{"id":46473,"date":"2019-01-22T13:35:00","date_gmt":"2019-01-22T17:35:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/totfc.net\/?p=46473"},"modified":"2020-08-10T13:35:18","modified_gmt":"2020-08-10T17:35:18","slug":"baseballs-hall-of-fame-finally-gets-it-right","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/?p=46473","title":{"rendered":"Baseball\u2019s Hall of Fame finally gets it right"},"content":{"rendered":"

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In short<\/a>: Mariano Rivera headlines the 2019 Hall of Fame class, being the first player ever inducted unanimously<\/span><\/p>\n

Let me first start off by saying that I am ecstatic for Mariano Rivera, in being the first player ever inducted unanimously with 100% of submitted ballots all voting for him.\u00a0 There is zero debate in history that he is the most clutch pitcher of all time, having something of like a ridiculous 0.70 ERA throughout over nearly 100 postseason games, becoming more and more unhittable as the Yankees advanced in the playoffs every time.<\/span><\/p>\n

I still remember in 2009, which was the last time that the Yankees won the World Series; against the ridiculously explosive offense of the Phillies, the Yankees time and time again throughout the six-game series went to the bullpen and brought Rivera out for the save.\u00a0 And in each of the Yankee wins en route to the championship, it was Rivera who slammed the door, allowing no runs and just three hits over 5.1 innings of clutch relief.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It should be worth noting that this was when Rivera was 39-years old, and people had long already been proclaiming that age was catching up to him, and that he was going to be limping to the finish line.\u00a0 Instead, he ate the Phillies\u2019 lunch and carried the Yankees back to the top of the mountain, which was again, the last time that the Yankees have been World Series champions.<\/span><\/p>\n

And it wasn\u2019t even the saves and the innings that Rivera really brought, whenever he took the mound, it was more the fact that he inspired calm and confidence, among fans and his teammates.\u00a0 And among the opposition, the legend of Rivera\u2019s cut fastball literally rendered generations of hitters with a feeling of defeat and dread of getting to be one of the guys giving up critical outs at the end of a baseball game.\u00a0 The saying of \u201che can tell you it\u2019s coming, and there\u2019s nothing you can do about it\u201d rings entirely true with Rivera, because he basically threw nothing but the cutter his whole career, but the numbers speak for themselves; nobody could do anything about it.<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019m not even a Yankees fan, but even I had this feeling of calm and no real fear that the Phillies were going to make a comeback.\u00a0 And even when the Yankees asked of him to pitch more than an inning at a time, he just continuously delivered, methodically putting Phillies hitters away again and again, until there were no more outs to get.<\/span><\/p>\n

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But aside from his immense talent in baseball, Mariano Rivera was basically a saint.\u00a0 In a world where professional athletes ultimately get everything while the rest of the world doesn\u2019t, Rivera remained as grounded and humble his whole career, as the poor kid from Panama he grew up as.\u00a0 Where even his own teammates made tabloid news from the models they dated or the golden thong they circulated among each other for good luck, in a league where player egos inflated to ridiculous proportions, Rivera was ever the dutiful family man, always putting God and his family first, and always minded his own business in peace.<\/span><\/p>\n

As much of a monster he was on the pitching mound, he was basically the modern-day equivalent of a saint off of it.\u00a0 As far as citizenship and humanitarianism are concerned, on top of a legendary playing career, it\u2019s a no-brainer that Mariano Rivera is a worthy pick to be the first-ever unanimous selection into the baseball hall of fame.<\/span><\/p>\n

Edgar Martinez and Mike Mussina, I agree with their inductions as well, because despite the fact that neither won any championships, both had tremendous and productive careers, that should absolutely be recognized and honored forever.\u00a0 I can\u2019t say the same about Roy Halladay, because as much of a legendary talent he was in his career, I have objections with a guy that basically killed himself, loading himself up with fatal amounts of morphine and amphetamines before flying an airplane, but sentiment and ignorance of the facts tends to lead to choices like this.<\/span><\/p>\n

However, as much as I hate to be a wet blanket, I do have to say that Rivera\u2019s unanimous choice really should come with an asterisk: he may have been on 100% of the submitted ballots, but 100% of the available ballots were not submitted.\u00a0 Most notably is this one tryhard<\/a> who inexplicably has a BBWAA ballot for the Hall of Fame, who states that he did not<\/em> vote for Mariano Rivera, but also chose to not submit his ballot.<\/span><\/p>\n

The point is, had he submitted his ballot, then Rivera wouldn\u2019t have gotten 100%,<\/em> plain and simple.\u00a0 And ultimately, this is kind of inherently the flaw of the entire Hall of Fame process, and as good as it is that things are finally changing and we\u2019re getting to have unanimous selections, it kind of creates a whole lot of hullaballoo about votes in the past now.<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019m going to go out on a limb and theorize that social media and the internet has a large part of shaping the HOF now.\u00a0 We live in a time where it\u2019s becoming easier and easier to get information, about BBWAA ballots being submitted, because a lot of writers themselves are buying into the want for some transparency, and it\u2019s becoming harder for those curmudgeons who vote, or don\u2019t vote, out of spite, to hide in anonymity.\u00a0 But because of these changes to the world, things like the HOF vote are becoming right, but it doesn\u2019t change the fact that many guys in the past were obviously wronged.<\/span><\/p>\n

I like Mariano Rivera a lot.\u00a0 But with no disrespect to him, he shouldn\u2019t have been the first unanimous choice, and it\u2019s not even close.\u00a0 Names like Cal Ripken, Jr., Hank Aaron, Babe Ruth, Tony Gwynn, and Nolan Ryan come to mind; these are respectively some of the greatest players to ever play the game we\u2019re talking about here, and all of them were victims of their time, where spiteful BBWAA writers could utilize their agendas to deny honor to any one of these legends of the game.\u00a0 Ken Griffey Jr., Chipper Jones, Greg Maddux, and Randy Johnson are more recent names to have also felt the wrath of snobs who were unable to look past their own egos to check the right boxes.<\/span><\/p>\n

I feel like the internet has helped keep writers honest and accountable, or at least be prepared to defend their choices, but the reality is that there\u2019s really no logical defense for voting for the greatest players in the history of the game.\u00a0 At least one of the guys who didn\u2019t vote for Cal Ripken Jr., straight up admitted that he felt that no one player should be more important than the HOF itself, but it\u2019s hard stretch to believe that anyone else will admit to it again in the future.<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s the defending of the past that gives me mixed feelings about Mariano Rivera\u2019s unanimous selection, and I have zero ill will or belief that he didn\u2019t deserve it.\u00a0 He absolutely did.\u00a0 He was and frankly always will be, the greatest closer of all time, and I\u2019m glad that he was recognized as such with the ultimate honor.<\/span><\/p>\n

This all but locks Derek Jeter as a unanimous selection for next year, when he becomes eligible for the first time.\u00a0 But that\u2019s really about it; the game has changed so much, and free agency has mutated the game into an environment where players really won\u2019t stick to a single team for their entire careers where they\u2019ll win championships and put up numbers, and do all the things their predecessors did before them to become such unanimous choices.<\/span><\/p>\n

Albert Pujols will get in, but he\u2019ll always have that weird scent on him, having switched to the Angels from the Cardinals where he\u2019s still kind of limping through the remainder of his deal.\u00a0 Not to mention the question if he\u2019ll be as unanimous of a choice he seemed like when he was winning his second championship with the Cardinals.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The days of guys like Jeter, Rivera, Chipper, Cal, Gwynn and Biggio are long gone, and it\u2019s going to be harder and harder to find unanimous guys in the future.\u00a0 But change is good, sometimes.\u00a0 And we should all be happy that a saint like Mariano Rivera gets to be the first guy to hoist the title of unanimous selection.\u00a0 Because this time next year, people all over the internet will be digging up all of Derek Jeter\u2019s personal life dirt, and trying to use it as justification to try and convince at least one BBWAA writer to not check his name on their ballot, despite the fact that undoubtedly will.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In short: Mariano Rivera headlines the 2019 Hall of Fame class, being the first player ever inducted unanimously Let me first start off by saying that I am ecstatic for Mariano Rivera, in being the first player ever inducted unanimously with 100% of submitted ballots all voting for him.\u00a0 There is zero debate in history … Continue reading Baseball\u2019s Hall of Fame finally gets it right<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[62,50,182],"class_list":["post-46473","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-brog","tag-baseball","tag-honor","tag-tryharding"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46473","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=46473"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46473\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46475,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46473\/revisions\/46475"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=46473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=46473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=46473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}