Painting the Corners by Bob Weintraub

Author:Bob Weintraub
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing
Published: 2017-09-19T04:00:00+00:00

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THE SHORT END OF IMMORTALITY

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“Statistics are used much like a drunk uses a lamppost: for support, not illumination.”

—Vin Scully

YOU WANT TO know how I feel about it, Larry? Bottom line, I think it stinks. It’s sure as hell depressing, I’ll tell you that. All those sportswriters out there who supposedly know what they’re talking about but can’t see the big picture when it comes to voting for the Hall of Fame.

Some of them would give a ballplayer a free pass into the Hall if all he did was hit a lot of home runs in his time, as if nothing else counts. He could’ve been a big out in the clutch or the worst fielder in the league, but it wouldn’t matter.

Then there are others who’ll let a guy in if he happened to put together one or two career years and maybe carried his team to a pennant while he was hot. They forget the fact that he was nothing more than average all the rest of the time.

And you’ve got writers who’ll vote for a guy just because he managed to hang around for twenty years and pile up a bunch of statistics. Big deal. Hell, any ballplayer can rack up a 150 hits a year even if he’s batting at no better than a .270 clip. And what’s fifteen homers in a season today? Nothing to write home about. But if some guy stays healthy and does it for eighteen or twenty years, he’s suddenly Hall of Fame material in their eyes.

Come on, let’s cut the crap and be objective. The trouble with some of these baseball scribes is that they really don’t understand the game they’re covering. They only see what’s obvious and miss everything else. A home run that wins it in the ninth gets them all excited. They go into the clubhouse and drool all over the guy who hit it. Every word the big hero says is in the paper the next morning. But they can’t appreciate the value of someone who goes out there day after day and makes all the plays his team needs without being the star of the game. Writers like that remind me of football fans who just watch the ball all the time. They don’t see everything else that’s going on while the quarterback is dropping back to pass or some speed merchant is trying to get around the corner.

I pushed as hard as I did for Charlie Garrison to get into Cooperstown because the man deserves to be there. This is the thirteenth time he’s been on the ballot and the thirteenth time he’s gotten jobbed. That means he’s only got two chances left to walk in the front door. And you bet your ass I’ll be going all out for him again on the next ballot the way I did this year. Why the hell shouldn’t I?

In the first place, I’ve paid my dues. The rules say a writer becomes qualified to vote for the Hall of Fame once he’s covered baseball for ten seasons.

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