Boo! Hall of Fame Talk!

Cal Ripken and Tony Gwynn were voted into Baseball's Hall of Fame today. That isn't so much news as it is an opportunity for me to avoid sports talk radio on my drive home to avoid one of my least favorite sports fan practices, Hall of Fame talk. This time every year, hundreds of stat geeks whip out their $35 Baseball Encyclopedia, flip two pages, call their local sports talk radio station or write their sports editor and attempt to sound smart. Well worth the money.

This would be a lot more interesting if every player was only eligible to be voted in once. One yes or no vote is all anyone needs. Did someone forget to carry a 1 and give Jim Rice over 500 Home Runs? No. So why would he be any more a Hall of Famer now than five years after he retired.

This year because of Mark McGwire was eligible and not voted in. Hall of Fame Talk was combined with my second least favorite sports subject Steroid Talk.

Mark McGwire did steroids (allegedly). And I'm glad he did, he hit more home runs and made baseball more exciting than it would've been otherwise to the common fan. I'm glad wrestlers do steroids. I'm glad porn stars have fake boobies, most of them look better than their real boobies would look. The consequences they suffer will be suffered by themselves alone, but the short term gain was enjoyed by all of us.

In fact I vote to build a Steroids Hall of Fame, inducting McGwire, Canseco, the Ultimate Warrior and Arnold Schwarzenegger as the first class. Now THAT'S an induction ceremony I would watch!