The 2021 MLB Hall of Fame ballot has been announced and many Baseball legends are crossing their fingers that they get that Legendary phone call in January when the inductees are announced. If you didn’t know every ballot member gets 10 years on the ballot and after that, it’s over and those players will no longer get a chance at baseball immortality.
This marks the 9th year on the ballot for three of the greatest the game has ever seen in Curt Schilling, Roger Clemens, and Barry Bonds. The fact that it’s been 9 years and none of these men or their families have heard their names called is one of the greatest crimes in sports history. The reason I say this is because when I think of the Hall of Fame, baseball’s elitist of the elite, I think of guys you can’t tell the story of baseball without, good luck telling that tale without these three names. You have the greatest hitter that ever lived, a man with six Cy Young awards and the third most strikeouts in MLB history, and then you have the greatest postseason pitcher of all time who also happened to break the most notorious curse in sports history.
Say what you will about Clemens and Bonds doing steroids and how that tainted their legacy, I for one have no issue with it considering that every single player used it, these guys just got caught. But Curt Schilling does not have that type of tainting on his resume, this is a player who as far as we know did what he did clean and yet he still can’t crack the code to get in, it’s a damn shame.
Now you may find yourself thinking, well he had to of done something to warrant this. The answer is as simple as this, Curt Schilling pissed off the wrong people… the writers, who for some reason get to decide who comes into the most elite club in baseball. After Schilling’s playing career he became very socially active, he was very strong conservative voice in politics and he made it clear he hated the media.
He’s said some undoubtedly distasteful things, but that doesn’t warrant this abuse of power from ballot holders. When you are voting you should be separating a man’s political beliefs from his baseball career, this isn’t the hall of being a decent man either, if that were so you’re gonna need to take out a large chunk of players, because there are some really terrible people in there. Ty Cobb was as racist as human being can be and then you have Babe Ruth who was a raging alcoholic who beat women, yet we are going to sit here and hold the door shut on Schilling because of his politics and hatred for the media? That’s ignorance at an all time high.
Look at what Schilling did on the field, he was a 5 time all star, had 3000 strikeouts, has the best winning percentage in playoff history, won a World Series MVP, and in the 5 elimination games he pitched in his team went 5-0 while he sported a ERA of 1.37. The writers want to hold that player out because of supposed “moral imperfections”? Look in the mirror one time and ask yourself what you have done, because I guarantee that’s what Curt Schilling does every year he doesn’t head his name called and the answer is simply he made enemies with the wrong people.
I’m not saying tell the journalist to get lost, I’m just saying changes need to be made to the Hall of Fame process, we need to make serious changes! Why are writers who never even played the game making this decision for those who they control the narrative on? Why do the players in the hall of fame not have a say in who gets into their exclusive club? Who knows better than them?
Why not have living hall of famers vote alongside the journalist? Whatever they do, just please for the love of our game stop trying to change the history of this beautiful game. The Hall of Fame is there to remind us of the greatness that happened, so we can look upon it with fond memories of Barry Bonds breaking the HR record, Roger Clemens striking out 20 batters in a single game, and Curt Schilling pitching in sock filled with blood, willing the Red Sox to the greatest comeback ever on the way to breaking the most notorious curse ever! I don’t know about you but I’d like to be able to take my son to Cooperstown and pass that moment of joy along to him, so I can share that with him like I share it with my father.
(Photo: JIM DAVIS/GLOBE STAFF)
