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I personally think Larry Walker was a better baseball player than Derek Jeter.

McDowell was the quintessential dumb jock punk. When it happened, man I just couldn’t stop replaying the video of Mark Whiten charging the mound and dotting this douche. Loved it.

For many, the highest power years start now. Not an actual prediction (because who would make such an insane prediction?), but it would not shock me if Trout hit like 250 homers over the next 4 years. Yes, that is mind blowing.

I have no issue with your opinions.

The last I checked, Coors Field is a Major League Baseball stadium where all the stats count. I don’t see anybody discounting stats from the Polo Fields or discounting doubles off the wall at Fenway.

I’ve been there a couple of times and it is a nice experience. At 53, I just don’t buy into the narrative of the holiness of the game or its institutions. MLB and the HOF are just as flawed as the flawed players.

So the HOF is a museum that recognizes the greatest players of all time who never tried to cheat, or is it the museum that recognizes the greatest players of all time?

I don’t know how to resolve it, but I always find it hard to support baseball strictly enforcing “character” or “cheating” standards for the HOF when baseball as an institution was so deeply complicit in this problem existing in the first place and then complicit ongoing as it became the cluster%#*% that it became. The integrity/character litmus test only works when the institution maintains its integrity/character. . .and it didn’t. So I can be annoyed to no end at the likes of Bonds and Clemens, but let’s be honest. It’s a little embarrassing for baseball to stick it to these guys with the contrived, self-protecting narrative that was a “player cheating” issue against their pure game. I know the HOF is not mlb. I am just saying the HOF expects player to respect the game. I am not so sure they respected the game any less than mlb respected the game, so why are they the exclusive villains? In the end, I view the HOF as a historical entity, not an honors society. History says steroids contaminated the game (with mlb largely to blame). So with all the unavoidable bad taste in my mouth, I recognize the Bonds and Clemens as HOFers. The game should be embarrassed as much as the players, and I don’t let the game off the hook by this Scarlett letter thing of marking some cheaters and excluding them from the HOF. . .as if baseball was innocently wronged. BS.

I could be wrong but maybe Trout is just too good to benefit from “protection”? Of course the team will benefit, but I am wondering if they still just commit to being really careful with Trout regardless of who is behind him. .298/.475/.635

The voting is always contaminated now with things other than what is most important (that being is the player one of the greatest of all time). Jeter—they probably want to orchestrate him going in alone. Walker—definitely should be a HOFer but he will have to wait so the Jeter show can happen on its own. Schilling—gotta make him squirm because he is outspoken on politics not popular with some. Bonds and Clemens—gotta punish them personally for their involvement in what defined the era (how players personally FEEL about being inducted or not should never be a factor).

The first 6 tool player?

Just saying the photo is marched out there like it is spectacular, and yet that would probably be in the bottom half (no pun intended) of the regulars at our community pool.

Am I the only one that isn’t impressed with this photo??

I don’t think anybody would argue that real time access wasn’t more efficient than reviewing tape. I don’t really see how this matters in the point I am making. Just saying I would bet teams or players have been using video to cheat for decades, so I am personally resisting the temptation to view this “scandal” as something that specifically taints one team or one championship.

We agree. But I think it is also fair to say this is a shame and didn’t have to be like this. I blame the writers.