Hall of Fame

With the Hall of Fame inductees being announced later today, here is the list of players that I would vote for if I was given a ballot.

 

-Craig Biggio

-Jack Morris

-Mike Piazza
 

First, you have to put Biggio into the Hall of Fame in the first round because he collected 3,060 hits in his career and above all was consistent. He is one of the only players who is eligible for the first time that does not have the cloud of PED use surrounding him. If nobody else but Biggio makes this class I will not be heartbroken.

Jack Morris has suffered long enough. He has been on the ballot over a dozen times and I think it's time that he gets recognized for his hard work and his ability to pitch well in big games. Morris' ERA was not impressive, but quite frankly I don't care about that. Morris won over 250 games over his career (all of which came while pitching in the American League) and had almost 200 complete games, which is something that isn't done in modern day baseball. At the same time, if Morris gets voted in, I firmly believe that Andy Pettitte deserves to one day be in Baseball's Hall of Fame. He has won nine less games than Morris has and is still playing. Pettitte's ERA is almost identical to that of Jack Morris' and even a tick lower. Even though Andy Pettitte has admitted to using performance enhancing drugs, I believe him when he says it was just to get over an injury. Pettitte's numbers have been consistent throughout his entire career. If he used performance enhancing drugs as a means to get an edge over hitters, it would have been reflected in his earned run average.

 

Mike Piazza deserves to make the Hall of Fame this year because of his offensive numbers at the position he played. As a catcher in the major leagues, Mike Piazza hit 427 home runs in his career, which is the best mark of any catcher in Major League history. Piazza not only hit home runs, but his lifetime batting average was .308, which shows that he always played successfully. Some believe that Piazza was involved in using PED's, however if there was no breaking of any law at the time of usage, Piazza deserves a spot in the Hall. In other words, if he was not found guilty of anything after the drug program was instated, Piazza should not be penalized.

I am not putting Roger Clemens or Barry Bonds into the Hall of Fame at all because of the level of their usage. Bonds played like he was in another world after he began using PED's. He gained a ton of weight and after he stopped playing, denied using performance enhancing drugs! And same goes for Roger Clemems. Those two men, along with Mark McGuire, do not deserve a spot in the Hall of Fame at all. Their records were tainted and they put a black cloud over the sport that has left baseball purists rolling over in their graves because of the tainted records those players now hold.