When No-Brainers Require Brains

This is a rant about baseball, but NOT about steroids (but I will have more to say on that particular subject later).

This is a rant about Tony Gwynn and Cal Ripken Jr.

Specifically, this is a rant about one thing, and one thing only:

How in the name of Sidd Finch did either of these men fail to be recognized on 100% of the ballots sent out?

I will hear NOTHING about Ripken setting some spurious record for being named on the most ballots, nor about Gwynn's being named on 97% or something like that. And no, Stat-Boy, I don't know the exact numbers because there is only one number that mattered to me:

100%.

If 574 ballots went out, then 574 should have returned with X's by two names: Tony Gwynn and Cal Ripken Jr.

Arguments can be made for and against Bert Blyleven (one of my two sentimental Hall choices...if I were allowed to vote, that is...), Andre Dawson (the other of my two sentimental choices), and a host of other seemingly deserving characters like Dale Murphy and Jack Morris and Goose Gossage and Tommy John.

And this is as much as I intend to address the whole Mark McGwire issue: where there's smoke, Big Mac, where there's smoke...

But none of the aforementioned at-risk candidates are the reason for my ire today.

I want to know how anywhere from 1% to 3% of the writers eligible to vote were able to vote for ANYONE other than Tony Gwynn and Cal Ripken Jr.

There are at least 17 guys out there who owe me an explanation...and who owe Gwynn and Ripken apologies.

What was there about Tony Gwynn's career to dislike? All he ever did was lead his league in batting EIGHT STINKIN' TIMES, flirt with .400 (just prior to the Steroid Era, by the way), OWN Greg Maddux (the Alpha Wolf dominant pitcher of his era), and wear the same jersey for his entire career, money, fame, championships, and endorsements be damned. In a time when everyone was muscling up (literally) for the home run and strikeouts became the rule rather than the exception, Gwynn excelled in hitting the ball the other way, keeping his weight and his hands back, and smartly hitting the ball where the defense weren't. I want the 17 guys who felt that it was their duty to exclude Gwynn to name ANYONE more deserving from either a personal or a professional standpoint. As a hitter, Gwynn must be discussed with Ted Williams, Rod Carew, hell, anyone who ever put the bat on the ball more regularly than anyone else, because his LIFETIME .338 BATTING AVERAGE gets him an automatic seat at the Immortality VIP table.

Ripken? What, you're kidding me, right? People don't talk about Ripken's range because he rarely had to show it off...because he was always standing right where the batter was going to hit it. See, to me, that makes him SMARTER than the average bear. People forget that Ripken was really the first HUGE shortstop; he was easily as big as most first basemen of his era, and a LOT more athletic. People forget that Ripken played the most defensively demanding position on the infield that ain't catcher, and he still hit over 400 home runs...and he's the same size today that he was when he came up, unlike, say, Barry Bonds or Sammy Sosa. People forget that he has over 3000 career hits, generally considered an automatic ticket to the Hall regardless of era, because there are so few who have ever done it.

People remember The Streak. If Ripken had had his brother Billy's career numbers, The Streak alone puts him in on the first ballot.

Please, round me up the six or so writers who just couldn't find room on their ballot for Ripken. I want full confessions signed in blood, and I want them NOW, because this is a crime against baseball.

Like that Supreme Court justice once said about pornography, I may not know the standards of what is and ain't a Hall of Famer, but I know one when I see one.

How on earth could anyone look at Tony Gwynn and Cal Ripken Jr., ambassadors for baseball from both the National and American Leagues, for cryin' our loud, and not see EVERYTHING that the Hall of Fame is supposed to stand for?

Which one of them wouldn't want his son to grow up to play like Gwynn or Ripken?

Sure, keep McGwire out; as far as I'm concerned, as long as Cap Anson and Ty Cobb have plaques, that's just more evidence of the barn door getting shut after the horse got out.

I just can't fathom how anyone could protest Tony Gwynn and Cal Ripken Jr. going IN.

Maybe it's just me...