Unfortunately, no one will be remembering any of the good things he did because of two colossal mistakes he’s made since being in office.  He allowed the steroids era to exist the way it did while it totally wiped away many of the baseball records that stood for decades, but that’s a topic for another time.  For the point of this article, he’s absolutely refused to add the dimension of instant replay to the game on a full time basis.

The biggest complaint that Bud Selig has had about instituting instant replay on a full time basis is that it will take away from the tradition of the game.  In some respects I could agree with him, but then I wake up from my nap and realize that this needs to happen.  Major League Baseball is a multi-billion dollar industry that has so much money and fan support involved.  So it begs the question, why not take care of the game?  The game has changed a great deal since 1960.  You need to change with the times in order to make the sport the best it can be.

When you look at all of the major sports leagues, each of them has instituted instant replay for critical plays that could tilt the game one way or the other.  They’ve recognized the importance of getting the calls right the first time.  However our friend Mr. Selig doesn’t seem to share their insight on the matter.  While he has approved its use on a minimal basis, they are still a long way to go in making things right.

This last postseason saw so many critical situations in which the umpires blew the call and it couldn’t be reviewed on the monitor.  In some cases, it translated to an extra run or two that turned out to be the difference in the game.  When each team puts so much effort into their performance, it’s kind of disheartening when they are the better team, but they lost because of a formality.

More than anything else, the thing that makes me sad about this entire issue is the umpires.  They go out there doing the best they can to make the right calls, but sometimes they get it wrong.  Whether they don’t get in the right position to make the call or they just didn’t see it right, it’s going to happen when there is a human element involved.  Without having instant replay involved to a greater extent, it puts immense pressure on the umpires to get the call right.

I’m sure Royals and Cardinals fans remember the 1985 World Series for being one of the most exciting in the history of the game.  What was dubbed as the “I-70 Showdown Series” brought seven thrilling games that saw the Kansas City Royals claim their first Championship. This became Bret Saberhagen’s coming out party as he was named World Series MVP.

While this World Series was one of the most memorable, it’s unfortunately remembered for the wrong reasons. Going into game six, the Cardinals were leading the Series 3-2 and primed to wrap up the Championship. The Cardinals had 1-0 lead going into the ninth inning with All-Star Closer Todd Worrell on the mound. The first batter of the inning was pinch hitter Jorge Orta. He proceeded to hit a sharp ground ball to Cardinals first baseman Jack Clark, who tossed to Worrell covering first base. After the play, it was clear on the television cameras that he was out at first. However, the first base Umpire Don Denkinger called Orta safe at first and then everything started falling apart for the Cardinals. Then after a couple of errors, a walk and a passed ball the Royals won the game 2-1 to force a game 7. After this blown call, the Cardinals never recovered as they lost game 7 11-0.

While the Royals were soaking in their Champagne, Umpire Don Denkinger went back to civilian life where he had to deal with hateful Cardinal fans who couldn’t forget his blown call.  At first, he started getting hate letters and then it turned into death threats against his family.  From there, things went even further as two St. Louis disc jockeys actually gave out his home address and phone number to their listening audience.  Due to all the threats, they had a police car parked outside their home for up to a year.  Toward the end of 1987, the hate letters finally came to an end.  However, the impact that this had on Don Denkinger and his entire family cannot be diminished.  Because of the mistake that he made, Cardinal fans took it personally and wanted to make him pay.

We all come from different walks of life and various occupations.  Some of our jobs are more stressful than others, but most of us aren’t held accountable for our mistakes like Don Denkinger was.  I know there are a lot of passionate fans out there, but these fans went absolutely too far in trying to make him pay.

When you think about it, how would Don Denkinger’s life had been different if Major League Baseball had instant replay in 1985?  It goes without saying, that the controversial call would have been overturned and the Cardinals would likely had won the World Series, but look at what a game did to ruin a families life?  This was all because some crazy fans took it personal about one bad call.

Now, I’m not implying that Bud Selig needs to get instant reply in order to avoid what happened to Don Denkinger.  I am however; talking about how instant replay would eliminate a lot of pressure off the umpires and allow teams to win strictly on their performance, not by getting a run on a botched call.

While I applaud Bud Selig for trying to preserve the historic nature of the National Pastime, he needs to realize what is happening to this great game without having instant replay.

It used to be a very standard process. If you achieved certain milestones, it meant automatic admission into the hall, but it seems as though things have changed. With the evolution of steroids affecting player’s performances, it’s left the history books full of tarnished numbers.

I think this current voting process needs to be blown up and re-created. You have young writers voting on whether or not Bert Blyleven should be voted into the Hall of Fame? Does this make sense? Some may not have been around when he played Major League Baseball. In addition, I don’t believe the writers should be involved in the voting process. Their too close to the players at times and some have shown to harbor ill will toward them later on when their up for election into the Hall of Fame. I would like to see a collective group make up of Managers, Announcers, and certain established Writers. A group that would included Vin Scully, Earl Weaver, Bob Costas, Peter Gammons and Sparky Anderson.

In regards to the voting on players from the steroids era, there needs to be some clear cut definition on how to go about this. In recent years, any player who has been suspected of taking steroids during their playing days doesn’t get close to enough votes. Should this be happening? How can Major League Baseball still recognize the accomplishments of Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa and others when the Baseball Writers fail to vote them into the Hall of Fame?

As long as the baseball record books are filled with all their accomplishments, I do believe they should be allowed into the Hall of Fame just not in the normal set up. I would separate these ballplayers connected to steroids from the clean players and make mention of the steroids part in the description on their plaque. This would allow their achievements to get celebrated while also acknowledging the era in which they played.

What’s the alternative to this option? Major League Baseball deletes these players from the record books. Meaning Hank Aaron would still be the All-Time Home Run King and Roger Maris would still hold the individual season record. You can’t have it both ways in paying attention to their numbers one minute and ignoring them the next.

Unfortunately, this has given truly clean players a bad name now. There gets to be questions about certain players who are really clean. Over the last year, I have actually heard some people question whether or not Frank Thomas and Jim Thome should be in the Hall of Fame which is ridiculous. They have both put up statistics which that are worthy of Hall of Fame recognition and have done it the right way.

So what are numbers worthy of the Hall of Fame? I am truly amazed when I hear about some of the players that are talked about as far as getting into the hall. One of them is Barry Larkin of the Cincinnati Reds. Over the course of his career he’s been a very good player, but he’s not even close to being a Hall of Fame player. He’s got one ring and one MVP along with some very nice stats, but he belongs in the same grouping with Dale Murphy, Fred McGriff, Jose Canseco and others. These are very good players, but just not Hall of Famers. If it was up to me, I wouldn’t have Ozzie Smith in the Hall of Fame either. I’m sorry; you have to accomplish more than he did from an offensive standpoint. I understand he’s one of the greatest defensive players in the history of the game, but he had no offensive achievement that was at all significant. At that rate, you might as well put Otis Nixon in the Hall of Fame.

For admittance into the hall, I believe many of the same milestones should be kept in place while keeping in mind certain circumstances that either enhances or hinders their chances. For example, I recently had a conversation with my dad about Ron Santo’s chances for getting into the Hall of Fame. He’s of the belief that he should be in there because of the statistics he put up. His numbers actually compare or surpass those of Brooks Robinson’s career numbers, but Robinson was in the postseason a number of times while Santo never did. On this topic my mind gets made up on this thought. The Chicago Cubs teams from 1967-1974 currently have three Hall of Famers off those teams. By adding Ron Santo to the Hall of Fame you’d be adding a fourth. How can you justify having four Hall of Famers of a team that never made the postseason?

I cannot go into this topic without mentioning Pete Rose. By now, everyone knows that he’s been banned from baseball for betting on games while he was managing. His ban from baseball also includes his omission from the ballot for Hall of Fame voting. This is a decision that baseball has gotten wrong. The Hall of Fame is supposed to celebrate the history of the game while appreciating individual accomplishments. Pete Rose ended his career with many great statistics highlighted by becoming the All-Time Hits Leader. When looking at his numbers and the way he played the game, he should be in the Hall of Fame. Now I don’t want to ignore his faults. While I would put him into the hall, I’d keep him banned from the game of baseball.

The Hall of Fame should include the truly great players.