Quote:
Originally Posted by Handsome Wes
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My wife once asked me what I would save if my house was burning to down. First (obviously) would be "the kids" and second is "our dogs." I have a small box of portable hard drives that serve as a backup to the computers, so that's probably third.
In the same trip that I would take to grab those hard drives? I'd definitely grab my baseball card albums (they're in the same room, fwiw, and it's right by the garage, so it's not like I'm really risking my life to grab them).
I have three albums dedicated solely to Baseball Hall of Famers. 99% of them are Topps base (or update) set. I *think* I have every card of every player since the 1980 set, and probably maybe 70% of them since 1970 (obviously the numbers go down the farther back I go). This collection includes the last Topps card of every player, stretching from the 2019 CC Sabathia all the way back to the 1951 Bobby Doerr.
I say all of this to say that I care very deeply about the Hall of Fame.
And so, it frustrates me to see baseball fans (accurately!) moan about the Hall of Fame - in both directions. It's too big! It's too small! Too many of the right people are left out! Too many of the wrong people have been put in!
And what happens with every passing day is that the love of fans grows just a bit colder. They care just a bit less. Plenty have stopped caring at all... and it seems as if the Hall of Fame is just content to let this happen. At a time when they are slipping further into irrelevance, they are putting ice on the sidewalk.
And that's a dang shame.
For me, I've started curating a fourth album. The ones who make it into *my* Hall of Fame, even if they are denied entry to the one in Cooperstown.
And if there was a burning fire, I'd save that one, too.
Maybe that's good enough.
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Pretty good take. As it relates to the Hall, I think I've personally gone through all the emotions. Anger/frustration with Rich Gossage and Jack Morris getting in. Mix of anger and laughter at Harold Baines getting in. Total joy when childhood favorite Ted Simmons got in (though I'd definitely call him a HOVGooder as a smaller Hall guy). Today the selections don't bother me, as at the end of the day, the Hall is still a VERY exclusive club. Roughly 1% of players are in it. I think the writers and the selection format is a joke, as do most, but the Hall itself is still something I care about. I wouldn't have voted for Jeff Kent, I wouldn't vote for Andruw Jones...but those guys don't lessen the prestige of the Hall. And again, I'm a smaller Hall guy. The issue I have is the consistency. Kent gets in but Lou Whitaker sits? Jim Rice but no Dwight Evans? Tony Oliva but no Mattingly or Murphy? To that last one, I'm confident eventually Mattingly and Murphy will make it, as Oliva's peak was pretty impressive, but will they also have to wait 46 years after their career ended to get enshrined?