No one is elected to the Hall Of Fame by the BBWAA

The 2013 Hall Of Fame Class was an unbelievable one in name. It was star studded and included many locks for the Hall Of Fame. I should say they were locks if the suspicion and taint of steroids wasn’t hanging over them. Barry Bonds, Rogers Clemens, Mike Piazza, Craig Biggio. When you hear those names I am sure most would think Hall Of Famers except they aren’t at least not right now. 
Mike Piazza had a near 60 percent showing as the first time on the ballot, I am sure he will get in one day. You have to remember that these guys as long as they receive five percent of the vote stay on the ballot for 15 years. That is a long time for minds to be changed and circumstances to be different. I think this ballot was just a perfect storm as many PED users or suspected users were on the ballot for the first time. This is the first time you had so many of those guys on the ballot and I think the writers were very conflicted.

I think next year you will still have a strong case and probably have many go in. The Veterans committee for instance will have Tony LaRussa, Bobby Cox and Joe Torre all on the ballot, I bet they all get in. Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine will be on for the first time and may both get in. I would say Maddux for sure, what about Mike Mussina, he is a borderline Hall Of Famer and it will be interesting to see how he does. Jack Morris is a guy that may have been caught with the other guys and overlooked a little. There are a lot that think he should be in and next year will be his final year on the ballot. I personally am not so sure he should be a Hall Of Famer. He had a near four ERA which I don’t consider very good.
I think that this is a good debate too have and baseball will be front and center now as this debate is not going away. I think the debate about the Hall Of Fame and steroids will lead us into Spring Training and then the season will start to take over. This is a very tough thing to go through with the steroid era, I really don’t know what to make of it. I have been leaning towards the if they deserve to be in by the numbers then they should be in. I have to be honest though I don’t know if I would of put supposed or known PED cheats in on the first ballot. I probably if I had a vote left Clemens and Bonds off and then voted for them later on. I don’t think McGwire and Sosa are worthy steroids or no steroids, they were too one dimensional for me.

Let the debate continue but I don’t think you can really blame the writers for this. Let’s remember the players, the owners they turned a blind eye to steroids and allowed this to happen so the game could take off again and the money gained out of it. They got tough after the fact but we can’t be naïve, we all know that they let this happen, it isn’t the writers fault that they chose to taint the sport. Lets have a healthy debate about who should be in and who should be out but lets not make it like it’s the end of the world. I think everyone is entitled to their opinion and to vote how they want to vote, let’s also remember these players have 15 years to get in, it isn’t a one and done proposition.

Alex Rodriguez injury worse then thought??

Alex Rodriguez doctor spoke on Tuesday and it seems that his injury may be worse then we thought. He still hasn’t had his surgery but will do so soon. The estimated time of recovery puts him back at no earlier then the All Star Break. He most likely won’t see any playing action until at least the end of July or maybe August. 
The extent of the damage to the hip won’t be known until he is on the operating table. The doctor Dr. Kelly said “The big question is, how much cartilage damage is there, and how much unfixable damage is there?” The surgery according to Dr. Kelly is very technically challenging and it will be a two hour surgery. It is an arthroscopic procedure involved making three small incisions in the hip, penetrating three layers of muscle, inserting a camera to assess the damage, implanting an anchor in the top of the hip and reattaching the torn labrum to it, reshaping the femoral head of the hip to provide a greater range of motion and finally repairing as much of the cartilage as possible.

He said they can fix two of the three problems but the cartilage is a permanent injury and they won’t know how extensive the injury is until they are in there. The exam that was done by the doctor revealed some cartilage wear. This isn’t a very encouraging thing for the Yankees. If you are one of those that don’t believe Rodriguez will be viable going forward this certainly helps your case. I personally don’t know what to make of this, I know for sure we won’t be seeing 30 and 100 any longer but is 20 and 80 possible and a 270 average, I would say probably. If this is possible is it enough?? Not for the money they are paying him but as a DH?? It may be and it may have to be as there isn’t much choice, he has five years left and isn’t going anywhere.

The New York Rangers are happy that hockey is back

The New York Rangers lost in Game Six of the Eastern Conference Finals last year. They lost to the New Jersey Devils their rival. They have been itching to get back to playing hockey again every since. It has been a long seven months but the lockout is finally over and the Rangers players are starting to hit the ice. There were a bunch of Rangers at the practice rink, training camp will begin shortly and the season is expected to start on January 19^th.

The New York Rangers were so close to getting to the Stanley Cup Finals and possibly winning the Stanley Cup for the first time since 1994. The Rangers nucleus remains the same but they added Rick Nash to bring some much needed scoring to the team. The Rangers have an all world goalie and a good defense that remains intact. They now have Nash to go with Marion Gaborik and Brad Richards as guys that can put the puck in the net and they can spread that over a couple of lines. Carl Hagelin had a strong rookie campaign and he is back and Kris Kreider came in late as a young rookie and showed the Rangers a lot. He will be available now for a full season and could bring some more scoring to the team. The Rangers appear to be very serious threats for the Stanley Cup. I would say that the one team that can derail that for them will be the Pittsburgh Penguins. It will be interesting to see how everything plays out in a 48 game schedule.

The Rangers can benefit from this though, they mainly have the same team as last year. The Rangers had Gaborik who was going to start the season hurt now fully healthy along with the rest of the team. They won’t be traveling as much, it all looks to add up to success for the Rangers. They are also a close knit group with them being very happy to be back as evidenced by how many guys showed up at the rink today. John Torterella the no nonsense coach also said his team will be ready and I am sure he will bring the most out of them. He is very demanding but the players all buy into his system. The Rangers look poised to take the next step and are roaring to go, we will soon find out if they have what it takes to hoist Lord Stanleys Cup.