To Hall With These Guys?
This was a nice Hall of Fame weekend. Curveball guru Bert Blyleven was finally inducted after 13 years of hand-wringing by the voters. And Roberto Alomar, one of the finer second basemen to play the game, got his day. Next year's inductions should be a nice one too. Wonderful shortstop Barry Larkin will probably get elected. Perhaps stars like Jeff Bagwell, Larry Walker or Tim Raines will get their due.
But I'm already looking ahead two years. That, to me, is when we're going to find out just what the Baseball Hall of Fame means after the eras of gaudy numbers and in this new age of skepticism. There will be six fascinating first-time players on the 2013 ballot, and there's no telling how the voters will respond to any of them. They are:
• Barry Bonds, who hit more homers than anyone else and who was the central figure in the BALCO scandal.
• Roger Clemens, who won 354 games and seven Cy Young Awards, and who was indicted for perjury after telling Congress that he did not use steroids. (A mistrial was ruled in the case on July 14.)
• Sammy Sosa, the only player to hit 60-plus homers in three different seasons and who, according to The New York Times, tested positive for performance enhancing drugs in 2003.
• Mike Piazza, perhaps the best-hitting catcher ever, who was accused of steroid use by anonymous sources in Jeff Pearlman's The Rocket That Fell To Earth.
• Curt Schilling, an outspoken critic of steroids who once won a playoff game while bleeding through his sock, but who has only 216 regular-season victories.
• Craig Biggio, who won four Gold Gloves as a second baseman and had 3,060 hits, but who took 20 seasons to reach that mark.
There's never been a class like this. For all of the arguments that the Baseball Hall of Fame has sparked, there's always been a certainty about the place. Baseball really invented the whole idea of the Hall of Famer, and that notion became a part of the game. Everyone understood that when you were watching Tony Gwynn or George Brett or Tom Seaver play, you were watching Hall of Famers. When Mariano Rivera comes out of the bullpen to close a game, parents can say to their children, "That guy will someday be in the Hall of Fame."
But things are cloudy these days. Bonds and Clemens are two of the best ever to play the game. If not for the steroid noise that surrounds them, you could make a viable argument that they are simply the two best ever.
Right now, however, the wind seems to be blowing against them. Nobody knows how we will look back on the steroid hysteria. It's possible—even probable—that opinions will soften over time. But there's no sign of that happening anytime soon. Yes, it's hard to imagine a Hall of Fame without Bonds or Clemens. But unless the wind shifts, I'd say they won't make it in 2013. There are just too many people who cannot imagine a Hall of Fame with them.
No New Balance
Athlete planking goes way back
The sporting world is rife with merry planksters like Dwight Howard (above) and Gilbert Arenas, who planked his SUV in a car wash. But athletes have been into the practice for years—albeit, perhaps, unintentionally. Here, a few examples, graded on degree of difficulty:
The Tweets To Beat
That Twitter's tweets-per-second record was shattered during the Women's World Cup, won by Japan, should come as no surprise. A glance at the 10 most-tweeted events ever (all in 2011) reveals this: Sports and Japan rule the Twitterverse.
JANUARY
Jan. 1
New Year in Japan
FEBRUARY
Feb. 6
Packers over Steelers in Super Bowl XLV
MARCH
March 11
Japanese earthquake and tsunami
APRIL
MAY
May 1
Osama Bin Laden's death
May 28
Barca over Man U in Champions League final
JUNE
June 12
Mavs over Heat in NBA Finals Game 6
June 26
2011 BET Awards
JULY
July 11
MLB Home Run Derby
July 17
Japan over U.S. in WWC final
July 17
Paraguay over Brazil in Copa América
TWEETS PER SECOND
4K
6K
8K
PHOTO
PAUL CONNORS/AP (BONDS AND SOSA)
FAME GAME Only time will tell whether rage about 'roid use keeps the Hall closed to the accused.
PHOTO
TWITTER.COM (TWITTER BIRD)
PHOTO
WWW.DWIGHTHOWARDPLANKING.COM
PHOTO
ANN HEISENFELT/AP
PHOTO
ANTONIO BAT/EPA
PHOTO
NANCIE BATTAGLIA
PHOTO
AL BELLO/GETTY IMAGES
PHOTO
DAVID WALBERG