Hall of Fame and Super Bowl
The Baseball Hall of Fame voting has gotten ridiculous. While Cal Ripken and Tony Gwynn both deserved enshrinement, the historical perspective of Hall of Fame elections has become totally lost. If you look at the 1st ever voting results list from 1936, you might notice a few big names that didn't make it on their first opportunity. Some guys like Lou Gehrig and Rogers Hornsby hadn't retired yet, but there are quite a few notables (Tris Speaker, George Sisler, and Cy Young) who are amongst the greatest players of all time and weren't elected. I know the rules of voting were a little different back then and now after 5 years of waiting you have a pretty good idea of who should be in, but Joe DiMaggio wasn't elected until his 3rd year of eligibility. On his hall of fame page it says that "At baseball's 1969 Centennial Celebration, he was named the game's greatest living player." Still sportswriters speculated that Ripken could be the first ever unanimous pick. BBWAA, please put your voting in a historical perspective. Baseball is the only sport where records from many years ago are still the gold standard. I don't see why HOF voting should be any different.
The Pro Football Hall of Fame seems to be a little bit better. My biggest problem w/ them is that only 6 people can be elected each year. This year and last year's classes included both people nominated by the seniors committee. That only leaves 4 guys to be enshrined. It seems like they are leaving out some guys who are eminently qualified.
Ah yes, the Super Bowl. I'm picking the Colts 27 Bears 10. The Bears defense has suffered some injuries and fallen off from what they were at the beginning of the season. The Colts defense has been stronger in the playoffs. The extra week will help the Colts more than the Bears. Both teams scored the same number of points in the regular season, but Chicago's offense had 38 offensive TDs while the Colts had 48. I think that will translate to a big win although I'm going to say it will be closer than 10 touchdowns.
posted by Dan Smith at
2:40 PM
3 Comments:
I'm with you on Art Monk. Seriously, how is he not in the HOF? Did he molest one of Tagliabue's children or what?
Nice premonition on the score. Just a little off.
12:42 PM
Peter King and Dr Z both have written in the past about why they don't like Monk for the HOF. King's reasoning was that he was only All Pro twice and in the Pro Bowl 3 times. Part of that stems from Jerry Rice being all everything in the NFC for most of Monk's career. Part of that comes from having another great (although long term not as productive) receiver on your team in Gary Clark. I would counter that Monk was still on the all 80's team. And if championships are some kind of big HOF criteria (they seem to be since every single member of the 1970s Steelers has been elected) then Monk's 3 Super Bowls should be a big factor. Dr Z has made the arguement that he caught 900 8 yard hooks, but statistics show that he averaged less than 10 yards a catch only once in his 16 seasons (9.7 in his last year w/ Washington). Frankly, I expect better from Dr Z. Still Monk has 8 more years to be selected and if it doesn't happen by then the senior committee will eventually nominate him and yet to be born sports writers will say "This guy retired as the all time leader in receptions. How did he not make it in the HOF until now?"
This is a pretty comprehensive website chronicling Art's HOF quest and what the media says about it.
2:55 PM
Keep the fight alive.
For what it's worth, I'm not even sure Dr. Z is a real doctor.
5:13 PM
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