Well, as I begin this post, it's about a half-hour to when the East Coast rings in 2014.
And, to me, 2013 was an utter disaster for those of us who wanted decency, fair play, and clarity in sports (or much of anywhere else).
But nowhere was this more evident than in a nation gone mad on a rigged, corrupt bloodsport of football, to the abject exclusion of life, fortune, and sacred honor -- not only that of the players, but of themselves and of each other as well.
And it has gotten precipitously worse over the course of the season. We started the year on a trek to see if Johnny Football broke NCAA rules, and now we leave it with a probable rapist winning the Heisman and the question as to whether the NCAA merits continued existence at all.
We started the year with a corrupt run by a team with a coach who killed his son because he couldn't be a father. He was only a football coach. We ended last season with a Super Bowl that had to have a power outage that most intelligent people believe was league-scripted to not lose viewers.
We end the year with a league untouchable to the truth of a bloodsport unsafe at any speed, untouchable to the realities that the players are being dehumanized into animals, untouchable to the fans killing each other if they aren't despondent to the point of suicide when their team loses a rivalry game, untouchable to refereeing that, if the games were not fixed, would be so across-the-board incompetent that they would be unfit.
But a nation swears fealty, where life, limb, friendship, grief, the realities of living, and everything else lay subservient to a violence-filled culture of criminality.
And, hence, football itself is Superfraud of the Year.
Tuesday, December 31, 2013
NFL Predictions: So how bad did I foul up this year???
Let's see how bad I screwed this all up.
Start in the AFC:
Back in early September, I had:
AFC East
NE: 11-5 (#3 seed) Went 12-4, 8-0 at home, #2 seed.
What happened: The league probably went with an audible mid-season and now wants Peyton vs. Tom, Part Two Zillion and Six.
Miami: 8-8 Went... 8-8!!!
What happened: About what I expected to. Workman-like performance where 8-8 almost got you in.
Buffalo: 5-11 Went 6-10
What happened: 2nd in the league in rushing, 4th in the league in passing defense by yards. A few more pieces are in place than I thought.
Jets: 3-13 Went...
EIGHT AND EIGHT???
What happened: Call me (and the entirety of the US Sports Machine Media) when you figure this one out, other than what one reader has posited: Since the league can now force teams to do Hard Knocks, Rex Ryan is just too juicy to pass up.
AFC North
Pittsburgh: 10-6 #4 seed. Went 8-8 and out of the playoffs.
What happened: Almost last in the league in rushing, 0-4 and 2-6 to start the season including a couple of losses which would be inexcusable.
Cincinnati: 9-7 Went 11-5 and the division champ, #3 seed.
What happened: The recipient of a lot of what happened to Pittsburgh.
Baltimore: 7-9 Went 8-8.
What happened: A bit more for the champs than I thought, but otherwise about what I expected.
Cleveland: 5-11 Went 4-12.
What happened: Nothing much positive, just about as expected. Figured they might sneak another win out of the NFC North, though.
AFC South
Houston: 12-4 and the #2 seed.
Went 2-14 and the #1 Draft Pick
What happened: Everything. Wrong.
I think it's now clear that either the league is going to script the Texans in a worst-to-first (of which one place has reported Philly made 11 years in a row in the regular season for a division title that at least one division did) with Manziel, or they really need to get off the Texans' horse, because this was an unmitigated disaster which probably is going to require far more cleanup than just the coaching staff.
I think Manziel to Houston is just too tempting, deserved or not. But this team has gone full-circle, back to when the last Texas-state quarterback was poised to go #1 with Houston on the clock. Houston passed, taking Mario Williams instead. Good call on their part.
Indy: 10-6 Went 11-5 for the division and the #4 seed.
What happened: The drop off from last year on the Pythagoreans wasn't as bad as people thought it might be, and Luck is still getting a massive push.
Tennessee: 7-9 Went 6-10
What happened: See Buffalo and Baltimore.
Jacksonville: 3-13. Started the year 0-8, won four of five after it to have a sliver playoff chance, then lost the last three for 4-12.
What happened: First half of the season went about to form, then they got some pride. Only 1-7 at home, though, and that's probably partially evidence of the dysfunction that franchise has on a massive scale. Houston was only 1-7 at home, Washington was 2-6. None of those franchises appear stable right now.
AFC West:
Denver: 13-3, #1 seed. Went exactly that.
What happened: League is pushing Peyton hardcore. Best statistical QB season in history, but I sense a hard roadblock coming in New York in about a month.
Kansas City: 7-9 Did about the exact opposite of Jacksonville. 9-0 to the bye week, went 2-5 afterwards for 11-5 and the #5 seed.
What happened: I really think that the early-season was that they wanted to reward Andy Reid for sacrificing his son to football, but I think part of what happened was Peyton vs. Brady, and the rest would be that too many people might realize what happened.
San Diego: 5-11 Went 9-7 and snagged the #6 with a lot of referee help.
What happened: Seems to be stadium push, at least from people like-minded to me.
Oakland: 3-13 Went 4-12 with signs of promise.
What happened: Something needs to change in Oakland, or the Raiders need to change out of Oakland.
My pre-season seeds were DEN, HOU, NE, PIT, IND, CIN
They happened: DEN, NE, CIN, IND, KC, SD
Didn't count on the big push in the AFC West, but still seemed to go to a good degree of form except for Houston's debacle.
If the seeds hold this week, you get Denver-Indianapolis, as I said in the pre-season.
NFC East:
Giants 10-6. Went 7-9.
What happened: Coughlin lost the team for the better part of the year, I think, _again_. And then they decided to play for his job, _AGAIN_.
The same song and dance we've seen out of the Giants every damn year they haven't won the Super Bowl recently, it seems.
Redskins: 10-6 Went 3-13 and gave the Rams the #2 pick.
What happened: Daniel Snyder is a fucktard stealing money from the Washington football fealty-swearers. If it weren't by design, he'd be ousted for incompetence...
Dallas: 7-9 Went 8-8
What happened: ... right next to Jerry Jones.
Philadelphia: 6-10 Went 10-6 for the #3 seed and the division.
What happened: The rest of the division collapsed. 1st in the league in rushing, 9th in passing, but a big problem in the wildcard round: LAST in the league in pass defense, and, oh by the way, here come the Saints.
NFC North:
Minnesota: 10-6 Went: 5-10-1
What happened: Adrian Peterson did not get a rub from his homophobia, Greg Jennings got exposed as a system wide receiver (like so many other ex-Packers), and the defense sucked rocks. Any other questions as to why Leslie Frazier is gone?
Green Bay: 10-6 Went: 8-7-1 and won the division and the #4 seed with it.
What happened: Rest of the division stank and Green Bay needs to learn how to prevent injuries. So many injuries, so many key players.
Chicago: 8-8 Went: 8-8!
What happened: How'd that firing work out for you guys in Bear Country? And the Bears' defense damn well does suck. Only the Vikings gave up more points. Didn't give up fewer than 20 in any game the entire year. (Thank you to my anonymous contributor for catching that one.)
Detroit: 6-10 Went: 7-9
What happened: Caught Green Bay at their injuries, not much else unexpected. Too many fines, and now a new coaching staff coming in. Take the thugs on the team with you!
NFC South:
Atlanta: 12-4 Went: 4-12
What happened: Everything everybody else thought would -- and more.
New Orleans: 10-6 Went: 11-5 for the #6 seed.
What happened: Slight up-push for Brees and Redemption for Bounty-Gate.
Carolina: 8-8 Went: 12-4 for the #2 seed
What happened: Cam Newton push in overdrive.
Tampa Bay: 6-10 Went: 4-12
What happened: Too many thugs + one lost locker room = New coach next year.
NFC West:
Seattle: 11-5 Went: 13-3 for the #1 seed.
What happened: They got the decision over San Francisco, and are the Super Bowl favorites as a result.
San Francisco: 13-3 Went: 12-4
What happened: See Seattle, the other way around.
Arizona: 5-11: Went: 10-6 and eliminated.
What happened: Pride, some decent results at home, and probably one of the better surprise stories in the league not named Kansas City.
St. Louis: 6-10 Went: 7-9
What happened: Workmanlike performance in the shadows of the two big West teams.
Predicted seeds: SF, ATL, NYG, MIN, SEA, WAS
Actual: NOTHING CLOSE. SEA, CAR, PHI, GB, SF, NO
You may start laughing, especially at the NFC side of it, now.
Start in the AFC:
Back in early September, I had:
AFC East
NE: 11-5 (#3 seed) Went 12-4, 8-0 at home, #2 seed.
What happened: The league probably went with an audible mid-season and now wants Peyton vs. Tom, Part Two Zillion and Six.
Miami: 8-8 Went... 8-8!!!
What happened: About what I expected to. Workman-like performance where 8-8 almost got you in.
Buffalo: 5-11 Went 6-10
What happened: 2nd in the league in rushing, 4th in the league in passing defense by yards. A few more pieces are in place than I thought.
Jets: 3-13 Went...
EIGHT AND EIGHT???
What happened: Call me (and the entirety of the US Sports Machine Media) when you figure this one out, other than what one reader has posited: Since the league can now force teams to do Hard Knocks, Rex Ryan is just too juicy to pass up.
AFC North
Pittsburgh: 10-6 #4 seed. Went 8-8 and out of the playoffs.
What happened: Almost last in the league in rushing, 0-4 and 2-6 to start the season including a couple of losses which would be inexcusable.
Cincinnati: 9-7 Went 11-5 and the division champ, #3 seed.
What happened: The recipient of a lot of what happened to Pittsburgh.
Baltimore: 7-9 Went 8-8.
What happened: A bit more for the champs than I thought, but otherwise about what I expected.
Cleveland: 5-11 Went 4-12.
What happened: Nothing much positive, just about as expected. Figured they might sneak another win out of the NFC North, though.
AFC South
Houston: 12-4 and the #2 seed.
Went 2-14 and the #1 Draft Pick
What happened: Everything. Wrong.
I think it's now clear that either the league is going to script the Texans in a worst-to-first (of which one place has reported Philly made 11 years in a row in the regular season for a division title that at least one division did) with Manziel, or they really need to get off the Texans' horse, because this was an unmitigated disaster which probably is going to require far more cleanup than just the coaching staff.
I think Manziel to Houston is just too tempting, deserved or not. But this team has gone full-circle, back to when the last Texas-state quarterback was poised to go #1 with Houston on the clock. Houston passed, taking Mario Williams instead. Good call on their part.
Indy: 10-6 Went 11-5 for the division and the #4 seed.
What happened: The drop off from last year on the Pythagoreans wasn't as bad as people thought it might be, and Luck is still getting a massive push.
Tennessee: 7-9 Went 6-10
What happened: See Buffalo and Baltimore.
Jacksonville: 3-13. Started the year 0-8, won four of five after it to have a sliver playoff chance, then lost the last three for 4-12.
What happened: First half of the season went about to form, then they got some pride. Only 1-7 at home, though, and that's probably partially evidence of the dysfunction that franchise has on a massive scale. Houston was only 1-7 at home, Washington was 2-6. None of those franchises appear stable right now.
AFC West:
Denver: 13-3, #1 seed. Went exactly that.
What happened: League is pushing Peyton hardcore. Best statistical QB season in history, but I sense a hard roadblock coming in New York in about a month.
Kansas City: 7-9 Did about the exact opposite of Jacksonville. 9-0 to the bye week, went 2-5 afterwards for 11-5 and the #5 seed.
What happened: I really think that the early-season was that they wanted to reward Andy Reid for sacrificing his son to football, but I think part of what happened was Peyton vs. Brady, and the rest would be that too many people might realize what happened.
San Diego: 5-11 Went 9-7 and snagged the #6 with a lot of referee help.
What happened: Seems to be stadium push, at least from people like-minded to me.
Oakland: 3-13 Went 4-12 with signs of promise.
What happened: Something needs to change in Oakland, or the Raiders need to change out of Oakland.
My pre-season seeds were DEN, HOU, NE, PIT, IND, CIN
They happened: DEN, NE, CIN, IND, KC, SD
Didn't count on the big push in the AFC West, but still seemed to go to a good degree of form except for Houston's debacle.
If the seeds hold this week, you get Denver-Indianapolis, as I said in the pre-season.
NFC East:
Giants 10-6. Went 7-9.
What happened: Coughlin lost the team for the better part of the year, I think, _again_. And then they decided to play for his job, _AGAIN_.
The same song and dance we've seen out of the Giants every damn year they haven't won the Super Bowl recently, it seems.
Redskins: 10-6 Went 3-13 and gave the Rams the #2 pick.
What happened: Daniel Snyder is a fucktard stealing money from the Washington football fealty-swearers. If it weren't by design, he'd be ousted for incompetence...
Dallas: 7-9 Went 8-8
What happened: ... right next to Jerry Jones.
Philadelphia: 6-10 Went 10-6 for the #3 seed and the division.
What happened: The rest of the division collapsed. 1st in the league in rushing, 9th in passing, but a big problem in the wildcard round: LAST in the league in pass defense, and, oh by the way, here come the Saints.
NFC North:
Minnesota: 10-6 Went: 5-10-1
What happened: Adrian Peterson did not get a rub from his homophobia, Greg Jennings got exposed as a system wide receiver (like so many other ex-Packers), and the defense sucked rocks. Any other questions as to why Leslie Frazier is gone?
Green Bay: 10-6 Went: 8-7-1 and won the division and the #4 seed with it.
What happened: Rest of the division stank and Green Bay needs to learn how to prevent injuries. So many injuries, so many key players.
Chicago: 8-8 Went: 8-8!
What happened: How'd that firing work out for you guys in Bear Country? And the Bears' defense damn well does suck. Only the Vikings gave up more points. Didn't give up fewer than 20 in any game the entire year. (Thank you to my anonymous contributor for catching that one.)
Detroit: 6-10 Went: 7-9
What happened: Caught Green Bay at their injuries, not much else unexpected. Too many fines, and now a new coaching staff coming in. Take the thugs on the team with you!
NFC South:
Atlanta: 12-4 Went: 4-12
What happened: Everything everybody else thought would -- and more.
New Orleans: 10-6 Went: 11-5 for the #6 seed.
What happened: Slight up-push for Brees and Redemption for Bounty-Gate.
Carolina: 8-8 Went: 12-4 for the #2 seed
What happened: Cam Newton push in overdrive.
Tampa Bay: 6-10 Went: 4-12
What happened: Too many thugs + one lost locker room = New coach next year.
NFC West:
Seattle: 11-5 Went: 13-3 for the #1 seed.
What happened: They got the decision over San Francisco, and are the Super Bowl favorites as a result.
San Francisco: 13-3 Went: 12-4
What happened: See Seattle, the other way around.
Arizona: 5-11: Went: 10-6 and eliminated.
What happened: Pride, some decent results at home, and probably one of the better surprise stories in the league not named Kansas City.
St. Louis: 6-10 Went: 7-9
What happened: Workmanlike performance in the shadows of the two big West teams.
Predicted seeds: SF, ATL, NYG, MIN, SEA, WAS
Actual: NOTHING CLOSE. SEA, CAR, PHI, GB, SF, NO
You may start laughing, especially at the NFC side of it, now.
Monday, December 30, 2013
And the Final Score for 2013's NFL Season is: ANOTHER SCORING RECORD...
Gee, whoda thunk?
Another year, another scoring record. Three years in a row now:
Final week average: 41.438, lowest of the year. They had enough with all the playoff-relevant games to make up for the scoring, sounds like.
Season per-game average: 46.707 points per game. That's another almost 1.2 points over last year's record.
Cliffhanger:
GB-CHI (TD pass with :38 left)
SD-KC (OT FG for San Diego)
SF-ARI (Three times over! After a TD pass tied the game at 17 with 3:20 to go, the teams traded field goals. San Francisco went up 20-17 with 1:45 to go, which was tied with :29 left, which was broken at the gun for San Francisco's victory.)
3 for the final week. 56 of the 256 games this year were decided with a score in the final two minutes or overtime.
Within one score:
MIN-DET (TD pass with 9:19 to go in a game where both coaches have already been fired.)
CAR-ATL (Winning score was in third quarter.)
TEN-HOU (Ditto.)
PHI-DAL (Winning score with 6:09 left. Dallas got a touchdown with 3:50 left, but the conversion for two failed.)
7 within a score. Final total: 129/256, just one game over half.
Another year, another scoring record. Three years in a row now:
Final week average: 41.438, lowest of the year. They had enough with all the playoff-relevant games to make up for the scoring, sounds like.
Season per-game average: 46.707 points per game. That's another almost 1.2 points over last year's record.
Cliffhanger:
GB-CHI (TD pass with :38 left)
SD-KC (OT FG for San Diego)
SF-ARI (Three times over! After a TD pass tied the game at 17 with 3:20 to go, the teams traded field goals. San Francisco went up 20-17 with 1:45 to go, which was tied with :29 left, which was broken at the gun for San Francisco's victory.)
3 for the final week. 56 of the 256 games this year were decided with a score in the final two minutes or overtime.
Within one score:
MIN-DET (TD pass with 9:19 to go in a game where both coaches have already been fired.)
CAR-ATL (Winning score was in third quarter.)
TEN-HOU (Ditto.)
PHI-DAL (Winning score with 6:09 left. Dallas got a touchdown with 3:50 left, but the conversion for two failed.)
7 within a score. Final total: 129/256, just one game over half.
Sunday, December 29, 2013
There Are No Coincidences -- Brian Tuohy
Another one for the Tuohy file:
Peyton Manning was 265 yards short of tying the NFL record for passing yards in a season.
He needed 266 to get it.
Peyton Manning's scoreline, in one half:
25 for 28, with four touchdowns...
TWO HUNDRED SIXTY-SIX YARDS
PRECISELY.
The title above was what Brian Tuohy had on the bottom of many pages of "The Fix Is In"'s website.
Nothing more need be said here.
Peyton Manning was 265 yards short of tying the NFL record for passing yards in a season.
He needed 266 to get it.
Peyton Manning's scoreline, in one half:
25 for 28, with four touchdowns...
TWO HUNDRED SIXTY-SIX YARDS
PRECISELY.
The title above was what Brian Tuohy had on the bottom of many pages of "The Fix Is In"'s website.
Nothing more need be said here.
This Week was the "You're Welcome" to Last Week's "Thank You"...
I was out and about this afternoon, and decided just to drop by and watch a little bit of "America's Game of the Week" *chortle* "Win and In" (complete with FOX logo), Bears vs. Packers.
And, though there were several borderline calls in the 4th quarter, all of them seemed to be correct at first glance...
Except for one...
4th and about the on-field width of the unofficial stripe the TV people use to aid fans in seeing where the first down is. (Ball was on the offensive side of the stripe, needed to get to the defensive side after a measurement on 3rd down.)
And then this happens...
I knew I saw it that way in real time.
So did #26 for the Bears, who was running to the side judge with a closed fist in the air (denoting "zero").
No call.
Why?
Look who was quarterbacking the Packers...
I said this in my preview: The Bears do not have enough marketable players to get the rub when the rub is needed.
Hence, Packers 33, Bears 28 -- Packers host the Niners next week.
And, though there were several borderline calls in the 4th quarter, all of them seemed to be correct at first glance...
Except for one...
4th and about the on-field width of the unofficial stripe the TV people use to aid fans in seeing where the first down is. (Ball was on the offensive side of the stripe, needed to get to the defensive side after a measurement on 3rd down.)
And then this happens...
I knew I saw it that way in real time.
So did #26 for the Bears, who was running to the side judge with a closed fist in the air (denoting "zero").
No call.
Why?
Look who was quarterbacking the Packers...
I said this in my preview: The Bears do not have enough marketable players to get the rub when the rub is needed.
Hence, Packers 33, Bears 28 -- Packers host the Niners next week.
Forward (Prediction for 2014) and Backward (Week 16): Football as "Calvinball"...
I said it in my original discussion of the debacle at Lambeau earlier this week, and then one of the readers of my blog pointed out that there was a nice little meme about just that...
"Calvin and Hobbes'" "Calvinball...
A game with only two rules:
All other rules are made up on the fly.
It's too perfect. And the NFL has had two more examples of it in Week 16, and nobody is going to be able to do a damn thing about either.
Skip a part of this, especially with the Bronco fan going off, that's not the point...
At about 40 seconds, watch the replay (mute the guy if you have to)...
Conveniently, they cut off the video just as he steps out of bounds on his second step in the end zone with the ball.
Yep, the NFL let the Titans know that that call was wrong too.
Prediction for 2014: The Super Bowl this time around will be OPENLY decided by bad officiating. This will make Pittsburgh-Seattle look good in comparison.
"Calvin and Hobbes'" "Calvinball...
A game with only two rules:
- No two games can be identical.
- You must wear the Calvinball Mask.
All other rules are made up on the fly.
It's too perfect. And the NFL has had two more examples of it in Week 16, and nobody is going to be able to do a damn thing about either.
- The NFL admitted the clock started early on the Green Bay-Pittsburgh situation.
- And now word from Denver that the Blessed Fiftieth Touchdown Pass which aided Peyton Manning (2013 Sportsman of the Year, by the by) to the new passing touchdown record (with an entire week to spare) should not have counted.
Skip a part of this, especially with the Bronco fan going off, that's not the point...
At about 40 seconds, watch the replay (mute the guy if you have to)...
Conveniently, they cut off the video just as he steps out of bounds on his second step in the end zone with the ball.
Yep, the NFL let the Titans know that that call was wrong too.
Prediction for 2014: The Super Bowl this time around will be OPENLY decided by bad officiating. This will make Pittsburgh-Seattle look good in comparison.
Friday, December 27, 2013
An Editorial Which Will Have Baseball Historians Steaming
You know, many years ago, before I found out about Mayer vs. Belichick, New England Patriots, and the National Football League, I actually proposed suing Major League Baseball for allowing and encouraging the rampant steroid use.
Of course, I was almost laughed off of rec.sport.baseball, for the reason the court eventually gave in the above case.
Well, while researching for USA Today's usual weekly NFL fine article (which usually fills in the blanks of a lot of the smaller/lower-profile events of the week), I found something which I already know has my Hall-of-Fame-watching baseball.historian steaming almost this time of every year.
Ted Berg of USA Today has not only proposed four reasons that the roidie cheats should be in the Hall of Fame, but, also, that the character clause in voting for the Baseball Hall of Fame should be outright eliminated.
Now, assuredly, there are people in the Baseball Hall of Fame who are quite of ill character, too numerous to list here...
But to say that the steroid cheats are so vital to baseball's history that not only should they be in Cooperstown, but the entire concept of the honorable nature of character be stricken from the voting process is beyond ludicrous -- it basically sacrifices the final traditions on which baseball WAS (and no longer IS) America's National Pastime.
So let's hear out, and then destroy the argument of, Mr. Berg...
"But for the angry fans certain that Cooperstown has no room for cheaters — those fans this post aims to convince otherwise — please at least dial back the outrage for a moment and consider the justification, understanding that no one is arguing that baseball players should take steroids or that being caught taking steroids in 2014 does not merit punishment."
But let's ignore the entire tradition of a steroid-ladened farce for much of the post-strike 1990's and most of the 2000's. Let's just ignore that reality, which, if exposed, might well have ENDED baseball.
First Reason: Ending the Witch Hunt
Basically, that you cannot have a reasoned discussion of who is Hall of Fame and who is not, especially from the Steroid Era, without "moral judgements, finger-pointing, and baseless speculation".
The biggest problem, to me, of letting anybody at all (clean or otherwise) from the Steroid Era is the game being so tainted, it's not baseball anymore. Hence, can historical benchmarks be used for players in this era?
That problem has already cost Craig Biggio (one of the few players basically universally recognized as steroid-free who might well be headed the Hall eventually from this era) one year and probably (with the Atlanta pitchers and Mr. Anabolic Cheeseburgers Frank Thomas) a second.
The thing is, the best one can do is try to separate the players clearly on the gas (the McGwires, Sosas, Palmeiros, Bondses, Clemens', et. al.) from the player with the only anabolic substance they took was that of pizza or cheeseburger (Thomas, et. al.), or players who didn't look the part (Biggio, et. al.).
The problem with Berg's argument here is that he is guilty in one direction of the same crime I can be accused and called guilty of in the other: Berg's argument is that you don't want to have to make the decision, so put them all in.
Until I talked to said baseball historian friend, my position was completely set at what I wrote to the BBWAA when the roidies began their march to the ballot: Let no one in, because you have no baselines.
The one argument that could be made by Berg here is:
"But then, there’s almost no doubt some players who were never caught cheating did indeed cheat. And if one of those guys earns a plaque, it hardly seems fair to deny the honor to players who confessed their guilt. Without comprehensive evidence to determine who used and who didn’t, trying to distinguish for the sake of Hall of Fame voting ultimately amounts to electing guys based on their public-relations skills."
... effectively the argument that there is already a roidie cheat in the Hall or there soon will be. (Mike Piazza is a common name to come up in that regard.)
There is, however, another problem with the argument Berg makes: We already have guys being elected (or denied!) on PR skills. That's been happening as long as the BBWAA has been part of the process, and the only way to stop THAT is to end the BBWAA's involvement.
The problem is that not only does the "witch hunt" need to continue, but there does need to be a process in place that a roidie cheat (or similar) can be removed upon discovery. The problem would be, though, the innumerable list of players (from Ty Cobb on down) you could remove on similar charges of the Character Clause.
Second Reason: Saving the Hall of Fame
How about we save baseball, Mr. Berg?
How about we recognize that the roidie cheats and the Commissioner who all but peddled to them have turned the Former National Pastime into a Balkanized mess of Yankees-Red Sox every damn Sunday night on ESPN, in which no one watches the World Series unless their team is involved?
And saving the Hall of Fame from WHAT? Having a 20-year gap, a 20-year period that was "Not Baseball"?
"The Hall of Fame is our greatest shrine to our best thing. As fans who grew up loving the game in the late 1990s and early 2000s mature and start families, how many will rush to bring their kids to see a Hall of Fame that excludes their own childhood heroes?"
How about recognizing that those "men" being the childhood heroes is one of the reasons we have a culture today without morals, without any real boundaries to conduct (Knockout Game, the entirety of Football Nation America, 600 people brawling in a movie parking lot because they couldn't break in on Christmas Day), and without any real future at all?
Our culture mirrors what has happened in sports over the last 20-30 years.
Their "own childhood heroes" did not play baseball. They did something else. They did something criminal. Each and every last one of them should be doing time in a federal prison.
They have no place in Cooperstown -- the game they created by their syringes and other bullshit was NOT BASEBALL.
"People sometimes ask, “How am I supposed to explain to my kid that Barry Bonds made the Hall of Fame even though he took steroids?” But that actually takes, like, 20 seconds: “The Hall of Fame honors great players, son, not great men. Barry Bonds might have been a jerk, and he was willing to break the law to be better at baseball. But man, could that guy hit.”"
Fuck that. Fuck all of it, and I lived in San Francisco during the height of the Bonds years. That guy couldn't hit without the steroids. His entire place in the game for how many years was completely tied to BALCO? He was always good for sitting out the day game after a night game as it was.
So the "could that guy hit" baloney was completely due to the steroids and dealing with the effects.
Third reason: Recognizing Humanity
Here comes the "We all make mistakes" card.
"We all screw up all the time, and Hall of Famers are no different. Hall of Fame owner Tom Yawkey worked to keep baseball segregated. Hall of Fame pitcher Gaylord Perry admitted to doctoring baseballs. Hall of Fame outfielder Ty Cobb once climbed into the stands to beat up a man with no hands. Too many Hall of Famers to bother listing have admitted to using now-banned “greenies” — amphetamines — to endure baseball’s long seasons."
You know, the real answer would be to allow the BBWAA to enforce the Character Clause and throw out Cobb, Perry, Yawkey, et. al. if it merited.
Maybe the HoF needs that debate FIRST, before we play the "we all screw up, so let's let in the cheats so they get more of what they don't deserve".
Berg:
"And unless someone plans to purge them all from the museum and recraft it as some squeaky-clean place honoring only Lou Gehrig and Derek Jeter, then it doesn’t really seem fair to exclude contemporary players on behalf of morality."
I'll be more than happy to have that debate long before I let Bonds, Clemens, McGwire, etc. in.
Fourth Reason: Celebrating Great Players
This is ludicrous on it's face.
First, the game they played, due to their drugged conduct, WAS NOT BASEBALL.
Second, that's the very same argument Football Nation America makes to justify criminal thugs like Dashon Goldson, Ndamukong Suh, and all the blood-letters out there.
If a "Great Player" is result-oriented only, then the ends justify ALL means.
"Does everyone forget how many guys took steroids and stunk? More than half of the guys listed in the infamous Mitchell Report were total scrubs. Even if some of the guys you’re trying to keep out now did use PEDs, they used them to compete and succeed against a bunch of other guys who were also taking PEDs because they played at a time when no one did anything to stop them."
They were major-leaguers because of steroids. They just didn't have the careers that Jose Canseco had, even with his admission that he was the same. In this realm, they and Canseco were no different. In this realm, only the results were different.
The problem is, Berg then uses that to extrapolate to his argument.
"All 762 of Barry Bonds’ home runs still count in the box scores, just as we still celebrate the teams that won championships behind players who have since admitted to using PEDs."
That, to me, should be changed. There, in MY opinion, should be a 20 or so-year black hole in the history of sports where baseball would stand.
Otherwise, you get what we now have in Football Nation America: Drugs, rape, murder, doesn't matter -- he needs to be on that fucking field on Sunday!!! BLARGH!!!!
So, in your mind, the end justified any means to get there.
I would be the murderer/rapist everyone thought I would be if I had (or was ever taught by those I should believe) that same attitude.
"Including a character clause in the voting criteria puts many baseball writers in the impossible position of retroactively policing men they never knew for taking actions no one tried to stop. It’s time to take morality out of the picture and put great baseball players in the Hall of Fame."
They weren't baseball players. Realistically, one has to question even the legitimate players because of the actions no one tried to stop. You're a fool for not seeing that, Mr. Berg.
Of course, I was almost laughed off of rec.sport.baseball, for the reason the court eventually gave in the above case.
Well, while researching for USA Today's usual weekly NFL fine article (which usually fills in the blanks of a lot of the smaller/lower-profile events of the week), I found something which I already know has my Hall-of-Fame-watching baseball.historian steaming almost this time of every year.
Ted Berg of USA Today has not only proposed four reasons that the roidie cheats should be in the Hall of Fame, but, also, that the character clause in voting for the Baseball Hall of Fame should be outright eliminated.
Now, assuredly, there are people in the Baseball Hall of Fame who are quite of ill character, too numerous to list here...
But to say that the steroid cheats are so vital to baseball's history that not only should they be in Cooperstown, but the entire concept of the honorable nature of character be stricken from the voting process is beyond ludicrous -- it basically sacrifices the final traditions on which baseball WAS (and no longer IS) America's National Pastime.
So let's hear out, and then destroy the argument of, Mr. Berg...
"But for the angry fans certain that Cooperstown has no room for cheaters — those fans this post aims to convince otherwise — please at least dial back the outrage for a moment and consider the justification, understanding that no one is arguing that baseball players should take steroids or that being caught taking steroids in 2014 does not merit punishment."
But let's ignore the entire tradition of a steroid-ladened farce for much of the post-strike 1990's and most of the 2000's. Let's just ignore that reality, which, if exposed, might well have ENDED baseball.
First Reason: Ending the Witch Hunt
Basically, that you cannot have a reasoned discussion of who is Hall of Fame and who is not, especially from the Steroid Era, without "moral judgements, finger-pointing, and baseless speculation".
The biggest problem, to me, of letting anybody at all (clean or otherwise) from the Steroid Era is the game being so tainted, it's not baseball anymore. Hence, can historical benchmarks be used for players in this era?
That problem has already cost Craig Biggio (one of the few players basically universally recognized as steroid-free who might well be headed the Hall eventually from this era) one year and probably (with the Atlanta pitchers and Mr. Anabolic Cheeseburgers Frank Thomas) a second.
The thing is, the best one can do is try to separate the players clearly on the gas (the McGwires, Sosas, Palmeiros, Bondses, Clemens', et. al.) from the player with the only anabolic substance they took was that of pizza or cheeseburger (Thomas, et. al.), or players who didn't look the part (Biggio, et. al.).
The problem with Berg's argument here is that he is guilty in one direction of the same crime I can be accused and called guilty of in the other: Berg's argument is that you don't want to have to make the decision, so put them all in.
Until I talked to said baseball historian friend, my position was completely set at what I wrote to the BBWAA when the roidies began their march to the ballot: Let no one in, because you have no baselines.
The one argument that could be made by Berg here is:
"But then, there’s almost no doubt some players who were never caught cheating did indeed cheat. And if one of those guys earns a plaque, it hardly seems fair to deny the honor to players who confessed their guilt. Without comprehensive evidence to determine who used and who didn’t, trying to distinguish for the sake of Hall of Fame voting ultimately amounts to electing guys based on their public-relations skills."
... effectively the argument that there is already a roidie cheat in the Hall or there soon will be. (Mike Piazza is a common name to come up in that regard.)
There is, however, another problem with the argument Berg makes: We already have guys being elected (or denied!) on PR skills. That's been happening as long as the BBWAA has been part of the process, and the only way to stop THAT is to end the BBWAA's involvement.
The problem is that not only does the "witch hunt" need to continue, but there does need to be a process in place that a roidie cheat (or similar) can be removed upon discovery. The problem would be, though, the innumerable list of players (from Ty Cobb on down) you could remove on similar charges of the Character Clause.
Second Reason: Saving the Hall of Fame
How about we save baseball, Mr. Berg?
How about we recognize that the roidie cheats and the Commissioner who all but peddled to them have turned the Former National Pastime into a Balkanized mess of Yankees-Red Sox every damn Sunday night on ESPN, in which no one watches the World Series unless their team is involved?
And saving the Hall of Fame from WHAT? Having a 20-year gap, a 20-year period that was "Not Baseball"?
"The Hall of Fame is our greatest shrine to our best thing. As fans who grew up loving the game in the late 1990s and early 2000s mature and start families, how many will rush to bring their kids to see a Hall of Fame that excludes their own childhood heroes?"
How about recognizing that those "men" being the childhood heroes is one of the reasons we have a culture today without morals, without any real boundaries to conduct (Knockout Game, the entirety of Football Nation America, 600 people brawling in a movie parking lot because they couldn't break in on Christmas Day), and without any real future at all?
Our culture mirrors what has happened in sports over the last 20-30 years.
Their "own childhood heroes" did not play baseball. They did something else. They did something criminal. Each and every last one of them should be doing time in a federal prison.
They have no place in Cooperstown -- the game they created by their syringes and other bullshit was NOT BASEBALL.
"People sometimes ask, “How am I supposed to explain to my kid that Barry Bonds made the Hall of Fame even though he took steroids?” But that actually takes, like, 20 seconds: “The Hall of Fame honors great players, son, not great men. Barry Bonds might have been a jerk, and he was willing to break the law to be better at baseball. But man, could that guy hit.”"
Fuck that. Fuck all of it, and I lived in San Francisco during the height of the Bonds years. That guy couldn't hit without the steroids. His entire place in the game for how many years was completely tied to BALCO? He was always good for sitting out the day game after a night game as it was.
So the "could that guy hit" baloney was completely due to the steroids and dealing with the effects.
Third reason: Recognizing Humanity
Here comes the "We all make mistakes" card.
"We all screw up all the time, and Hall of Famers are no different. Hall of Fame owner Tom Yawkey worked to keep baseball segregated. Hall of Fame pitcher Gaylord Perry admitted to doctoring baseballs. Hall of Fame outfielder Ty Cobb once climbed into the stands to beat up a man with no hands. Too many Hall of Famers to bother listing have admitted to using now-banned “greenies” — amphetamines — to endure baseball’s long seasons."
You know, the real answer would be to allow the BBWAA to enforce the Character Clause and throw out Cobb, Perry, Yawkey, et. al. if it merited.
Maybe the HoF needs that debate FIRST, before we play the "we all screw up, so let's let in the cheats so they get more of what they don't deserve".
Berg:
"And unless someone plans to purge them all from the museum and recraft it as some squeaky-clean place honoring only Lou Gehrig and Derek Jeter, then it doesn’t really seem fair to exclude contemporary players on behalf of morality."
I'll be more than happy to have that debate long before I let Bonds, Clemens, McGwire, etc. in.
Fourth Reason: Celebrating Great Players
This is ludicrous on it's face.
First, the game they played, due to their drugged conduct, WAS NOT BASEBALL.
Second, that's the very same argument Football Nation America makes to justify criminal thugs like Dashon Goldson, Ndamukong Suh, and all the blood-letters out there.
If a "Great Player" is result-oriented only, then the ends justify ALL means.
"Does everyone forget how many guys took steroids and stunk? More than half of the guys listed in the infamous Mitchell Report were total scrubs. Even if some of the guys you’re trying to keep out now did use PEDs, they used them to compete and succeed against a bunch of other guys who were also taking PEDs because they played at a time when no one did anything to stop them."
They were major-leaguers because of steroids. They just didn't have the careers that Jose Canseco had, even with his admission that he was the same. In this realm, they and Canseco were no different. In this realm, only the results were different.
The problem is, Berg then uses that to extrapolate to his argument.
"All 762 of Barry Bonds’ home runs still count in the box scores, just as we still celebrate the teams that won championships behind players who have since admitted to using PEDs."
That, to me, should be changed. There, in MY opinion, should be a 20 or so-year black hole in the history of sports where baseball would stand.
Otherwise, you get what we now have in Football Nation America: Drugs, rape, murder, doesn't matter -- he needs to be on that fucking field on Sunday!!! BLARGH!!!!
So, in your mind, the end justified any means to get there.
I would be the murderer/rapist everyone thought I would be if I had (or was ever taught by those I should believe) that same attitude.
"Including a character clause in the voting criteria puts many baseball writers in the impossible position of retroactively policing men they never knew for taking actions no one tried to stop. It’s time to take morality out of the picture and put great baseball players in the Hall of Fame."
They weren't baseball players. Realistically, one has to question even the legitimate players because of the actions no one tried to stop. You're a fool for not seeing that, Mr. Berg.
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