A VOTE OF NO CONFIDENCE

(In Photo: Armando Benitez)

Let me start by stating I intend to say less than favorable things about the current Commissioner of Major League Baseball, many in the BBWAA and Hall of Fame voting in general in this piece.  I also want to congratulate Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine and Frank Thomas on becoming the latest group of players to be headed for Cooperstown. 

These three men are all deserving of a place in the Hall. The way they played the game, the numbers they put up and the manner in which they conducted themselves on and off the diamond make their inductions a no-brainer in my opinion.

I am writing about baseball, but I am not a baseball writer. It is not my profession. I receive no paycheck from a major publication or report to an editor. I understand how difficult it must be to cover the game. I get how challenging it is to break in and become a Buster Olney or Peter Gammons. I am in no way saying that anyone could do what these men and women do. What I am saying is that I absolutely feel that many of these “writers” have officially lost their minds and sense of who they really are with respect to the game and the men who play it. 

I remember the great Robert Duvall playing Sports writer Max Mercy in “The Natural”. And each year when the Hall of Fame vote is announced I think of the line he utters to Redford’s Roy Hobbs, “I am here to protect this game.” With all due respect to Max and the Baseball writers of today, GET THE HELL OUTTA HERE! Don’t spew that holier than thou nonsense at us. You write about the game. That is the beginning and end of your job description. The players play. The fans watch and cheer. And the writers write. That is the dynamic. Don’t make yourself out to be more than you are. You build up and tear down the heroes. You get the temperature of the clubhouse and add fuel to the fires of rivalries. When there is scandal or wrong doing you report it. You are not Judge, Jury and Executioner, ladies and gents. That is NOT your job. 

Giving the writers a Hall of Fame vote has never sat well with me. Why should they hold the keys to immortality? Why should they decide what makes a player one for the ages? I’ll be honest; I’m a bit of a bias jock at heart. I firmly feel that many of those who write about the men who play the game don’t like them. They have a deep seeded resentment towards the guys on the field. I may be wrong, but that’s how I feel. I think they take the one thing they have over the players and use it to get back at them. 

Seriously can ANYONE explain to me how Greg Maddux doesn’t receive 100% of the vote for the Hall? It is truly insane to say; “I don’t see Maddux as an All-time great.” Yet 16 of these so-called baseball writers didn’t vote for him. Yeah, you’re protecting the game all right. Maybe you should look into a new career as an E! News reporter. You can spew gossip and innuendo and think you’re a celebrity because you talk about them.

There are writers that voted for Armando Benitez this year…that’s a joke. Armando was a good player, but unless you’re related to him you don’t give him a Hall of Fame vote. Especially considering Biggio and Mattingly are still out there. Now, I don’t think Donnie is a Hall of Famer. He is a borderline candidate…but WAY more deserving of a vote then the great Benitez!! That is inexcusable and that “writer” should have his or her vote taken away. Why not just vote for Anthony Weiner or Kelly Clarkson?

Another thing that has me livid with this arrogant process is the steroid dilemma and reign of “Bud The Disgraceful”. Look, I think that if you took PEDs than you should be penalized no question. If you take them again you should be out of the game immediately…but if they don’t have definitive proof linking you to HGH, Andro and so on, then play ball. Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens and Sammy Sosa are now like Voldemort to MLB and Selig. They act as if they never existed and dare not speak their names.

I’m sorry, Bud, they do exist. They did a lot to make the game money and YOU let anything they might have done happen. YOU needed to bring the game back to popularity after the 1994 season and “Chicks dig the long ball” right? Bud wants to leave office as the man who cleaned up baseball…but Bud dirtied it up! And the real crime is that he and the baseball writers will hold the players Selig used to bring the game back from the brink out of the Hall. That is a FACT! Crazy how a guy nicknamed “Bud” is no friend to the game.

Look at the Alex Rodriguez case. Do actually think if ARod was “Big PAP-ULAR”, selling apparel and well liked that Bud would be going after him with such venom? NO HOW, NO WAY, folks. This whole thing is such a sham. And the truth is it all cheapens the honor that it is to named to the Hall of Fame. Writers going on rumor or suspicion will not vote for a player they believe used PEDs. That is a very slippery slope gang. 

Between self-important baseball writers playing God with their undeserved vote, to a Commissioner who smugly stood watch and profited over the rampant juicing in the sport, the shine on the Hall of Fame plaques has dulled. I simply don’t care what they think. I will not put any weight into the decisions of these writers and those in the Selig Regime. There are crooks and criminals in every clubhouse in baseball…but there are more on the outside looking in. The game is worse off because of who is minding the store.

 I don’t want to paint all writers with the same brush. I think a guy like Jack Curry is a great example a writer who reports on the game and knows his place within the bigger picture. I just wish there were more of him. 

I love baseball. I always have and always will. I liken it to listening to a great record. I see the poetry in it. It’s just one of the greatest things around. It’s our game. It belongs to the players and the fans…all the other stuff? Well, the suits and writers can have that. I don’t need to have them deem a player worthy to make one a Hall of Famer in my book.

--Mike O'Hara, MLB Fan Cave Host, Season 1
   Twitter: @mikeyoh21
"Paulie was always my favorite player."



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