Ban Them For Life

I have often pondered the question of weather or not Pete Rose should get in to the Hall Of Fame. Usually my response ends with “If Rose gets in then Shoeless Joe Jackson should also get in”. Yet now I finally realize why neither of them must ever get in.

The Baseball Hall Of Fame in Cooperstown, New York is where Babe Ruth is immortalized forever. Think about that for a minute. George Herman “Babe” Ruth. It is wholesome. It is All-American. It is pure. The Hall Of Fame is the Vatican and Babe Ruth is Jesus. He did not ever play there. He did not invent the game but he was its savior. Was he perfect? No. Let he who is without flaw cast the first stone. But this is not about Ruth or Jesus Christ for that matter.

No, this is about integrity. This is about why steroids IS a big deal. I know that people are sick of it and tired of hearing about it. People are blind and also numb to the whole steroid issue. And that is fine. I am too.

But let me present it to you this way: How many people have been banned for life by throwing a Worlds Series, Super Bowl, or even a Stanley Cup since “Shoeless” Joe Jackson was banned for life?

How many people have been banned from baseball for betting on games since Pete Rose was banned for life?

The answer to both is NONE! Yet I assure  you both Shoeless Joe and Pete Rose would gladly trade in their spots in the Hall Of Fame to come out “Not Guilty” You can not have your cake and eat it too. Simply put: If you wanna play you gotta pay. That is the precedent set forth all those years ago by Kennisaw Mountain Landis. It is the very reason why we even have a Commissioner in the first place; to preserve the integrity of the sport.

If Jose Canseco had been questioned and subsequently banned from baseball back in 1986 we would never have had a “steroid era” If Allan Huber Selig had done the right thing and demanded strict drug policy in 1994 without exception we would never have had to suffer through the pain of this era. Shame on you Mr. Selig. SHAME ON YOU!

If we continue to turn a blind eye and not care about this issue it is never going to go away and is only going to get worse. Allowing anyone from this era entrance to the Hall Of Fame after having been found “dirty” would be reprehensbile.

If you want to clean up the sport BAN THEM FOR LIFE! And let them know it now rather than leave it up to some bleeding heart sportswriter twenty years from now.

Ban Them For Life

I have often pondered the question of weather or not Pete Rose should get in to the Hall Of Fame. Usually my response ends with “If Rose gets in then Shoeless Joe Jackson should also get in”. Yet now I finally realize why neither of them must ever get in.

The Baseball Hall Of Fame in Cooperstown, New York is where Babe Ruth is immortalized forever. Think about that for a minute. George Herman “Babe” Ruth. It is wholesome. It is All-American. It is pure. The Hall Of Fame is the Vatican and Babe Ruth is Jesus. He did not ever play there. He did not invent the game but he was its savior. Was he perfect? No. Let he who is without flaw cast the first stone. But this is not about Ruth or Jesus Christ for that matter.

No, this is about integrity. This is about why steroids IS a big deal. I know that people are sick of it and tired of hearing about it. People are blind and also numb to the whole steroid issue. And that is fine. I am too.

But let me present it to you this way: How many people have been banned for life by throwing a Worlds Series, Super Bowl, or even a Stanley Cup since “Shoeless” Joe Jackson was banned for life?

How many people have been banned from baseball for betting on games since Pete Rose was banned for life?

The answer to both is NONE!

If Jose Canseco had been questioned and subsequently banned from baseball back in 1986 we would never have had a “steroid era” If Allan Huber Selig had done the right thing and demanded strict drug policy in 1994 without exception we would never have had to suffer through the pain of this era. If M Shame on you Mr. Selig. SHAME ON YOU!

If we continue to turn a blind eye and not care about this issue it is never going to go away and is only going to get worse.

If you want to clean up the sport BAN THEM FOR LIFE!

4,257: Can Derek Jeter Save Baseball?

So far Derek Jeter has everything Alex Rodriguez ever wanted. So why not take what MLB wanted, needed and hoped for him to do; save baseball. Jeter currently sits at 2,535. 1,721 hits shy of the all time hit leader Pete Rose. Jeter would have to sustain his average of 195 hits per season for nine more seasons to pass Rose. That would make him 44 years old and put him in his 22nd season as a Major Leaguer. It is highly unlikely that Jeter, a SS, would even last that long let alone continue to rack up close to 200 hits per year for nine more seasons. It would certainly be a great feat and surely would help baseball rise up out from the doldrums of the sports world.

In the wake of the Mitchell Report having been released, Jeter admitted he had put on too much weight in his decade long effort to bulk up in hopes to add more power to his swing. Yet his power numbers remained low last season as the rest of his offensive numbers dropped significantly. Perhaps last season was an indicator of things to come. As well, we all know that Jeter is no longer the premier position player he once was. He has certainly lost as step and judging by his perfomance in the WBC, though be it “pre season” he is far from where he was as an All-Star and World Series MVP.

Even passing Ty Cobb would be almost as improbable. At this point, baseball has not much to look forward to in wake of the recent economic collapse. As well, the current Administration having already backed off unrealistic promises and yet to overcome its love affair with itself is yet to even return from the campaign trail. Futher pushing an already long overdue economic recovery back until the Honeymoon is over. Which may not be until 2016 given its Carpenter like status.

So perhpas we will just have to wait until the next Babe Ruth comes along. Funny how what saved baseball the first time around is what ultimately killed it in the end. I just hope the next Babe Ruth is a sober, non-smoking, drug and disease free, athiest celibite with the heart of Secreteriat the charisma of Shaquille O’Neal, and my overwhelmingly charming yet devestaingly hadsome good looks. Who is born smack dab in the middle of the 39th and 40th parallels. West of the Mississippi and East of the Rocky Mountains under an Earth sign on a snow day in Spring.

Bud Selig

Is there a more worthless coward in professional sports than Bud Selig? No! There is not. This man is nothing more than a puppet on a string for MLB ownership of which he used to be a part. He was a terrible owner of a terrible franchise and now is the Commissioner of the most laughable and terrible product in sports history. Bud Selig is a big cry baby and a spoiled brat. He inherited the family business. As the old saying goes “you can always tell who built the empire and who inherited it.” He has watered down baseball with bad talent in bad markets with expansion. He was also a major player in the collusion scandal in baseball which thanks to his relationship with the media has gone relatively unnoticed in recent years yet still exists. 2012 cannot come soon enough. A year in which Selig plans to retire. THANK GOD! Many expect this to be the end of the world according to ancient Mayan calendars. Well I can tell you the village idiot is surely running the show in MLB.

He has created two teams in baseball in markets where the fan base would not know what a baseball was if you hit them in their aging elderly brains with one. He has initiated the worst rule in sports deciding home field advantage for the league championship be determined by it’s most meaningless game. His drug testing policy came 16 years after George Bush made steroids illegal in the U.S. A test that is now completely obsolete because they still have no test for HGH. Earth to Bud: you do not need a test for it. It is illegal. Therefore any player caught using should be banned for life. Much like Pete Rose was banned for his illegal gambling. Even David Stern, who allows the use of marijuana in his league, is laughing at you.

YOU ARE A JOKE BUD SELIG! And everyone knows it. The sooner you retire the better off we will all be. You are a disgrace to the game and this country. You are a nobody in the Hall of Shame of sports. You are a terrible human being, a worthless commissioner and common pimp among businessmen everywhere. YOU SUCK!

Ruth Aaron Mays…Rice?

Lest we not forget Williams, DiMaggio and Mantle. I am not sure anymore what if anything the Hall Of Fame means or should mean to anyone outside of MLB. There is no scientific formula that separates one player from the next in terms of voting. The voters themselves seem to be arbitrary at best and frankly what makes them more qualified than the average fan? We do not need them to tell us who is and who is not the best we have ever seen. We can see it for ourselves or at the very least look it up.

After a while it all seems meaningless anyway. The Hall of Fame in my most humblest of opinions should be reserved for the best of the best. So I ask you all who was the best of the best? How do we decide who is eligible and by what standard? I will give you my all time 25 man roster and you can come back at me with anything you like.

1. LF Rickey Henderson

2. RF Henry Aaron

3. P Babe Ruth (dh what’s that?)

4. CF Willie Mays

5. 1B Lou Gehrig

6 3B Brooks Robinson

7. 2B Jackie Robinson

8. C Yogi Berra

9. SS Cal Ripken Jr.

Ted Williams

Mickey Mantle

Pete Rose

Phil Rizzuto

Josh Gibson

Ken Griffey Jr

George Brett

Sandy Kofax

Steve Carlton

Bob Gibson

Satchel Paige

Nolan Ryan

Mariano Rivera

Cy Young

Walter Johnson

John Smoltz