Bernie: The Hallowed Baseball Hall is Hollowed Out By The Absence Of Great Players Who Belong

Just like the sport it supposedly honors, the Baseball Hall of Fame loses more relevancy by the year.

The only thing more boring than a slow-moving baseball game is the annual pettifoggery over Hall of Fame voting, a process overloaded with hypocrisy and sanctimony.

By continuing to serve as the voting body that decides Hall of Fame worthiness, the Baseball Writers Association of America continues to make news instead of covering news. That used to be a no-no. But the BBWAA – clinging to the remnants of fading power – would rather engage in a sad conflict of interest by carrying out Cooperstown’s agenda.

That became obvious in 2017, when Hall of Fame second baseman Joe Morgan wrote to the voters and implored them to effectively keep the steroid users out of (his words) “the most sacred place in baseball.”

The Baseball Hall of Fame clearly endorsed Morgan’s stance. We know this for several reason. At the time the late Morgan was Vice Chairman of the Hall of Fame, and served on the institutions board of directors. His missive was distributed to the voters through the Baseball Hall of Fame’s official email account.

“The more we Hall of Famers talk about this—and we talk about it a lot—we realize that we can no longer sit silent,” Morgan wrote. “Many of us have come to think that silence will be considered complicity. Or than fans might think we are ok if the standards of election to the Hall of Fame are relaxed, at least relaxed enough for steroid users to enter and become members of the most sacred place in Baseball. We don’t want fans ever to think that.

“We hope the day never comes when known steroid users are voted into the Hall of Fame. They cheated. Steroid users don’t belong here.”

Joe forgot to mention that steroid users were already there, in the Hall, with their plaques close to his. Joe forgot to include the unpleasant truth about a “shrine” also includes amphetamine heads, men who assaulted women, brazen racists, felons, drunkards, outlaw gamblers and those who cheated the competition in other ways.

The Hall of Fame includes a commissioner (Bud Selig) who looked the other way for years when juiced hitters were filling MLB ballparks and making money for the owners. The Hall includes managers who had PED guys in their clubhouse and pretended to know nothing about it.

When trying to justify their votes, why do so many writers cite the Hall of Fame’s guidance instructions to consider “integrity, sportsmanship, character.” That has never been applied in a fair and consistent manner, and it’s abused by voters who use it to shield themselves from legitimate criticism.

The writers just can’t let go, unwilling or unable to realize they’re working as unpaid security guards for a baseball museum, standing by to protect the cathedral from suspicious figures of evil such as baseball’s all-time home-run leader (Barry Bonds) and a seven-time Cy Young winner (Roger Clemens.)

Bonds and Clemens are gone from the ballot, their 10 years expired. The 2022 vote was their final shot, but both failed to reach the minimum approval on 75 percent of the ballots.

Curt Schilling’s 10 years are over, and one of baseball’s greatest postseason pitchers was denied a place in the Hall because he said mean things and was a jerk on social media. And Schilling committed the one unforgivable sin: he blasted the voting baseball writers.

Nearly 78% of the voters certified David Ortiz as a Hall of Famer despite the presence of a PED stain.

The BBWAA security company evidently believe in finicky morality. The affable Ortiz was cited in the Mitchell Report after a 20-month investigation on MLB and PED use, and reportedly failed a PED test in 2003. But Big Papi is headed to Cooperstown while other PED suspects – Bonds, Clemens, Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, Manny Ramirez, Rafael Palmeiro – are locked out.

As the great Jayson Stark wrote at The Athletic:

“There’s a persuasive argument that we’re talking about the greatest hitter and pitcher not just of their own time but also of the last 100 years. So a Hall of Fame without Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens is a Hall of Fame that fails to tell the story of an unforgettable time in baseball history. So I’d rather just vote for the greatest players of that era and — if they ever get elected — let the Hall of Fame figure out how to deal with that (truth on the plaques!), because clearly, as voters, we’ve proven we’re never going to cut it in the Morality Police Force.”

Right on.

And then you have the all-time hits leader, Pete Rose, who was banned by MLB. The writers couldn’t pass moral judgment on Charlie Hustle because Rose was ineligible for induction and never appeared on a ballot. But Joe Morgan supported Pete, and said his former teammate should be in the Hall of Fame. Never mind that Rose violated baseball’s rule prohibiting gambling, or that he was soiled by other sordid scandals including his sexual relations with an underage girl. (Rose didn’t deny the young woman’s accusations, but said he believed she was 16 years old – and not 14 or 15 as she claimed.)

So when Joe Morgan set himself up as Cooperstown’s official moral authority and tried to shame voters into bowing to his demands, the BBWAA didn’t withdraw from its demeaning role in an ongoing charade. The BBWAA dug in and did the hard work for Morgan and Hall of Fame executives, and doubled down on the hypocrisy of it all.

The Baseball Hall of Fame has set up auxiliary committees to consider overlooked candidates for induction into Cooperstown. This has led to spots in the Hall for worthy players such as Ted Simmons. But the committees also serve as a backroom place where deals are made; that’s why Harold Baines is a Hall of Famer.

I stopped voting for the Hall of Fame several years ago, right around the time of Morgan’s letter.

There’s no reason to be a part of this kangaroo court. The voting is often inconsistent and contradictory. As for PEDs, there’s still too much that we don’t know – who used the stuff, who didn’t? – so all but a few of these moral judgments are based on guesswork. That’s just wrong.

For the all the insulting attempts to portray the Baseball Hall of Fame as a sacred place where the highest moral and ethical standards are upheld, it’s all a lie.

This is a museum in a village in upstate New York. It’s supposed to honor the greatest players of the game, and recognize their achievements with an understanding of the competitive conditions at the time they played. You can’t keep guys out from the steroids era when there is no way for an accurate accounting that separates the “clean” from the “unclean.”

What about players that attained Hall of Fame credentials during the decades of segregation? White players didn’t have to compete against immensely talented Black players were barred from playing. Isn’t that a unfair competitive advantage?

I’m not really trying to make that case. I’m just raising a point: It’s impossible to sort all of these things out, because MLB has evolved many times through the years. The deadball era, the segregation era, the expansion era, the lowered pitching mounds, the steroids era, the juiced baseballs. Each represented a unique time in the game and must be evaluated accordingly.

The BBWAA has failed at doing the sorting. Worse, the BBWAA’s independence has been greatly compromised by its desire to maintain influence by accommodating Cooperstown’s wishes. Not all voters go along with this, of course. Younger and more enlightened members are coming of age, and the voting body will be much more in tune generationally. That will lead to clearer minds and clarity and a museum that restores its lost respect.

ESPN’s Buster Olney looked into the future with this assessment: “The writers who chose to not vote for Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens for the Hall. Years from now, as the steroid era is increasingly viewed through a broader context, the selective rejection of two of the most accomplished players of all time — while other users have been honored — is going to look like silly, absurdly selective justice.”

The Hall of Fame isn’t a serious place. A baseball museum that doesn’t include the No. 1 career home-run king, a seven-time Cy Young winner, and the guy with the most hits (4,256) in MLB history is anything but serious.

Cooperstown is just another example of how baseball has gotten lost, alarmingly out of touch with the modern culture and waves of generational change. It’s still filled with too many establishment men who impose their will on others, pushing back on change and fighting to preserve what they think is theirs.

The establishment men want to go to battle about everything – the DH, rules changes, collective bargaining agreements, forward-thinking tactics, etc.

Just look at what they’ve done to Cooperstown – making selections based on selective prosecutions, refusing to admit to their hypocrisy, or by cutting those shady back-room deals.

Cooperstown isn’t hallowed ground; it’s hollowed-out ground. The place used to be a source of happiness, and the scene of celebration. That’s been ruined too. We can’t feel good about Cooperstown anymore. Baseball – and the establishment men – have managed to screw up what should be a wonderful museum of sports and entertainment by making it another source for our perpetual outrage. And that’s damn hard to do.

If there’s anyone out there that can bring joy and peace back to major-league baseball, give that person a Nobel Prize.

Thanks for reading …

–Bernie

Bernie invites you to listen to his opinionated sports-talk show on 590-AM The Fan, KFNS. It airs Monday through Thursday from 3-6 p.m. and Friday from 4-6 p.m. You can listen by streaming online or by downloading the “Bernie Show” podcast at 590thefan.com — the 590 app works great and is available in your preferred app store.

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