaking his finger at Congress?)
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When that many good players aren’t in the Hall of Fame, it dilutes the institution’s credibility. It makes controversy the primary focus: Who’s in, who’s out and why.
It’s not like “cheaters” aren’t in the Hall of Fame. David Ortiz flunked a PED test in 2003. But he made it because he’s a lovable cartoon character. Gaylord Perry admittedly doctored the baseball. But he was seen as folksy and colorful.
There’s no way to mend the situation. The Hall of Fame’s voters have taken their stand against PED use — except in the case of Ortiz, which makes the whole “stand” laughable.
It’s difficult to argue against the continuing exclusion of Rose and Jackson: Rose bet on baseball, and Jackson conspired to fix the 1919 World Series.
But when a mid-carder like Rolen is the only guy picked by the baseball writers, it displays the futility of maintaining the institution’s status.
Are you honoring players based on performance, or perceived morality? (There’s a vague character clause for the Hall of Fame. But who decides the boundaries of that?) Once you involve morality, how did Ty Cobb make it? He was a sociopath.
When lines get blurred and you start asking too many questions, it all becomes meaningless.
Cooperstown is a delightful museum. But beyond that, it’s mostly a Hall of Dumb. (By the way, the museum contains many artifacts from the careers of those barred from the Hall, informally or otherwise.)
