Hall of Fame-Part 2

This is the 2nd of 3 pieces discussing all the players on the ballot for the Hall of Fame this year. To review part 1 here is my opinions on who goes Cooperstown and who doesn't. Yes-Ricky Henderson No-Harold Baines, Jay Bell, Bert Blyleven, David Cone, Ron Gant, Mark Grace Maybe-Andre Dawson. For a full explanation check out the article called Hall of Fame part 1. Now for this week contestants

Tommy John- Tommy's is known by a generation of fans as being synonymous with the operation. While its true that the operation has extended the careers of countless pitchers that should not be enough to make him Hall worthy(maybe the surgeon). His career is similar to Bert Blyleven only not as good. He pitched for a very long time and put up very impressive career numbers like 288 wins but was rarely one of the leagues elite pitchers. He only made 4 All Star teams and only won 20 games 3 times. So if I'm not biting on Blyleven I'm not on TJ either.

Don Mattingly-From 84-89 he was the best 1st basemen in the AL. He was the best fielding 1st basemen in the AL with 9 gold gloves. Which still only made him the 2nd best fielding first basemen in New York during the 80s, Keith Hernandez was the best I ever saw. When looking at Mattingly's career ,the thing that surprised me was not how good he was, but for how short a period that he was outstanding. While he has 1 MVP to his credit he only eclipsed 25HRs in a season 3 times and also surpassed 100 RBIs only 3 times. His 222 HRs for his career leave him way short. While 307 is an impressive career average it places him in the hall of the very good.

Mark McGwire-I'm only going to invest 1 sentence talking about Big Mac's numbers. 583 HRs and a career slugging average of 588. Any other player in baseball history gets in easy with those numbers(Bonds and Sosa are not on the ballot yet). While I can probably spend hours talking about McGwire and the steroids era I'm going to try to stay brief. After the baseball strike in 1994 baseball was on life support. Fans everywhere were outraged. While a few of us junkies had to endure constant hammering by everyone saying how greedy everyone in baseball was and ask the question why should anyone care anymore. I love the game and there are alot of people out there like me . So in the years of 1995-1997 baseball was at its low point. Then 1998 and everything changed. The summer of 1998 was amazing!!! That Yankee team might have been the best team of the past 30 years and more importantly the Home Run chase between Mac and Sosa brought baseball back into the nations conscious. Yes in retrospect it was better baseball through chemistry. But in the summer of 98 most did not care. Frankly everyone involved in baseball from trainers to GMs to owners had to know players were juicing. And I'll go as far to say owners probably encouraged it since attendance and TV ratings were suddenly going through the roof. Also lets not be naive to think the only players juicing were Home Run hitters like McGwire, Sosa, Bonds and Palmeiro. Pitchers were juicing and so were many other players. C'mon Brady Anderson hit 50 HRs out of nowhere. McGwire as a human being was a good ambassador for baseball when it needed it. If you keep McGwire out you essentially have to render 10-15 of baseball history null and void. McGwire was doing what ALOT of players were doing at the time. If you keep McGwire out you must keep out Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Sammy Sosa and every player from the steroids era. So I'm voting yes for McGwire

Jack Morris-When I started doing this I probably would have voted for Morris. But when I looked at his numbers they did not match my memories. Morris had 254 career wins. He also pitched on 2 World Series teams. Like most people the memory of Morris is his historic performance in game 7 of the 1991 WS. When he threw a shutout and the Twins won 1-0. Also Morris threw the first no hitter I ever saw on TV. His stats show he was a very good pitcher but not a truly great one. His career ERA was 3.90. He made 5 All Star teams. But never won the Cy Young. He was never dominant. Though I don't have Run Support numbers for his career I'd be willing to bet Morris benefited from good offensive support. His career reminds me of Mike Mussina. So no on Morris.

Dale Murphy-A similar career to Mattingly in that they were very good but not for very long. In the early 80s Murphy won back to back MVPs. He was the best CF in baseball. From 82-87 he hit 29-44 HRs every year and knocked in 100 runs in each of those years on awful teams. He was an All Star for 6 years and won 5 gold gloves. While these numbers are all impressive he was only very good for 6 years. A longer body of work is necessary for me. No to Murphy.

Jesse Orosco-Author of one of the fondest moment in Mets history as he was on the mound when the Mets won the 86 Series. Jesse pitched for 24 seasons. In all those seasons he only logged 144 saves and 87 wins. Sorry Jesse.

Dan Pleasac-Pleasac only had 158 saves and 65 wins. A good broadcaster that will be on the MLB network. No way hall worthy.