What time is it? Hawk (and Goose) Time!
The 2007 Baseball Hall of Fame inductees get announced tomorrow, one of the most ballyhooed vote tallies in recent years, due to the fact that two certain first-ballot heir-apparents are up for election, Tony Gwynn and Cal Ripken, and because the steroid era has finally reached the Hall with the candidacy of Mark McGwire.
Personally, I don't care too much about Big Mac one way or the other, or Gwynn and Ripken for that matter. Roids or no roids, they were all great players with first-ballot numbers who nevertheless bored the shit out of me their entire careers.
But two players I loved are also on the ballot, fighting to get their props from the Hall, and I'm hoping that one (or maybe both - longshot, but maybe) of them gets the call this year.
My two hopefuls are:
Andre "The Hawk" Dawson - Jayson Stark made the case for the Hawk recently as well as it can be made. so I'll just quote him - "He racked up 2,774 hits, 438 homers and 314 stolen bases. The only other players in history who can match that combination are Willie Mays and Barry Bonds."Rich "Goose" Gossage - Look this one should be easy, because Bruce Sutter got in the Hall last year, and freaking Bruce Sutter couldn't carry Goose's moustache. I mean, wtf?
Blyleven and Rice are borderline guys in my book. Good arguments can be made for both of them, but they also seem to me to be guys that unfortunately exist to define the line of who is and who isn't a Hall of Famer. Dawson and Gossage, on the other hand, should have crossed that line a long time ago. Here's a hearty No Mas hurrah hoping that tomorrow is their day.
3 Comments:
I don't see how you can argue for Dawson but against Rice.
Here's how - Dawson stole 314 bases. He won EIGHT Gold Gloves. He was a genuine five-tool player who was exceptional at everything on the baseball field. Add to that his offensive numbers and you have a certain Hall-of-Famer.
Rice was a slugger, period. A great one, without a doubt, but he just didn't amass the career numbers to get in the Hall purely on that basis. I feel the same way about Albert Belle.
And like I said, in my book he's borderline. It wouldn't bother me too much if he made it in. But I think there's a decent argument to keep him out. I don't see that argument for Dawson.
pete rose got 4 write in votes.
lame.
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