Kuzul

I believe Mark McGwire has paid his dues, and it is now time to let him into the Hall of Fame.

This is a topic that will inevitably run deeper than just the issue of allowing McGwire into the Hall, I am aware of that. He is really the first legitimate player from the steroid era entering his sixth year of eligibility. I would like to briefly take a look at some of the other eligible candidates before making my full case on behalf of McGwire.

First, the list of 27 players making their first appearance for Hall voting is vastly underwhelming. The best player on the list, in my humble opinion, is Bernie Williams. Now, Williams was a fine ballplayer, but he was not a Hall-of-Fame-caliber player.

This is not the Hall of Good Players, it is the Hall of Fame—reserved for the best of the best.

Unfortunately, the list of players making the ballot for the first time is just that: Good players, not great. That leaves the Baseball Writers’ Association of America to examine the 14 holdover names on the ballot and decide which of them are worthy of making it into Cooperstown.

This is where it gets dicey.

These are the players on that list. Next to their name, I will put the percentage of the vote they received in the 2011 voting as well as what year of ballot this will be for their consideration:

Barry Larkin 62.1, third year

Jack Morris 53.5, 13th year

Lee Smith 45.3, 10th year

Jeff Bagwell 41.7, second year

Tim Raines 37.5, fifth year

Edgar Martinez 32.9, third year

Alan Trammel 24.3, 11th year

Larry Walker 20.3, second year

Mark McGwire 19.8, sixth year

Fred McGriff 17.9, third year

Don Mattingly 13.6, 12th year

Dale Murphy 12.6, 14th year

Rafael Palmeiro 11, second year

Juan Gonzalez 5.2, second year.

There are several players on that list that I believe deserve to be in Cooperstown. The problem with the crop of players this year is that the list has no stand-out player that is head and shoulders above the rest.

The voting this year won’t be anything like 2007, when Cal Ripken, Jr. received 98.5 percent of the vote and Tony Gwynn received 97.6 percent; if anything, we may see two players just barely receive the needed 75 percent to get in to the Hall.

Looking back at BaseballReference.com, I examined what percentage of the vote McGwire has received over the past five attempts. Sequentially, it went as follows: 23.5 percent in 2007, 23.6 percent in 2008, 21.9 percent in 2009, 23.7 percent in 2010 and 19.8 percent in 2011. While he did dip in 2011, McGwire has averaged 22.5 percent of the vote in his five years of eligibility. This could be the year that number soars.

And why not?

Mark McGwire has paid his dues. Yes, he admitted—albeit a little late in the eyes of many—that he had in fact used steroids on and off for a decade, including when he broke the single-season home run record in 1998. McGwire does have a good argument on his side for being in the Hall, especially now as we are on the cusp of several accused steroid users being on the Hall of Fame ballot for the first time in 2013.

McGwire came out and apologized for his actions, and truth be told, nobody knows how uneven the playing field truly was during the steroid era. From all of the names that have been floated around in The Mitchell Report, we as a fan base have to come to terms with that time period in baseball.

Looking at the career statistics that McGwire has put up, it is extremely hard to ignore him this season. He has 583 career home runs, which is good for 10th all time. He drove in 1,414 runs, had 1,626 hits and scored 1,167 times. His career batting average was just that—average—at .263, but it was his on-base percentage (.394) and slugging percentage (.588) that were incredible, giving him a career OPS of .982.

In 1987, McGwire won the AL Rookie of the Year Award and also broke the record for home runs hit by a rookie that year, belting 49. In 1999, he won the ML Lou Gehrig Memorial Award. He is a 12-time All-Star, three-time Silver Slugger recipient (1992, 1996 and 1998) and he won a Gold Glove in 1990.

Less we not forget that it was McGwire and Sammy Sosa who arguably saved baseball in 1998, after the ugly strike in 1994 that brought about a work stoppage. In my opinion, the game did not recover until the summer of Big Mac and Sammy racing to see who would break the single-season home run record.

McGwire has silently been loyal to the Cardinals, acting as the team’s hitting coach since 2010. The man has paid his dues, and I think it’s time to say we forgive him.

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The players eligible for the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2013 will include some of the greatest players in the history of the game. The list will include, in alphabetical order:

Craig Biggio, Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Mike Piazza, Curt Schilling and Sammy Sosa. 

Craig Biggio was not one of the all-time great players. He was unique, since few catchers become an outstanding second baseman, but Biggio was merely very good, not great.

Biggio played his entire career with the Houston Astros from 1988-2007. He batted .281/.361/.433, hitting 291 home runs, driving in 1,175 runs and stealing 414 bases.

The fact that he amassed 3,060 hits will be the pivotal factor that gets him into the Hall of Fame. Forget that he needed almost 11,000 at-bats to accomplish that feat, which indicates he should not be in the Hall of Fame. 

Barry Bonds hit more home runs than anyone in baseball history. He has had a Hall of Fame career.

He will not be elected to the Hall of Fame, because we live in a disingenuous society that imposes rules on its members that are inconsistent and wrong and promote an agenda that favors those who rule, usually in order to keep the population under control.

At about the age of 30, the pituitary gland’s output of growth hormone starts to decrease. Exercise still stimulates its production, but exercise is not as effective as it had been.

Society has no problems with athletes exercising vigorously to produce growth hormone, but frowns upon using synthetically produced growth hormone. The end result is the same, but injecting it instead of exercising to produce it is “cheating.” 

Many protein-rich foods contain the amino acids ornithine and arginine. Durk Pearson and Sandy Shaw, in their book Life Extension: A Practical Scientific Approach, recommended using ornithine and arginine to boost growth hormone production. Research indicates it is effective.

Ingest foods that contain ornithine and arginine, and there will be no problem. What if a player took the supplemental form of the amino acids?  Uh-oh, when MLB gets around to testing for HGH—well, you know the story.

If a player maximizes his skills using methods those in power approve of, that is fine, but if the method is not sanctioned, the player will be ostracized, fined, suspended or banned. 

Barry Bonds is a sure Hall of Famer. The only problem is that those who vote don’t think for themselves. 

Roger Clemens is allegedly a liar. He had the temerity to stand up for his reputation despite being told by some selected Congress officials that he shouldn’t because, if he gave his version of the truth, he could get into trouble.

Forget the fact that Clemens ranks among the top three or four pitchers of all time. Forget the fact that Clemens won 354 games. Forget his seven Cy Young awards.

Those who voted for him each year he won it must have been using a substance that inebriates but that is sanctioned by society.

There is no way Roger Clemens will ever be elected to the Hall of Fame. 

Mike Piazza is the greatest offensive catcher in baseball history. He was an adequate defender his first few seasons, and then became pretty poor defensively, but his great offensive ability easily overcame his later-career defensive shortcomings.

Some have snidely attempted to associate Piazza with using substances baseball and society frown upon. In this case, it will not be enough to keep him from being voted into the Hall of Fame. 

Curt Schilling and Roger Clemens were good friends. No, that won’t be the reason Schilling doesn’t make the Hall of Fame. The reason will be that he won “only” 216 games.

Piling up large numbers in selected categories has become a ticket to the Hall of Fame. Excellence over an extended period is less important. It is also patently wrong.

Schilling has an ERA+ of 128. There are 74 pitchers in the Hall of Fame. Only 22, repeat that, only 22, have an ERA+ better than Schilling’s.

If Bert Blyleven, Jim Bunning, Catfish Hunter, Herb Pennock and Don Drysdale are Hall of Famers, voters will compound their errors and elect Schilling. 

Sammy Sosa hit more than 60 home runs in a season three different times. That’s more than enough to be elected to the Hall of Fame.

He hit 609 career home runs and hit at least 50 home runs in a season four times, which is twice as many times as either Mickey Mantle or Willie Mays.

But Sammy has been linked to using substances not approved by those who decide. There is no way that he will be elected to the Hall of Fame. 

Now, for Jerry Springer’s Final Thought

There are so many factors or variables that it is impossible to determine, medically or morally, the most effective and safest ways of maximizing athletic ability.

Sugar is a nutrient that is considered harmful. As glucose it can be detrimental, but in the form of complex carbohydrates, as in fruits and vegetables, it is a vital part of a healthy diet. Significantly, the ultimate source of cell energy is glucose.

In a free society, it is wrong to impose one group’s standards on another group. The fact that baseball is a private enterprise and can dictate standards doesn’t make it right.

Take care of yourself, and each other.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

To the surprise of no one, the recent Barry Bonds perjury trial ended with a result that satisfied neither party and only really succeeded in stirring up another round of PED-related articles. 

One of the most common type article to enter the fray is how the Hall of Fame will view such candidates; after all, Bonds (and others guilty/suspected of usage) put up some impressive numbers during his career. 

Some writers are calling for the Hall of Fame to establish new guidelines on voting procedures for the next election; others are calling for an outright ban of all PED users.

Both of these ideas strike me as rather unnecessary.  I mean, isn’t it the job of the HOF voters to decide who is worthy of induction?  Besides, a lot of the arguments that are being used against PED users don’t really hold water—and could set a serious double-standard when it comes to past inductees.

PEDs vs. Gambling

One of the most popular arguments used against PED users is that they should be banned from the Hall because Pete Rose—another great player who suffered a major scandal within the game—is banned from the Hall. 

People who make this argument do not seem to understand why exactly Rose (and fellow gambler Shoeless Joe Jackson) are ineligible for the Hall of Fame in the first place. 

In truth, the Hall of Fame has no actual policy on gambling itself—both Ty Cobb and Tris Speaker are both enshrined despite their involvement in a famous gambling scandal, and chances are they are not the only HOFers who gambled on baseball in the early part of the 20th century. 

The reason Rose (and Jackson) are not in the Hall of Fame, however, is because their gambling resulted in lifetime bans by MLB, and it is the policy of the Hall of Fame to prohibit such players from the ballot.

(Whether or not this should be the case is another argument for another day.  But for the record, I believe Rose should be in the Hall of Fame but never allowed to work in MLB in any capacity above youth camp coordinator.  And Jackson’s ban really should be up by now, considering he has been dead for nearly 60 years)

Believe it or not, PED users also fall under this provision.  According to MLB’s steroid policy, any player who fails a steroid test on three separate occasions is given a lifetime ban from the game.  Such players will also be ineligible for the Hall as a result.

Other Forms of Cheating 

Another important thing to remember about the Hall of Fame is that it has never had a policy against forbidding cheaters of any type.  Numerous players now in the Hall are guilty of illegal bats, illegal pitches, illegal modifications of equipment, stealing signs and numerous other illegal activities within the game. 

Names like Cobb, Ford, Drysdale and Perry are among the HOFers who engaged in these activities during their careers.

Now to be fair, PEDs are a different form of cheating altogether (though not necessarily better or worse).  However, the Hall has also never had a policy against drugs of any type.

I’ve pointed out before that the PED issue in baseball dates back as far as Pud Galvin in 1889, and the list of HOFers who have partaken in PED usage is extensive.  Mantle, Aaron, Mays, Gibson, Perry, McCovey and Ford are but a few of the current HOFers who have admitted to engaging in PEDs during their careers (and so has Rose, by the way).

I know what you are thinking:  “Yeah, but these players didn’t use steroids.”  Maybe… or maybe not.  After all, the Mitchell Report itself states explicitly that the Federal Government first determined that steroid usage was widespread in MLB clubhouses in 1973. 

This corresponds quite well with statements by former MLB pitcher (and MLB pitching coach) Tom House, who is most famous for catching Hank Aaron’s 715th home run but has also admitted to steroid usage throughout the 1970s, claiming that every team he played for had at least six or seven pitchers experimenting with the drug.

In other words, it’s extremely naïve to think that there are not already steroid users in the MLB Hall of Fame.

(House, incidentally, believes that steroid usage has gone down since the 1970s as more people have become aware of—and made to fear—the potential side effects of usage).

Legality

The final argument often used (by all sides) to justify past PED usage is that the PEDs were not illegal or as potent at the time (Amphetamines were made illegal in 1970; steroids in 1989). 

Well, so what?  From a baseball prospective, there is no fundamental difference between using PEDs when they were legal and using them when they were not legal.  Motivations for their usage remain identical:  become a better player; play longer; improve chances of succeeding; and make more money. 

If there’s one difference between the users of today and the users of yesterday, it’s that today’s athletes have a better understanding of how the PEDs work.  Specifically, improved conditioning and weight training—a practice that was actually discouraged in MLB circles until the late-1980s—not only makes somebody a better athlete, but also makes the PEDs work more effectively.

In essence, people want to ban today’s PED users because they work harder in the offseason than ever before.

Conclusion

If the MLB Hall of Fame chooses to ban PED users, they will run counter to every established induction procedure/guideline they have ever had.  They will also create a huge double standard between generations by allowing PED users from one generation in the Hall while banning those from another. 

Worse, it could open up a Pandora’s Box when the drug use of older players is given greater scrutiny, resulting in past greats getting booted.

So the Hall should continue to keep the same criteria they have had for the past half-decade and let the voters decide on the issue for themselves.  If they want to consider PED usage, fine; if not, simply continue voting in the best players on the ballot.

Just like they have always done.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Let’s say there is a university going through a rough patch.

Previously, it was viewed as one of the best schools in the nation, and it pulled in billions of dollars in endowments. Teachers who succeeded there, would go onto academic fame and be set for the rest of their lives financially.

However, a teacher’s strike in 1994 had ruined the university’s reputation.

The public thought the strike showed that the university and its teachers only cared about the size of their bank accounts.

When the strike was over, enrollment was at an all time-low.

Many parents had pulled there kids out of school and applications for admission, which once flowed in like the Mississippi, now trickled in weakly. 

Realizing the rewards success at the school could give them, some teachers began grading easier than Paula Abdul in order to have more students get A’s.

The school had never explicitly forbade teachers from artificially enhancing students grades, but teachers were expected to uphold the academic integrity of the university.

In forsaking academic integrity, the number of students with “A”averages exploded. Applications skyrocketed, and money from endowments returned to the levels seen before the strike.

The record for the most “A” students in a year was broken in 1998 and 2001.

In 2007, the all-time record for students with an “A” average over a career—once held by Henry Louis—was broken by Harry Hondz. 

Later, the practices used by teachers to obtain these results was exposed.

The public split on the issue based on what people believed was the purpose of teachers and education.

Those who believed in academic integrity wanted their names erased from the record books and fought to prevent those teachers from being acknowledged as all-time greats. Others deemed that the practices did not take away from the teachers’ achievements, and that a teacher’s purpose was to have students obtain the highest grades they could. 

MLB had difficultly getting back into the national spotlight after the 1994 strike and the steroid era helped to bring it back to national prominence.

At the time, the Summer of 1998 was seen as a great time for baseball.

Barry Bonds gave baseball non-stop coverage as he broke the single season and career home run records.

Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz were two of the best hitters in baseball and brought a World Series Championship to the Red Sox in 2004, which was their first in 86 years.

Now what do we think of that era and those achievements?

We no longer look back at those times as moments of greatness. Instead, we look back and see that it was all a fraud. All the records and all the moments were products of the lab and not that of the players on the field.

The competitive integrity of the game was compromised because of those men, and without competitive integrity, baseball goes from being a sport to being just entertainment.

However, there is not universal outrage towards PED users. Instead, people are divided as to whether those players should have their names remain in the record books, and whether they should be inducted into the baseball Hall of Fame. 

The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum’s three stated purposes are preserving history, honoring excellence and connecting generations.

So what purpose does the Hall of Fame serve if it inducts those who used PEDs and keeps their names in the record books?

It shows that the achievements of players who took PEDs are just as valid and deserve as much respect as the achievements of those who played in previous generations.

It shows that the achievements of those who cheated the game are equal to the achievements of those who upheld the integrity of the game. How does that fulfill the Hall of Fame’s purpose of honoring excellence?

Should the destruction of the game’s integrity not be factored when considering excellence? 

Recently, another problem with allowing PED users into the Hall of Fame arose. Manny Ramirez failed another drug test and instead of taking his suspension, he retired from baseball.

If Ramirez was inducted into the Hall of Fame, the repercussions would be disastrous for the competitive integrity of the MLB.

Players, in the twilight of their career, would start taking PEDs to give their career new life. They would continue to take PEDs until they retired on their own, or they would retire once they failed a drug test.

Players who would have been Hall of Famers before using PEDs or those who were made into Hall of Famers by PED use at the end of their career would still get into the Hall of Fame.

Their names would still be in the record books and their achievements will be officially deemed valid. They will not be punished at all, but baseball will be punished.

Fans will grow more cynical of all achievements players make. The legacy of clean players will be tarnished because they played in the same era as those cheaters. By inducting PED users, the baseball Hall of Fame would end up promoting the use of PEDs and destroying the integrity of the game. 

Some argue that erasing PED users from the record books and not inducting them into the Hall of Fame would go against the baseball’s tradition of preserving their history.

The solution to that is simple: Make sure people don’t forget the era. Have a wing in the Hall of Fame devoted to the Steroid Era. Show how players brought disgrace to themselves and to the game by taking PEDs. Make sure that those who are guilty are viewed in shame, and those who are not guilty are clearly set apart from the guilty.

Baseball should not run away from its darkest era.

It should should acknowledge that it happened, but it should not reward the players responsible for why it happened. It should not reward those who destroyed baseball’s integrity as a sport and turned it into just a form of entertainment. 

If you want to treat baseball as merely entertainment, then the fences should be moved in 100 feet, a pitch clock should be established, and metal bats should be legal.

If you want to treat baseball as entertainment, then have the teams that bring the most fans to the ballpark and arner the highest TV ratings as the only teams that make the playoffs.

If you want to treat baseball as merely entertainment, then records should not exist, let alone matter.

If you want to treat baseball as merely entertainment, then there should not be a concept of the game’s integrity. 

However, if you want to treat baseball as a sport, then you can not reward those who have done so much damage to it.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

After hearing that Tampa Bay Rays slugger Manny Ramirez tested positive for performance enhancing drugs for the second time in three years, I started to wonder…

“Should we let steroid users into the Hall of Fame?”

I think the answer is, yes, we should.  Now before I get bashed and people tell me I am not a real fan of the game, hear me out on why I think it is time to accept this “cheating.”  For the longest time I was against this but recent events have changed my opinion.

Since the adoption of the drug policy, we have seen some big name players connected with performance enhancing drugs.  Manny Ramirez, Barry Bonds, Alex Rodriguez, Ivan Rodriguez, Jason Giambi, Sammy Sosa, Rafael Palmeiro, Roger Clemens and Mark McGwire just to name a few.

While there are many more who have been linked to steroids, just the names listed above would make one hell of an All-Star team.  Of those that I just named, at least eight were a lock to be enshrined into the Hall of Fame.

After seeing all of these names, I think we should let these players into the Hall of Fame, and here are the reasons why:

Everyone is doing it…

While I know I am generalizing when I say “everyone” you have to realize that there are more players using PED’s than you would have originally thought.  I know there have been players that have stayed away from any accusations such as Derek Jeter, Jim Thome, Chipper Jones and Ken Griffey Jr., but it does not mean they have not done them.

Now don’t get me wrong, I would be crushed if I ever found out Jeter or Griffey used steroids, but just because we don’t think they haven’t, doesn’t mean they have.  There have been 25 different players suspended since the drug policy was introduced, now we can’t really believe that they are the only ones who have used PED’s, can we?

Bud Selig knew what was going on…

Bud Selig is as hypocritical as it gets.  After the strike-shortened season in 1994, the MLB had lost a lot of fans and they were in need of something that would help drive ticket sales.  Alas, the Summer of ’98, when McGwire and Sosa both chased Roger Maris’ single-season home run record of 61.  Both players ended up breaking the record, McGwire finished the season with 70 home runs, and Sosa finished with 66.  Then in 2001, Bonds once again broke the record by hitting 73.

As dumb as Selig may look, he is a smart business man.  He knew that fans loved to see home runs, so why take that luxury away from the people who were paying your salary?  He allowed players to do whatever it took to bring in money for both the league and themselves.  After doing some research, I found that these steroids stay in your system anywhere from four days to 18 months.  So even if a player had stopped before the testing started, it is possible he could have tested positive.

So I ask you, can a player be punished for doing something that he was allowed to do?

Some PED’s are actually being used to heal injuries…

Andy Pettitte made this claim when he was caught using HGH.  He claimed that he used the HGH to heal an existing injury so he could get back on the field faster.  Someone like Pettitte has always been viewed as a professional and a great teammate.  However, he seems to get a “free pass” on his usage because he owned up to it and because it was to heal an injury.

I am a huge fan of Pettitte but how come other players can’t be using the PED’s for the same reason?  Many people are going to say, “none of the players being accused had serious injuries.”  Then I point out, maybe it is because of the drugs that they did not have the injuries.

Someone is considered a “team player” if they take a discount to play for a team or if they constantly play hurt because it will help the team, so why isn’t someone a team player if they want to stay healthy and on the field and help them win?

We cannot leave these players out of the Hall of Fame…

Is it really the Hall of Fame if some of the greatest hitters to ever live are not inducted? 

For example, Bonds was a Hall of Famer before he started taking steroids, he had already collected three NL MVP Awards, countless All-Star games, and was one of the best players of the ’90s.  He finished his career with seven NL MVP Awards, 762 home runs—which is the all time record—14 All-Star games, eight Gold Gloves, 12 Silver Sluggers and two batting titles.

Can we really leave the all-time home run leader out of the Hall of Fame?

The same goes for Rodriguez.  In 2009, he admitted to using PED’s while he was with the Texas Rangers.  A-Rod was supposed to be the one who broke record and would go down as the greatest player to ever live.  While his legacy is definitely tarnished, should a player who has three MVP Awards, over 600 home runs, 13 All-Star games, two Gold Gloves, 10 Silver Sluggers and a World Series Championship, be kept out of the Hall of Fame for using steroids for three years?

And before anyone says “you can’t prove that he used them for only three years.” I point out that he has not failed a test since the drug policy has been adopted.

Five years ago, Clemens was arguably the greatest pitcher to ever live and now he is fighting just to stay out of jail.  While again, I am not condoning the use of PED’s, I think players are being unfairly judged.  Clemens was pitching to guys who were using PED’s, so where is the advantage?  He won 354 games to go along with seven Cy Young Awards, can you really say no to him?

While maybe this is just my personal opinion, I feel like we just have to accept what the players are doing.  We do not have to approve of it however, I do not feel like we can keep these players out of the Hall of Fame because then we do not have the “best of the best.”

The Hall of Fame is made to enshrine the best players the game has ever seen.  If someone is to say that these players are not some of the best that the game has ever seen, then they are not the real fan.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Today the Baseball Hall of Fame celebrates its 73rd birthday.

Personally, nicknames are just as much a part of baseball as beer and hot dogs. For as long as the game has existed, teammates and announcers have provided the fans with colorful names that turn celebrities into part of the family.

Nicknames are part of baseball history, so where better to look than Cooperstown?

The Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY is loaded with great players and equally interesting nicknames. Everybody has heard about “The Babe,” “Stan the Man” and the “Say Hey Kid,” but with 240 former players and 19 managers, there are dozens of others that go completely unnoticed.

Without further ado, here are the top 10 rarely heard nicknames from the Baseball Hall of Fame…

Begin Slideshow

There once was a time when players spent their entire careers with the same team.

In most cases, the team a player was on was the one that originally scouted and drafted him. Unless a guy was traded or he wore out his welcome with his employers, he wasn’t likely to ever don another uniform.

Now, that’s all changed.

Teams have played the service clock game with their young players, manipulating the timing of their arbitration seasons to delay their walk years as long as possible. Once they hit the open market, all that matters is cash.

In honor of the way things used to be, here is my list of the best homegrown starting pitcher in the history of each MLB team.

Black-and-white headshots are public domain images, courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com.

Begin Slideshow

For the first time since Richard Nixon was president, no big league team will break spring training camp with a Ken Griffey on its roster—Senior or Junior.

Every April from 1974 through 2010, there was a Ken Griffey in the majors. First it was the original Griffey—Senior—who broke into the bigs with the Cincinnati Reds and who kept playing until his baby boy grew up and was old enough to be his teammate with the Seattle Mariners in 1990.

Then there was Junior, making his big league debut in 1989 with peach fuzz as a 19-year-old with the Mariners.

Junior gutted it out until age 40, when his body creaked for the last time, and he retired last June, once again a member of the Mariners after a couple of stops in between.

Now there are no more Ken Griffeys, for the first time since 1973.

Combined, Senior and Junior banged out 4,924 hits, slugged 782 home runs and drove in 2,695 runs. They were the John and John Quincy Adams of baseball.

More accurately, the Griffeys were a family business the same way the Mafia was in concrete and restaurant linens.

But no longer.

Junior called it quits last year, and it wasn’t the clean break that someone of his stature should have enjoyed.

Junior was 40, he was hitting less than .200, his power was gone and bottom-feeding bloggers like yours truly were calling for him to hang up his spikes and save himself further embarrassment.

There was an unseemly story of Junior falling asleep in the Mariners clubhouse—during a game. Worse, the leak came from Griffey’s own teammates, who went to the media before going to Junior himself.

Griffey was back where it all began—Seattle—but the homecoming was awkward, and if there was anything storybook about it, then it was penned by the Brothers Grimm.

It was a far cry from 1989, when the teenaged Griffey bounded into the majors with a smile that matched his range in center field—as broad as a barn.

The Junior smile sported enough wattage to light up every ballpark from Seattle to Boston.

They used to say that, as good as he was, there was no telling how much better Mickey Mantle could have been had he been afforded the chance to play on two good legs instead of one. Same for Al Kaline, to a degree.

Mantle played baseball in terrific pain for most of his career, yet he sailed into the Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility. The Tigers’ Kaline played many years on a deformed foot that, in Al’s own words, was like “having a toothache in my foot” every day.

Kaline, too, was elected into the Hall of Fame as soon as he was eligible.

So too will Junior, but that doesn’t begin to tell the story of a career that was part triumph, part tragedy.

It’s easy to be conflicted when discussing Ken Griffey Jr., because you can both be enamored with his remarkable talent and marvel at his numbers, or you might simply shake your head, wondering what might have been.

It wasn’t because of brevity that you’d shake your head; Junior played 22 years in the big leagues, after all. But several of those 22 years were lost to injury.

It reminds you of the players during wartime—the Hank Greenbergs of the world who lost time to serving their country and whose baseball numbers were sheared because of it.

Griffey Jr. lost time to conflict, too, but it was within his own body.

Usually the problems occurred below the belt.

His legs betrayed him most often, specifically his hamstrings. In a period from 2001-2006, Junior missed over 400 games due to various ailments. That’s about two-and-a-half seasons, and at the rate he was going at that time in his career, one number stands out above all others: 630.

That’s how many home runs Junior lofted over the seats, using that trademark, smooth-as-silk uppercut swing that was the Mona Lisa of its kind.

You give Junior back that time missed, and we’re not talking about Barry Bonds as the one surpassing Hank Aaron for first place on the all-time home run list.

Junior would have amassed about 3,300 base hits, slugged 750-plus home runs and driven in over 2,000 runs, had his legs not betrayed him.

“What’s the difference?” you might ask. “He’s going into the Hall of Fame anyway, isn’t he?”

True.

But Griffey Jr. wouldn’t have just been a Hall of Famer; he would have been the epitome of greatness.

For at least a decade, Junior was considered by many to be the best player in baseball and not just of his own time, if you know what I mean.

Then the injuries struck, and all those games he could have played in went down the drain, never to be recovered. The calendar stops for no man.

The folks in Seattle never really understood or got over the trade that shipped Griffey to the Cincinnati Reds following the 1999 season—a year in which Junior slugged 48 home runs, had 134 RBI and scored 123 runs.

It was like trading Willie Mays in his prime.

Griffey’s injury woes hit him in Cincinnati, almost as if some mad doctor in Seattle started poking a voodoo doll made in his likeness.

Griffey played for the Reds from 2000-2008 before being sent to the Chicago White Sox for their pennant push. The Mariners brought him back as a free agent in February 2009, some 20 years after his big league debut.

That’s where the Brothers Grimm took over the tale-writing duties.

Griffey hit .214 in 2009 and everyone was too polite to say it out loud, but again the comparison to Mays was apt, in that Junior was looking like the Say Hey Kid, circa 1973, when Mays stumbled around for the Mets as a 42-year-old.

But Griffey came back for more in 2010, against the judgment of people who thought they knew better. Perhaps they were right.

Junior was dreadful, his skills gone. When the story broke of the alleged sleeping incident, it was sad but in a way, it went along nicely with the whole, “He should have retired” talk.

So he did, finally.

The other day, Junior addressed the circumstances surrounding his abrupt retirement last June.

“I just felt that it was more important for me to retire and instead of being a distraction, it no longer became the Seattle Mariners, it became, ‘When is Ken doing this? When is Ken doing that?’ and that’s something I didn’t want to have my teammates, who I truly cared about, having to answer these types of questions day in and day out,” Griffey said.

Today, Griffey is still with the Mariners, as a special consultant. He plans to work with the kids and do some time in the broadcast booth.

And it’s left to us to wonder what might have been, had Junior’s legs not caused him so much grief.

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Johnny Damon is on the cusp of reaching a statistic that almost guarantees entry into the Hall of Fame: 3,000 hits. 

Since Damon burst onto the scene in 1995 as a Kansas City Royal, he has developed into one of the most consistent hitters this game has seen since 2004 inductee Paul Molitor. 

When I thought about writing this, Molitor was the first person I thought of as a comparison because of his consistency.

Neither was flashy or made as many headlines as their team-mates, but they were both solid hitters who never had years of lacking production. 

Below are 162 game average’s for Damon, Molitor and Robin Yount.

Damon
AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI  SB CS  BB   SO   BA  OBP  SLG
637  111  183  35   7  15   75  27  7  67   81 .287 .355 .436
Molitor
AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI  SB  CS   BB   SO   BA  OBP  SLG
654  108  200  37   7  14   79  30   8   66   75 .306 .369 .448
Yount
AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI  SB  CS  BB   SO   BA  OBP  SLG
624   93  178  33   7  14   80  15   6  55   77 .285 .342 .430  

In today’s day and age where every player is deemed guilty of using banned substances when statistics stray from the norm, Damon has never been questioned.

Damon falls into the category of a legitimate two time World Series champion centerfielder that delivers on cue when called upon. 

Right now Damon will need to average 142 hits over the next three seasons or 108 over the next four to reach 3,000.  In my estimation, he’s in.   

Really, what else would he have to do?

He is not your typical power-hitting outfielder—he will not have the big home run numbers, but 3,000 hits insinuates ability, skill, coordination and longevity. 

The 27 member club will, barring disaster, add two more members in the next three years (not including Damon), with Derek Jeter due around the All-Star Game, and Alex Rodriguez, a couple years and 328 hits away.   

Without a doubt the Hall is in their future, and its time Damon enters the discussion.

Devon is the founder of The GM’s Perspective

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