I admit it: There are few things that impress me anymore in sports, and fewer things that make me feel the way I used to feel when I was a kid, when sports was everything to me. It doesn’t only happen to sportswriters; I think it happens to just about everyone the older we get, the more bogged-down we get.
There is one respite, though, every year, one day when I do feel like the kid whose old man is driving him to his first baseball game all over again: The day my Hall of Fame ballot arrives. Sorry, the cynic dies a little bit every day that arrives in the mail from the BBWAA. I get such a big kick out of it, I’ve taken to e-mailing a version to my oldest friends so they can share along with it.
And those friends, usually, are a lot harsher than I am. I suspect many of you will be, too.
I look for reasons to vote a guy in, not to keep him out. So my ballots tend to be more crowded than others’. This time around I voted for seven:
Barry Larkin: The definition of borderline, but these are the guys I most tend to give the benefit of the doubt.
Edgar Martinez: If you want to exclude designated hitters, that is certainly your prerogative. I find it impossible to exclude someone with a .418 lifetime on-base percentage.
Tim Raines: He wasn’t Rickey Henderson, no. But he wasn’t that far behind.
Jack Morris: I understand the counter-arguments, and I have submitted ballots in the past without his name. But I find it hard to think of his era in baseball and not believe he wasn’t one of the best pitchers of that time.
Don Mattingly: So shoot me. All I know is this — for five seasons, he was, unquestionably, one of the two or three best players in the game. You can tell me that isn’t enough, and maybe you’re right. But it’s enough on my ballot.
And now, the two with what seem to be the most extreme talking points:
Jeff Bagwell: In a different era, it’s hard to imagine that a guy with a lifetime .948 OPS wouldn’t be in, and the fact is that the two players above and below him in baseball-reference.com’s list of all-time batters — Jackie Robinson and Harmon Killebrew before, Duke Snider and Eddie Murray after Bagwell at No. 50 — got in easily. But Bagwell played in a steroid era, and he was big, and his major-league numbers were far higher than his minor-league numbers, and all of that, and some say, hey, if it walks like a duck …
Here’s the thing though — absent evidence, or in Bagwell’s case, any kind of credible accusation, I am more inclined to sum up my voting tendency this way: Based on available knowledge, I would rather be wrong and let someone in who cheated than be wrong and deny someone entrance who didn’t cheat. Again, that’s just me. And it was important for me to get that down a year before a very similar case will have to be reviewed in Mike Piazza. If I am going to vote for Piazza — and unless anything changes in the next year, I am — I feel compelled to do the same for Bagwell.
Bernie Williams: He was the cleanup hitter on the last dynasty the sport is ever likely to see, and in important games and important spots there was no other Yankee you’d want to see less if you were an opposing team. His numbers, no, do not qualify. I understand. But I still believe baseball is a team game, and if someone like Phil Rizzuto is in the Hall to rep the glue of past dynasties, I think someone like Bernie should be in to rep this one.
Whack Backs
Michael Davis: No point guard, no shooting guard, no defense, a center that’s not that imposing, only one pure shooter on the team (Melo) spells disaster for the Knicks. First get rid of the coach, then pound defensive philosophy on the players. This is just an ordinary team with a few good players.
VAC: This early in the season, I tried several different times to write a stirring rebuttal here. And am still trying.
Jeffrey Sultan: If the Knicks are waiting for Baron Davis as their savior, they are in deep trouble. After watching him with the Clippers for two years, he is past his prime, out of shape, terrible attitude. Even the owner ripped him, justifiably.
VAC: As a “let’s see what happens when he plays to earn his next contract” guy, I liked the signing. As a “here comes the cavalry!” guy, well …
Jim Burns: Whether it’s for lack of direction or his own inabilities, is it finally time to ask if Giants defensive coordinator Perry Fewell is unleaded?
VAC: Put it this way: with Steve Spagnuolo likely to be available by this time tomorrow, and with the Eagles also in need of a new defensive leader, it would behoove Fewell’s troops to show they’re still paying attention tonight.
Chris Freeman: In thinking about the relationship between Sean Payton and Drew Brees, I initially thought of John Williams and Spielberg, but Scorsese and DeNiro seems more apropos — great unto themselves, but together …
VAC: That would make the whiny Falcons Morrie the wig guy, right?
Whacks
* Personally, I would have already extended Tom Coughlin, who has gotten more out of this injury-ravaged Giants team than anyone could possibly have. But then I am a guy who 1) believes Bill Cowher when he says he prefers broadcasting right now and 2) doesn’t believe Cowher would be any upgrade at all on Coughlin, let alone a significant one.
* I thought if the Knicks weren’t where they needed to be after 20 games, Mike D’Antoni would be square on the griddle. But now I’m not so sure that shouldn’t be revised to 10 games. Which is tough, sure, but everything about this season has been expedited.
* I’m glad Andruw Jones will be around another year, if for no other reason than it gives him a little more time to run out that ever-elusive first ground ball as a Yankee.
* Nice wins this week for a lot of our college hoops teams, the Johnnies, the Hurley brothers, Hofstra and Rutgers. But it was extra delightful watching grand old Rose Hill Gym prove what a splendid house of horrors it can be if given a fighting chance, helping push Fordham past Georgia Tech on Thursday