In And Out Of The Hall Of Fame

One of baseball fans' favorite topics during the off-season is "Who should be in the Hall of Fame?" Every team's fans have their own list of who's been unfairly left out, for Twins' fans the two names that are usually the first to be brought up are Tony Oliva and Bert Blyleven. You can make arguments for and against either one. It looks now, though, like it's been too long for Oliva to have a chance, but Bert still might make it in through a vote of the Veteran's Committee.

For most fan, that's the main point of the conversation, but yesterday Lee Lowenfish raised an interesting question at Salon.com, "Who is currently in the Hall of Fame that doesn't deserve to be?" (Salon is a subscription supported site, if you're not a subscriber you'll need to click through an ad or two to read the article.)

The discussion in Lowenfish's article starts with the example of Bowie Kuhn and Marvin Miller. believe it or not, there was a time when baseball players didn't make millions of dollars, and there was no such thing as free agents, players were basically the peoperty of the team they played for, and owners basically made the lion's share of the profits. Marvin Miller helped change that through his work with the Player's Union. Bowie Kuhn, as Commissioner of Baseball, fought Miller and the union every step of the way. Miller and the union won all the battles, but Kuhn is in the Hall of Fame and Miller is out. When it comes to players versus management, it's pretty plain which side the Hall of Fame is on.

Lowenfish also discusses several players, starting with Gary Carter, the one-time catcher for the Mets.  Putting aside the current problem with steroids and other drugs, there's a pretty good argument to be made that if part of the reason for eventually keeping Barry Bonds ouit is that a lot of people, including the reporters who vote on the Hall of Fame, simply don't like him personally, then a big part of the reason Carter is in is because of his ability to charm baseball reporters everywhere. Because as a player, his stats are good, but definitely not great. Lowenfish brings up several other examples, all guarunteed to start an argument with fans of their respective teams.

So, this winter, if you're sitting around around talking baseball, the subject of the Baseball Hall of Fame comes up, and you're tired of the usual talk of why someone's favorite player should be in but isn't, there's some ammunition out there for changing the subject to why someone's favorite player who is in shouldn't be. That ought to stir them up.