Monday, December 6, 2010
How 'Bout a Hall of Fame For Hyperbole?
In what would have to be one of his most bizarre "Worst Persons" segments EVER, Mr. Olbermann opted this time to take on, OF ALL PEOPLE, the Baseball Hall of Fame Veteran's Committee. It seems, folks, that Mr. Olbermann (a person who's seemingly already on the record as wanting to transform Baseball's most hallowed institution into the Hall of the Very Good) has for a long time wanted former Chicago Cubs third baseman, Ron Santo, to be granted induction into the Hall. And, yes, with Mr. Santo's recent passing, the ascerbic Olbermann did what he always seems to do these days - get indignant ("Mr. Santo didn't live long enough to see himself get honored, yada yada")...................................................................................................Now, don't get me wrong here. Mr. Santo was in fact a very good player, and a reasonable case could be made for him. But a big slam-dunk he is not. Mr. Santo's numbers, for example, are actually worse than those of other borderline players who have made it; Jim Rice, Orlando Cepeda, Tony Perez, etc.. And while, yes, Santo has power numbers much greater than some of the other marginal Hall of Famers such as Nellie Fox and Richie Ashburn, those fellows had a great many more hits and a significantly better batting average. And what about a guy like former Boston Red Sox right fielder, Dwight Evans? He scored far more runs than Santo (1470-1138), had significantly more hits (2446-2254), and exceeded him in the following other categories, too; doubles (483-365), triples (73-67), home-runs (385-342), runs batted in (1384-1331), stolen bases (78-35), walks (1391-1108), on-base percentage (.370-.362), and slugging percentage (.470-.464). If anybody deserves another look from the Veteran's Committee, it's him (not that even he's a slam-dunk, either)...................................................................................................Look, folks, there are a lot of really good players out there that one could argue for. I mean, just look at the frigging pitchers alone. Tommy John won 288 games. Bert Blyleven won 287 (not to mention had 3,774 strikeouts). Jim Kaat won 283. None of those guys are in the Hall of Fame, either. Is Mr. Olbermann going to make a conniption when they die, too. If, I'm saying, he had even one ounce of consistency in his bones (and we all flat-out know that he doesn't), he would.
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10 comments:
I gave up on Hall of Fame stuff in any sport, its all politics. You might guess I'm a fan of Pete Rose.
Now HE has the numbers. LOL
Which "numbers"?
Bookie slips or hits on the field?
You know what I was thinking - a Hall of Fame for great, albeit morally challenged, players; you know, guys like Rose, Shoeless Joe Jackson, all of these more recent steroid guys (Bonds, Palmiero, McGwire, Sosa). That way we can acknowledge both their greatness AND their foibles.
Sorry, baseball is just lost to someone like me. 5 minutes of non-stop action, stretched out into 3 hours of boredom.
Perhaps the name of this blog should be changed to "Contra Olbermann"? I'd like to defend Mr. Olbermann's legitimate grip against the Baseball Hall of Fame Veteran's Committee and push back against yet another BS attack from Will Hart, but I have no idea who the hell Ron Santo is.
Was he a good player but not a slam-dunk, as you claim? I don't know, nor do I care. One thing is certain, however. I'll take Mr. Olbermann's word on this matter over yours. You never had a career in the sports announcing field, did you Will?
You admit to knowing NOTHING about the topic and, yet, you maintain that my analysis is BS. Mr. Olbermann has a clear history of attempting to dumb down this important institution. He, like he seemingly wants everybody to succeed and be equal in life, wants Mr. Santo to be on a level par with Willie Mays and Joe DiMaggio......Oh, my frigging God, maybe he really is a socialist! LOL
I don't, but KO does.
Wikipedia says that "Olbermann spent the first twenty years of his career in sports journalism. [He won] the Best Sportscaster award from the California Associated Press three times. ...Olbermann became a sports anchor and producer for Fox Sports Net from 1998 to 2001, during which time he hosted Fox's studio coverage of baseball".
All this points to the fact that KO doesn't know what the hell he's talking about when it comes to baseball???
There are literally dozens and DOZENS of players comparable to Ron Santo who one could make a case for. Are you (channelled by Mr. Olbermann, of course) saying that they should all be inducted into the most prestigious institution in all of sports?.....And, really, what's up with this whole believing everything that Keith Olbermann says nonsense? That's nothing but blind adherence, dude. Do your own research, make YOUR OWN conclusions, and then challenge me.
"Blind adherence" has nothing to do with it. I'm not going to do my own research and then challenge you... because I don't give a crap about baseball or the baseball hall of fame. Given the fact that I'm not going to do my own research, I'll take Mr. Olbermann's word for it that Ron Santo deserves to be in the Baseball hall of fame. As I already pointed out, Mr. Olbermann has the credentials to authoritively make this claim.
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