Ripken Baseball

With the recent announcement of the candidates for next year’s Hall of Fame ballot, I want to talk integrity – and I’m not talking about the players.

In their first year of eligibility, Robbie Alomar and Barry Larkin deserve to get in, no problem. But that takes me to the voters. This is the time and the class of prospects where you’ll hear the nagging terminology, “He’s a Hall of Famer for sure, but not on the first ballot.”

Excuse me? In my world, you’re a Hall of Famer or you’re not. I don’t care about the number of ballots it takes. If you think a guy deserves to be in the Hall, vote that way. That’s why it bothers me to no end when voters refuse to vote for a deserving candidate in their first year of eligibility. “I won’t vote because I don’t want it to be unanimous,” they’ll say. “Not in his first year, I’ll vote for him on his second ballot.”

For those on the Baseball Writer’s Association of America who think in those terms, your right to vote should be revoked. The ballot asks a simple question, are these players Hall of Famers or not? By voting no one year and yes the next, you’re trying to make a statement to get your own name in the paper, and you’re not doing your job as a voter. You’re destroying the integrity of the Hall itself while trying to preserve the integrity of your own irrelevant grading system.

It’s at the heart of the game itself: call it like you see it. Is it a hit or an error? Does he belong in the Hall or not? I despise hypocritical voters for the same reason I can’t stand it when people complain that a close play should go as a hit just because the batter happens to play for the home team. Or when the scorekeeper marks a borderline hit as an error, just because the pitcher has a perfect game through six innings – then he makes a change in the books afterward when that pitcher gives up an undeniable hit in the seventh. It lacks integrity and it’s despicable.

To the voters on the BBWAA: it is what it is. Is he a Hall of Famer or not? After all, once a player gets in, everyone will remember him as a Hall of Famer, while you’re still stuck on how many ballots it took.

In the past, Derek Jeter has given Cal a lot of credit for paving the way for a much bigger generation of shortstops, creating the baseball setting in which Jeter now thrives. Perhaps I’m biased towards my brother, but Junior always seemed to do everything right–on the field and off–and Jeter exemplifies that same greatness of character. He plays hard every day, and is just as impressive a person outside the foul lines as he is an athlete between them.

Coaching at the World Baseball Classic this year, it was the first chance I had to spend any significant time with the Yankee shortstop. In that setting, he didn’t disappoint. He put forth the effort day in and day out, treated everyone with the utmost respect, and always maintained a professional manner.

Now he’s got a ring on five of his fingers—the epitome of a superstar—but you wouldn’t guess it by his attitude and workhorse mentality. Over the course of my career, I’ve met plenty of other “superstars,” and many of them would be better compared to a horse’s rear-end, if you ask me.

It’s no wonder he goes by Captain at one of the most storied franchises in history. There’s no doubt Jeter is the leader of the Yankees.

Greatest Yankee of all time? That will always be up for debate.

But Sportsman of the Year? No doubt Jeter deserves it, he’s been doing the same great stuff since he first came to the big show.

I can only ask Sports Illustrated, “What took you so damn long?”

We’re all looking forward to a lot of eating, some moderate drinking, watching football and napping the afternoon away on the couch tomorrow.

At least that’s how everyone pictures Turkey Day.

But my guess is you won’t see a guy like Theo Epstein all tryptophan-ed out on the couch tomorrow. With the Red Sox being dismissed by the Angels in the first round of the playoffs this year—by way of the sweep no less—and the Doc Halladay rumors buzzing, you just might find Epstein down in Odessa, FL, carving a bird with the Jays’ top righty.

As Doug Miller points out on MLB.com today, Epstein and the Red Sox have already inked deals around the Thanksgiving holiday with a couple of aces. He sat down to dinner with Curt Schilling in 2003, and then the Sox obtained both Josh Beckett and Mike Lowell in a Turkey Day deal in 2005.

The Sox GM married in 2007, so he may have some trouble getting away from the in-laws this time around. But you may just wake up on Black Friday and discover Walmart isn’t the only place making deals and doing business on a big scale. You may just find one of baseball’s best has become the newest member of the Nation.

Strike it from the lexicon. I’m tired of hearing about so-and-so being a tremendous asset to his team and somehow being deserving of an MVP award, even though his numbers don’t shine. Let the award go to whoever has the most terrific statistical season and let’s stop looking through the lens of intangibles.

Let me do the math for you.

.365 avg + 28 home runs + 96 runs batted in + defensive excellence as a catcher = MVP, no doubt.

Joe Mauer deserves this year’s AL MVP because he had a tremendous season, regardless of any time missed to injury, and especially regardless of the record the Twins finished with. His offensive performance definitely helped the Twins win a few games, but had Mauer thrown those numbers up and the Twins managed to only go 70-92 on the season, I still think he’s the MVP.

But many of the critics out there would have denied him the hardware had the Twins’ actually finished 70-92. And that’s just wrong.

Since the Yankees won their 27th World Series Championship earlier this month, the debate about a salary cap has started all over again. My take on the whole thing: if you’re going to put a cap on, you need to establish a floor as well.

If there was any year to make the argument about the Yankees buying a World Championship, this would be the one. The Yankees bought up all three of this year’s top free-agents. They got CC, Teixeira and Burnett, all on their way to victory. Now, I’m not going so far as to say the Yankees didn’t earn it – they won hard fought games all year long – but the argument is definitely there. The Yankees spend way more money on salaries than any other team.

There were nine teams in 2009 with salaries over $100 million. The Mets were the second most at $135 million. The Yankees? Their payroll exceeded $200 million. A $65 million gap just isn’t going to create parity in the long run. Sure, teams at the bottom of the payroll mountain make their runs and win championships, sometimes downing titans like the Yankees in the process. The Marlins for example (last in 2009 payroll at $36.8 million), who rose up and took the crown from the Yanks in 2003.

Winning a World Series is no easy task, like having lightning strike twice. But the Yankees have the funds and the will to buy up all the precious metals they can get their hands on, and they are standing alone in the middle of an electric storm.

If you’re going to try to inhibit teams like the Yankees and Red Sox by capping salaries, you have to also create a floor. Several teams are happy coasting in cheap mediocrity. A cap will drive down the salaries of the best players on the best teams, but a salary floor will force mediocre teams to re-invest in their talent, giving fans the type of quality team they deserve to have.