The Chris Moeller Archives

Independence Day

Congratulations to the people of Palestine—today their little spot on the globe was given formal recognition as a non-member observer state of the United Nations by that organization’s General Assembly in New York City. The key word here is "state."

A simple majority vote was all that was needed for the U.N. to bypass a certain U.S. veto on the Security Council, but one hundred and thirty eight states voted in favor of the upgrade. Only nine states voted against, with 41 abstentions, mostly thanks to vigorous lobbying efforts against the cause by U.S. President Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu. U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham says he fears the Palestinians will now use the International Criminal Court as "a club" against Israel, which is a pretty rich philosophical concept, when you think about it.

In the context of this vote, so soon after Israel's latest widescale assault on Gaza, the people of the world have now certainly spoken. Palestine is recognized—issue that birth certificate!

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Next comes my second ballot publicly-posted in less than a month-- this one, my 2013 ballot for induction(s) into the National Baseball Hall of Fame. A modifier though is that, unlike the United States general election (ballot published 11/5), I am not actually qualified to vote in this election. It’s for show only. To be eligible to vote for baseball’s Hall of Fame, one has to be a 10-year member in good standing of the Baseball Writers Association of America. I am not now, nor have I ever been a member of that organization, because, as Groucho Marx once suggested with different phraseology, they might accept me. I have, however, been blogging about baseball for eight full years, as of next week—ahem, thank you, thank you—and before that, I sent several indignant letters to the national print publication, USA Today Baseball Weekly.

The official 2013 ballot was mailed to writers yesterday, and its contents made public. I have already completed my hypothetical selections because it was very easy to do. There is now such a backlog of highly-qualified candidates for the Hall because of the BBWAA’s ridiculously moralistic stance against the use, or alleged use, of “performance enhancing” drugs in recent years. It's time we face the fact that players seeking an edge have been around since the '80s. The 1880s, that is. According to Grantland, 1965 Hall of Fame inductee Jim "Pud" Galvin downed a testosterone-juiced beverage, derived from monkey testicles in 1889. The Washington Post ran an article the next day hailing the concoction's health benefits.

Voters can only vote for a maximum of 10 players, and I filled up eight slots on my ballot just with players that have compiled 300 wins, 3,000 hits, 500 home runs, a career OPS of .948, or are the all-time home run leader for catchers. That catcher is Mike Piazza, and the career OPS of .948 belongs to long-time Houston Astro Jeff Bagwell, whom sabermetrician Bill James publicly touts as the fourth greatest first baseman of all time, has already been turned down by Hall voters in two previous elections, even though he has never been linked to steroids in any way. (He just looked too big apparently.) Houstonites would be in riot mode already over this inexplicable snub if they still gave a monkey's balls about baseball.

With the eligible voters’ general drug hysteria, their arrogant posturing, their inconsistent application of competitive morality, and their utter inability to put any of the distinctive eras of baseball into any proper context, the list of players being shut out of the Hall of Fame is starting to compete, in talent, with the entire list of players’ enshrined. This is an overstatement perhaps, but if you gave me a team that had Shoeless Joe Jackson, Pete Rose, Roger Clemens, Barry Bonds, Bagwell, Piazza, Mark McGwire, and Sammy Sosa on the roster, I would give you everybody else, and we’ll see how a 7-game series plays out.

Those 8 “slam dunk” choices on my ballot are, alphabetically…

Jeff Bagwell
Craig Biggio
Barry Bonds
Roger Clemens
Mark McGwire
Rafael Palmeiro
Mike Piazza
Sammy Sosa

Let’s add first-year eligible-slugger Larry Walker, along with one of the all-time great relief pitchers, Lee Smith, to round it out, and you’ve got yourself a handsome ballot, bucko. Good luck to these and a couple other worthy individuals.

posted by CM @ 8:16 PM