I don’t care about whatever tax fraud scheme he may have been involved in. That isn’t detrimental to the game or hurtful to marginalized groups. He’s the most vile spewer of hateful speech from professional sports in my lifetime and they had multiple opportunities to say this isn’t a person worthy of a HOF vote. I’m talking about the guy who routinely posts stuff like this
And of course they didn’t remove him, not even after he requested it, because the BBWAA is a group of precious tin-pot dictators solely concerned with flexing the small amount of power they have and nothing else. The fact that he appeared on 71% of the ballots in 2021 indicates that they’re overwhelmingly fine with this messaging, and it fits his narrative that a small number of politically-motivated operatives are holding him out.
I feel the easy answer is probably right - 1927 Yankees. Pretty sure that is the only team ever with two guys with over 200+ OPS+. Lineup had some depth (3rd and 4th hitters would be Earle Combs at 142 OPS+ and Bob Meusel next at 133), but also had two bad hitters at SS and 3B.
This was my immediate thought. But they’re already viewed as one fo the best teams ever, and I think the more interesting question is how much those rankings get shuffled around. Like, surely the 2022 Angels and Yankees move up substantially, while a team like the 1976 Reds probably gets bumped down quite a bit.
I’m not going to argue that Schilling is a good guy, I just generally don’t believe that off-field behavior, particularly post-career off-field behavior, should keep someone off the ballot.
I don’t really see much difference between the screening committee (made up of baseball writers) choosing to keep him off the ballot vs. the baseball writers choosing not to vote him in.
Tbh, I’m still not sure on what your point of view is, other than he shouldn’t have been on this year’s ballot. Should he have ever been on the ballot? If so, at what point should he have been removed? Originally it sounded like your argument was that he should have been kept off from this year’s ballot because of the request he made last year. But your 2015 picture (not sure the dates of the other ones) suggest that he should have been taken off much earlier (or never on the ballot)?
You are trivializing this similarly to how baseball media do it. This isn’t just a case of an unlikable guy with unusual beliefs or outside political opinions. It’s a white supremacist posting iron crosses and swastikas online. He’s the most vile spewer of hateful speech from pro sports in my lifetime and possibly ever. His reach is broad and detrimental to the game of baseball.
I would have removed him after there was clear and consistent evidence of hateful speech, so maybe that was 2015 or 2016? I don’t know the exact timeline so there were possibly a few years where he sneaks in on the ballot. Also would have permanently banned him from baseball for saying Adam Jones was lying about being called a racial slur.
This is why it is so hilarious (to me, because I enjoy avin a laugh) that Cobb gets (incorrectly, as it turns out) labeled a racist when he held (at worst) median beliefs for his time. Same with Shoeless Joe. Context eludes revisionists.
The 1920 equivalent to Schilling today would be like a guy with multiple lynchings under his belt.
Sabo the dog’s season schedule is coming together.
Sabo’s Padres are doing three Bark at the Park’s in Peoria during spring training: the above mentioned Feb 26 vs the D’backs, as well as March 3 vs Cubs and March 17 vs Mariners. I’d expect him to attend one.
Today Sabo’s Padres announced four regular season Bark at the Parks at Petco: April 3 vs D;backs, May 16 vs Royals, June 6 vs Mariners, and Aug. 17 vs D;backs. He’ll be at all four of these games.
As they have post-pandemic, the Padres are selling Barkyard tickets, which are to a handful of special four seat dog friendly boxes available for every game, only in 10 game packages. In other words, half a season tix commitment, and these tix cannot be resold on the secondary market. Never say never, but I’m prolly going to pass again this season. Maybe I’ll spring in 2024, as the three MLB teams Sabo has never seen (Astros, White Sox, and Blue Jays) are coming in.
Which means he won’t be at the three big Sabo Bowls scheduled this season… but I’ll be at all three. My Red Sox at his Padres, #231-233, May 19, 20, 21.
(And if you want to LOL pro wrestling, pretend Justin Verlander did a murder-suicide with his wife and child, should he be disqualified for consideration in the Baseball HOF?)
I think it’s fine to say the writers shouldn’t vote for him, especially considering they have an explicit character clause. This whole conversation started because I thought it was weird to think some random group of 6 should decide that he’s not on the ballot to begin with.
Incredible factoid: One of those fourteen was Dave Stieb, who lost two other no-hitters with two outs in the ninth in addition to the perfecto IN THE SPAN OF A SINGLE YEAR. (And those two would-be no-hitters came in back to back starts.)
This is a good point, and a point of difference between the Baseball HOF and the Pro Football HOF.
Both are non-profits independent of the respective leagues. Both give instructions to their inductee voters, The difference is the baseball HOF explicitly says off-field is to be considered -vs- the football HOF explicitly says it should not. In football this was most famously discussed in the case of Lawrence Taylor.
As for being off the ballot, that’s another possible point of confusion.
The MLB maintains an official “banned list”. Both ‘Shoeless’ Jackson and Rose are on it. The HOF has a policy that it won’t put any players on MLB’s banned list up for election. MLB isn’t (directly) barring those players from the HOF. The HOF is always free to change their policy, and consider players on the MLB banned list for induction.
My overarching point was about self-important baseball writers and how completely full of shit they are. Here’s what big-brained Bob Ryan at the Boston Globe had to say about casting his ballot for Schilling:
Bob Ryan
Curt Schilling: He’s cuckoo; we all know that. But not for one millisecond do I believe he truly favors lynching sports writers. Having a weak sense of humor is no disqualification for the Hall, and as far as his goofy politics are concerned, hey, it’s still a free country.
Nearly a decade’s worth of white nationalist speech attacking vulnerable groups and condoning violence on social media is goofy politics and a weak sense of humor. He was probably just joking about the violence on Jan 6 too:
