In the words of Chuck Berry, "Meanwhile, I'm still thinkin..."

Who to vote for on the 2010 Hall of Fame ballot?  Notice, I didn't say which Hall of Fame.  You don't have to.  Everyone knows it's baseball.  Hockey HoF?  Eh?  Canton? Yeah, right, the one you had to take steroids to get into.  Basketball Hall?  The rules for getting in make health reform look simple. 

When you say Hall of Fame, you're talking baseball.

Who goes in this year?  First off, I don't have a vote.  Not that I should, but some bloggers somewhere ought to.  Who is covering baseball better, bloggers or a bunch of newspaper writers whose organizations don't want them to vote? 

Until that happens, here's one fan's up and down list.

Andre Dawson (67% last year).  Down.  Dawson was Cesar Cedeno with more power and better judgement off the field.  Performance wise, much the same.  Good power, speed, running, fielding, throwing.  But none of them exceptional and few of them coming together in the same season.  You can feel bad that his health never let him be everything he could be.  But that's no reason to give him a plaque in Cooperstown.

Bert Blyleven (62.7%)  The knock is he only won 20 games once.  Got news for you.  If that's the criteria none of today's best pitchers will ever make it.  Blyleven ate up 200 innings in 17 of his 22 seasons, struck out 3,701 batters, and was very good in limited post season action.  Up.  Definitely up.

Lee Smith (44.5%)  After Bruce Sutter went in, how do you not let in Lee Smith?  478 saves?  Solid WHP and K/BB ratios.  Much like Blyleven he took the ball for alot of very ordinary teams and did great things.  Up, by a very small margin.

Jack Morris (44%)  Has everyone forgotten the 1991 World Series?  Cooperstown isn't Canton and the World Series isn't the Super Bowl, but Morris' series summed up the rest of his career.  How many of today's pitchers will ever win a Game 7 in 10 innings?  Very good skills coupled with the determination needed to win the games that counted most.  Any team with Jack Morris could count on winning 20 of his 35 starts.  Up.  And not even close.

Tim Raines (22.6%)  Dawson with more speed and less power.  There are holes in the resume, but then again there is also a .413 OBP, 6 years with more than 100 runs scored, and 808 stolen bases.  Looks good compared to Enos Slaughter and Fred Clarke, who are in, but not good enough to get my vote.  Down.

Mark McGwire (21.9%)  I like Mark McGwire.  Saw him the year he hit 70.  You could tell he loved to play, enjoyed being around the other players, and for all the pressure conducted himself well.  But I don't know how to evaluate him.  How much was real, how much came out of a bottle?  No problem with him being in the Hall, but I think he and his steroid era counterparts can do a service to the game by being kept out until the veteran's committee brings them in years into the future.  They serve as an abject lesson to today's players.  Down.  Real down.

Barry Larkin (1st Year)  One of only two newly eligible players I'd give a second thought to.  I gave him points for being the best all around shortstop (hitting and fielding taken together) of the NL when he played.  On the other hand I can't picture voting a shortstop in who never turned 100 double plays.   Kind sorta up and kinda sorta down.  We'll have plenty of time to figure it out.

Roberto Alomar  (1st Year)  Four words will define his career, fairly or unfairly.  Spit at an umpire.  It sounds trite, but I think it will be a long time before anyone forgets.  Much like Larkin, the best at his position for a time.  Eventually ten gold gloves and favorable stat comparisons to Bill Mazeroski will turn the trick.  Up, just not yet.

Wasn't this more fun than talking about that Escalade guy?

When empires fall it is from excess, not want.

So it will be with the New York Yankees, who are sowing the seeds of their own destruction with a 1 million payroll.

Baseball has always been a sport of great teams, especially great New York teams.  They have built baseball's traditions, expanded the fan base, fed the media.  So it isn't a bad thing to see the Yankees winning.

But not by spending million above the next closest competitor.  Not by eliminating the Orioles, Rays, and Blue Jays before the season starts.  Not by driving up the price of tickets throughout baseball by setting arbitration salary standards out of reach of many teams.  Not by creating "the Yankee contract" as the ultimate goal of stars under 27 years old, depriving the teams which developed those players of any chance of retaining them.

This is where we are at.

$75 million is the salary base to make the playoffs.  The Twins are the only exception this season and they'll be gone faster than the memory of summer on a cold, October night.  Unless the Phillies return to the World Series, it will cost 0 million plus to play the final games of the season.

A family of four must spend well in excess of 0 for a night at the ball park.  Some will pay, but go less often.  Some will stop going.  A quick look at attendance this years says the downward spiral has started.

It is a foregone conclusion Joe Mauer of the Twins, the best young talent in the American League, will command at least a million a year contract after 2010 and will be the center of a bidding war between the Yankees and RedSox.  The Twins and Mauer will say the right things about a return to the twin cities, but it isn't going to happen.

In a weak free agent year, the Yankees could turn over some free agents of their own like Matsui, Damon, and Petitte and restock with the likes of Jason Bay, Matt Halliday, or John Lackey, making 2010 the second year in a row the Yankees have drained the pool of marquee free agents.  While the economy limits the number of bidders, the Yankees could upgrade at several positons without adding huge amounts of salary.

Then there are potential 2011 free agents like Carl Crawford and Roy Halliday.  Adding Halliday to the Yankees rotation is almost a nuclear option.  After cornering the market on marquee free agent pitchers in 2009 with Sabathia and A.J. Burnett, it is hard to imagine the Yankees adding a pitcher.  But Yankee paranoia about the RedSox pursuing Halliday could put him in pinstripes in 2010.

If the Yankees make even two or three of these plays, where does that leave baseball?  The economy and attendance are in decline, arbitration will keep salaries high, and the public will be in a surly mood over Yankee imperialism in the AL East.

The current collective bargaining agreement will expire in late 2011.  Baseball owners will be under pressure to make changes in free agency.  Yankee domination will increase demands for change. 

If the economy stays bad, and I believe it will, we will see deep divisions among owners and ultimately attempts to negotiate a salary cap.  So much money will be lost in smaller markets the next two seasons, there will be owners hoping against hope for a long lockout.

the Yankees aren't the only reason we'll likely see a prolonged strike in 2012, but they are a big part of why we may end up with some form of a cap.  Bad for baseball (witness the pariocrity of the NFL) and worse for the Yankees.

We can hope the Steinbrenner family excercises some common sense and judgement during the off season.  Maybe they won't vulture the cream of a limited free agent crop.  Perhaps they won't get into insane bidding wars with the RedSox.

Who believes that?

The Yankees would argue, and not without some logic, that the problem is with the industry model and not their spending.  If there is not enough talent available, if some teams can't compete, the answer is obvious.  Let them go out of business.  Fewer teams with the same number of players equals lower salaries and better competition.

Baseball won't buy that.  The powers that be will come up up with some Rube Goldberg version of a cap. 

The MLBPA won't buy into a cap.  Then comes the strike, then comes a lost season, and then?

Maybe a cap so severe it will be the end of the Yankees as we know them.

Which won't be fine.

The hallowed halls of Cooperstown.

Nice turn of phrase.  If you're a major league player they are one of the things you play for.  A chance to join to legends. 

Which is also the argument against people like Mark McGwire joining the Hall.  How can we put a cheat into this shrine to the immortals.

Easy.

The same way baseball put Ray Schalk in.

If you ever saw the great movie "8 Men Out" you know, or think you know, Ray Schalk.  The tough as nails little catcher who saw what was going on during the fixed 1919 World Series and nearly fought his crooked pitchers to stop it.  Old school integrity.

Schalk caught for eighteen seasons, but only 12 where he played as many as 100 games.  Put up the following numbers:

11-594-177-.253.

You read it correctly.  11 home runs, 594 RBI, 177 steals, and a .253 average.

In fairness, Schalk was a very good catcher, rated one of the best of his era.  He lead the American League in fielding percentage for eight seasons and caught four no hitters.

Which makes him an early 20th century version of Jeff Torborg, but hardly Hall of Fame material.  Yet, there he was in 1955 getting his plaque in Cooperstown.  And no matter how much you value his defense, no matter how much credit you give him for trying to stop his teammates from throwing the World Series, you still come back to the same question.

What is Ray Schalk doing in the Hall of Fame?

The answer may go back to 1917.  Baseball players were under the reserve clause and without the leverage of today's free agency they worked for fractions of their value to teams.  If a player challenged the contract he was offered, owners often sent back another lower offer.  Players were bound for life to one team and treated like chattel.

Trying to fight the system, players formed a "Player's Fraternity" in 1912.  It was not a formal union, but it was recognized by the National Association (the primary baseball management group).  It achieved limited improvements in player conditions and focused much of it's attention on conditions in the minor leagues.

In 1917 the fraternity asked it's players to sign pledges not to sign contracts or report to spring training until it released them to do so.  At issue was the "Ten Day Rule" which said teams did not have to pay injured players after they were unavailable for ten days.  

Momentum was behind the players until some began to break ranks.  The first two included Ray Schalk, who had refused to sign the pledge.  Ultimately the attempt failed and emboldened management to refuse future dealings with the fraternity.

Owners like Charles Comiskey of the WhiteSox had the upper hand and played it out to the hilt.  Despite having the best team in baseball, Comiskey paid about sixty cents on the dollar for talent.  Which played a big part in why his players sold out themselves and the game to gamblers in 1919.

Schalk got a day in his honor in 1920 from Comiskey.  Late in his career, ever loyal, he offered to play one last season for a substantial pay cut.  Comiskey rewarded his loyalty by knocking his offer down even lower.  Schalk retired, but later came back to manage the WhiteSox for two seasons.

Then in 1927, Swede Risberg of the "Black Sox" appeared before Commissioner Landis and testified that in 1917 the Sox had gotten together $1100 cash to give to Detroit players to roll over during a pivotal four game series late in the season.  Risberg specifically mentioned Schalk as having contributed to the fund.

How does this relate to a .253 hitting defensive specialist getting a plague alongside Ruth, Cobb, Speaker, Gehrig, Williams, DiMaggio, Mantle, and Mays? 

The Hall of Fame Veterans Committee which elected Schalk didn't have but a single player on it in 1955.  It included the presidents of the American and National Leagues, the minor's Internation League, the secretary of baseball, Branch Rickey (Pirates GM), and three writers.

Harridge was assistant to the American League President back in 1917 when Schalk helped derail the developing strike against baseball.  The others, excepting the writers and former player Charlie Gerringer, were all closely associated with the powers who ran baseball.  And, in 1953 the players had just organized the MLB Player's Association.  There can be little doubt Harridge remembered Schalk's loyalty, or that the others appreciated it.

Was the fix in for Schalk?

Nobody can say for sure.  But it certainly is easier to believe than accepting that a punchless catcher, even one as gifted defensively as Schalk, found his way into the Hall of Fame purely on merit. 

And, you may ask, what is your point?

Simply this.  The idea that the Hall of Fame is so pristine in purity it cannot tolerate the likes of Mark McGwire or Barry Bonds, or Pete Rose or Joe Jackson for that matter, seems a bit absurd.

Ray Schalk was not a bad man.  He sized up life and followed where his conscience lead.  No doubt many steroid users did the same.  We can question them, and Schalk, with 20-20 hindsight.

The Baseball Hall of Fame is alot of things to alot of people.  But if you're going to keep certain players out based on the idea that everyone already in Cooperstown got there without politics and is beyond reproach, you would be mistaken.

Of that I'm at least .253 percent sure.

What were they thinking?

The core of the Indians team, a catcher with a live bat, gone for an untested middle reliever and some magic beans.

We argue whether Pete Rose should be admitted to the Hall of Fame because of what it says about the integrity of the game and then watch the Indians hand over Victor Martinez, who had a year left on his contract after this season, to the Boston RedSox for a whole lot of nothing.

Will the Indians complete this season or just shut down now?  After letting two consecutive Cy Young Award winners (Sabathia and Lee) go they are "rebuilding".

With what?

Justin Masterson?  A middle reliever who will be converted to a starter.

Nick Hagadone?  Who has only pitched 25 innings this season because he's coming off Tommy John surgery in 2008.  Why not just sign Tommy John?  Sure he's sixty-six years old, but that ligament they put in hasn't even turned forty yet.

Bryan Price?  Who is getting knocked around in A ball?  When will Price be ready?  Sometime during the second term of the Obama administration?

And how about the integrity of the pennant race?  I know it's been done before, but when does it stop?  How much is enough?

Why did the Indians need to trade Martinez?  Because they had to replace Lee.  Why did they get rid of Lee?  They're rebuilding.

What exactly are the Indians rebuilding into?  The San Diego Padres of Ohio?

And how is that Sabathia deal working out?

Well, Matt LaPorta was hitting .190 the last anyone looked.  Robert Bryson, who was a 31st round draft pick, has pitched two games this year in Rookie ball and blew out a few scoreboard lights (and not in a good way).  Then there is Zach Jackson, he of the 9.35 ERA.  And Mike Brantley, who is a centurion with the bat.

He hits a home run once every one hundred plate appearances.

Bud Selig can't fix this problem.  The Major League Players Association won't.  They'll go on strike before we ever see a salary cap in baseball.

There is only one way to end this trade deadline gutting of mid and small market teams.

Punish the owners. 

If you are an Indians fan, don't be.  Stay home.  Watch the games on TV if you must, but don't darken the gates at Progressive Field until they bring major league baseball back to Cleveland.

Enough is enough.

The All Star game will feature President Obama throwing out the first pitch and the Presidents Bush, Clinton, and Carter in a public service video to be shown at the game. 

How exciting.  Seven minutes of former presidents spotlighting people who have performed outstanding community service.  Maybe during next year's NBA finals we can stop and have Al Gore do two minutes on global warming.  It won't be as long as the ex-presidents are getting from baseball, but it will seem longer.

Much longer.

Which makes me wonder.  What sort of sports fans would the presidents be?  Would they go out together to games?

I have this image of a drunken Lyndon Johnson heckling some Illinois fans at a Longhorns football game.  Finally, having taken all he can take, Ulysses S. Grant climbs up the bleachers and confronts Johnson.  All the while, Abraham Lincoln is looking in his pockets for his car keys and hoping none of the Texas fans notice Grant was sitting next to him.

George Washington was a big guy, so I can see him following the NBA.  Courtside with Spike Lee at Knicks game, growing rapidly tired of Thomas Jefferson poking him in the back with a foam finger and then looking away innocently.  Afterwards, as the police are escorting him out of the building, Washington confesses.  "I cannot tell a lie, I decked the @#!% and I'd do it again."

FDR would have problems.  No smoking in Madison Square Garden.  Big Rangers fan.  First period, the big smile, the wave to the crowd.  Second period, he's asking Calvin Coolidge for nicotine gum.  Third period he's screaming down to James K. Polk (wearing a Carolina Hurricanes jersey), "You wanna piece of me Polk?  I got your manifest destiny right here pal." 

Woodrow Wilson was a killjoy.  I could see him at the track trying to explain to Truman, Nixon, and Coolidge what a bullet workout meant and why the really smart money was the 5-2 favorite and not the longshot Truman was about to throw his money away on.  When they go to the concession stand you could imagine Nixon whispering to Truman, "I'm not saying we should, because it would be wrong, very wrong.  But I know this fellow Liddy who could make the whole thing look like an accident."

John F. Kennedy and the Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders.  Trouble.

Bill Clinton and the Laker Girls.  Bigger trouble.

Grover Cleveland and the Alabama cheerleaders.  Instant paternity suit.

Reagan would be the great organizer of baseball excursions.  The good natured guy who gets everyone together and sorts out who is going in what car.  Who agrees to let Teddy Roosevelt (who won't ever shut up) ride with him, along with Martin Van Buren (who thinks he invented the infield fly rule), and William Henry Harrison who whines the whole time about the air conditioning being too cold and how he'll catch his death of cold.

You would probably want to be sure and take Andrew Jackson's keys after the game.  Millard Fillmore would agree with everyone on everything, and still nobody would like him.  Ike and Gerald Ford would sit in the back talking about their playing days while Bush (43) kept asking his dad, Bush (41) "are we there yet, are we there yet?"

Barack Obama?  He'd end up paying for the parking every time. 

The new guy always pays.