Cal.E.'s Korner

Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” Sir Winston Churchill

d.: Cal.E. has already posted this morning, so I’m doing this evening’s blog solo. If you missed Cal.E.’s blog, go to my page entitled The Magruder Mysteries” and look for today’s date. There will be two posts with today’s post, but Cal.E.’s has her picture at the top of it.

I posted this quote from Sir Winston Churchill

to introduce today’s blog because I want to talk about some professional athletes who were successful but still failed.

To go in chronological order, I’ll start with “Shoeless” Joe Jackson. Today, baseball commissioner Rob Manfred decided to live up to his name and be a man. He re-instated “Shoeless Joe” and his teammates on the 1919 Chicago Black Sox team that threw the World Series for money right to be voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. I’ve mentioned Jackson before. He batted .375 during the 1919 World Series. No one accused him of throwing games, but he was complicit because he knew what his teammates were doing and failed to report it, according thot then baseball commissioner Kennesaw Mountain Landis. To paraphrase what Dusty Baker once said about Mike Fiers, “We had ways of taking care of people like that when I played.” Maybe “Shoeless Joe” didn’t want a 90 mph fastball thrown at his ear during batting practice. That’s the way players handled things in his and Baker’s day, and he wasn’t as dumb as most people believed him to be.

Another person who was “Complicit” was Astros’ manager A.J. Hinch during the whole Astros’ sign-stealing scandal. That’s why he and his general manager, Jeff Luhnow, who tried to throw Hinch under the bus to save his own reputation, were banned from baseball for one year, but things like this have a way of working themselves out.

I don’t know (nor do I care) what happened to Luhnow, but Hinch landed on his feet. He took a young Astros team and led them to the playoffs, then to the World Series, which they won, but he might not have been a good fit for that team after those players matured. Instead, after his suspension was served, he wound up managing a young, talented Detroit Tigers team. That’s a team that now gives the Astros and other established winning teams fits. Hinch landed on his feet, and the Astros were wise enough to hire perhaps the coolest baseball manager that ever lived, Dusty Baker.

Baker led the Astros to two World Series in consecutive years, losing to the Atlanta Braves in 2021 and then defeating the Philadelphia Phillies in 2022, winning his first World Series ring as a manager. Dusty decided to stick around for another year instead of riding off into the sunset, but he did finally retire before the 2024 season.

Now the big question, “Will Jackson, or any of his teammates be elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame by a veteran’s committee?” I believe that the answer is no. It has been too long and there is too much water under the bridge for this to happen.

The Hall of Fame is for players who excelled between the lines. Thus, it has some notorious villains in it. A man who wrote a book about how he cheated by throwing an illegal pitch, Gaylord Perry, is in the Hall of Fame. Ty Cobb, a notorious racist (like most other white men in his era), would sharpen his steel cleats with a file before games to punish middle infielders who dared tried to tag him out when he was running to second base. There are many pictures of Cobb with his cleats pointing toward an opposing second baseman or shortstop when sliding into second base.

The man who many regard as the G.O.A.T is also in the Hall of Fame, as well he should be. Babe Ruth was an awesome hitter and an above average fielder with a cannon for a left arm that no player would dare run on if Ruth was set up to throw. Ruth was also very good pitcher, a rare combination.  And, the “fat man“  was 6’3’’ and 210 lbs. That would put him below the MLB average for someone his height in today’s game. That shows how perception can color reality.

While I don’t hold Ruth up as a role model for yutes

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to follow, he was a genuinely good soul. He did imbibe, eat heartily, and chomp on and smoke cigars in front of cameras, but I wonder how much of that was just for effect? It did get him attention, along with his visits to sick children in hospitals. Ruth and his wife also adopted two children. For him to be villainized is a mistake, in my opinion.

The second person who will be eligible to be voted for the Baseball Hall of Fame is Pete Rose. The all-time hits leader in MLB history has passed, thus lifting his lifetime ban, according to Manfred. Sadly, Rose, a.k.a. Charlie Hustle will not get into the Baseball Hall of Fame either. That’s as much about his personality as his ability, I believe.

Rose never admitted to betting on baseball, although it was proven that he bet on his own team (albeit to win) when he managed the Cincinnati Reds. Rose was a gambling addict, and it cost him the chance to be elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Rose, from my memory of him, came into MLB as a brash rookie, and never changed that persona. There were more talented players, but no one could outhustle Rose (perhaps because he had money on the games he was playing?). That question is in the back of the Baseball Veteran’s Committee’s mind, I’m sure, and that will keep him out of the Hall of Fame.

 Rose was caught betting on baseball red-handed, unlike the all-time home run leader in MLB history, the only player ever to steal 400 bases and his 400 home runs before the mysterious hat -size changes, Barry Bonds. Bonds was never proven to be cheating; much like another person who belongs in the Hall of Fame and will never be elected to the Hall of Fame, Roger Clemens. Clemens never admitted to using steroids, and never tested positive for them. However, when he was a pitcher at the University of Texas, he had a mediocre fastball that somehow got into the 90 mph+ range late in his career, raising suspicion that he was using steroids. However, Clemens made enough money to hire good coaches and trainers and to eat healthfully. It was his on-field persona, though, that made other players question his use of illegal substances.

 Other players, such as Jeff Bagwell were remorseful for using legal substances (at the time) to improve their game. Interestingly, Bagwell joined his teammate, Craig Biggio, in the Baseball Hall of Fame a couple of years ago.

My point is that getting elected to the most hallowed Hall of Fame is almost as much about public opinion as it is about ability. Some very affable players, though, will never be elected to the Hall of Fame because their numbers just aren’t good enough (See former Astros’ starting pitcher Jim Deshaies).

Cal.E. and I will be back together tomorrow for another edition of Cal.E.’s Korner. In the meantime, this has been d.c. scot, with one man’s (correct) opinion.