Major League Baseball Hall Of Fame Class Of 2018
I could not be happier with the 2018 Major League Baseball Hall Of Fame class; Jim Thome, Vladimir Gurerro, Chipper Jones, and Trevor Hoffman. My thoughts and memories on each:
Jim Thome – Awesome left handed hitter. Maybe not a great all-around player, but his bat more than made up for any fielding shortfalls. After playing his first 12 seasons with Cleveland, he became a free agent in 2003. Being a native of Peoria, Illinois and a life-long Cubs fan, he wanted to sign with the Chicago Cubs. He would have been awesome in Wrigley Field, but the cheap-ass Tribune company wouldn’t shell out the money. Instead, they signed Eric Karros in the twilight of his career and he shared time at first base with a young Hee-Seop Choi, whose career was a bust. A big thanks to the Chicago White Sox who signed Thome in 2006, three years after the Cubs passed on him. In 3.5 years with the Sox, Thome had 134 home runs, 369 RBI’s and a .265 BA, all between the age of 35-38. It was a pleasure to watch him play for the Sox. He is a first-class gentleman and played the game without any controversy on either a personal or professional level. Way to go HOF voters!
Vladimir Guerrero – A free-swinging hitter, I always remember him as a master of hitting balls outside the strike zone. I watched Ozzie Guillen for his entire career hitting balls out of the strike zone. However, Guillen was a singles hitter whereas Guerrero was able to use his unorthodox approach to hit for power. In 2004, he was a free agent and with the Cubs having a decent team, I thought Guerrero was the guy they should sign after passing on Thome the previous year. Granted, they had Sammy Sosa in RF, but could they not trade Moises Alou and convert Guerrero to LF? The White Sox had Magglio Ordonez in RF, but he spent most of the year on the DL, so you can’t blame them for the missed opportunity. Guerrero spent the first 8 years of his career in the un-baseball city of Montreal and spent most of the remainder of his career with the LA Angels. A short career compared to Thome (16 years vs 22), he still amassed 449 home runs, 1496 RBI’s and an awesome .318 BA. (In 2010, Andre Dawson wanted to enter the HOF as a Cub, but the HOF gods decided he should go in as a Montreal Expo. When Tim Raines entered the HOF in 2017, it was said he would be the last Expo to be enshrined. So perhaps Guerrero will go in as an Angel, but maybe an Expo?)
Chipper Jones – an all-around great player who spent his entire 19-year career with the Atlanta Braves. I did not get too many opportunities to see him play, but throughout much of his career, he was considered the best player in MLB. He finished his career with 468 HRs, 1623 RBIs and a .303 BA. Another uncontroversial player, he is totally deserving of being enshrined in Cooperstown. A career 3rd baseman, he is only the 17th 3rd baseman to be elected to the HOF. (Comparatively: P-79*, C-18, 1B-24*, 2B-21, SS-25, LF-22, CF-24, RF-25* - * includes Hoffman, Guerrero and Thome.)
Trevor Hoffman – I did not follow his career that closely but he was a tremendous relief pitcher/closer. He spent 16 of his 18 year career playing for the San Diego Padres and the last couple of years in Milwaukee with the Brewers. I probably knew more about him through my long-time-suffering Padres-fan brother-in-law Brian. However, as a part-time Brewers fan (I live in Chicago and go to 2-3 Brewers games a year), I did get to see him pitch late in his career. In his last two years with the Brewers, he had 47 saves. At 41-years-old, he had an outstanding year in 2009 with Milwaukee with 37 saves and a 1.83 ERA. He finished his career with 601 saves, second only to Mariano Rivera (652), collecting his milestone 600th save in a Milwaukee uniform.
The Pontification Part Of This Post - I am not disappointed that the likes of Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens and Sammy Sosa were again bypassed for the HOF. Ultimately, I’m not sure you can keep those guys out of the HOF. They put up the numbers and probably would have been HOF candidates without steroid usage. However, there is no doubt that steroids played a part in extending careers (at least in the case of Bonds and Clemens) at a time where both should have seen their stats decline due to aging bodies. In today’s edition of the USA Today, sports writer and HOF voter Peter Barzilai stated, “I may not like it, but I’ll keep voting for Bonds and Clemens until they get in. Neither tested positive or was suspended. Like most people, I have no doubt they doped, but unlike Manny Ramirez, they were never caught violating the rules.” Really? Maybe he is trying to suggest that they are innocent until proven guilty but it sounds more to me like he is saying, “If you don’t get caught, it’s OK.” The bottom line for me, known dopers should not be in the HOF until Pete Rose is enshrined. Yes, Rose is a very flawed human being. However, he was one of the all-time greatest players of the game and there is nothing suggesting that he did anything illegal or immoral relative to the game and his on-the-field performance. Off the field, and as a manager, yes, the guy is a well-known miscreant. But that leads to the great HOF debate; are they electing guys who were great players or are they electing them simply because they were swell guys? I lived in northern New York for more than two years and had an annual membership pass to the HOF. Upon my first visit to Cooperstown, I was happy to find that Rose’s accomplishments are at least highlighted in the museum, even though he is not an HOF member. (I had previously been under the impression that the HOF treated him as if he never existed.) There is a long, complicated history that sets precedent for keeping Rose out of the HOF, but no clearly defined precedent for dopers. In the 1960’s and 70’s, players used amphetamines to keep their bodies going. Does that mean Mickey Mantle should not be in the HOF? In the 1980’s, cocaine was the drug of choice, but that was not a factor in electing (and I believe a deserving) Tim Raines to the HOF. So how do you even consider Bonds, Clemens or Sosa and keep Rose out of the picture? It doesn’t make sense to me.
At any rate, I think Thome, Guerrero, Jones and Hoffman are fine choices for the 2018 MLB Hall Of Fame class and I congratulate all of them.
