Tuesday, December 12, 2006

Pettite and McGwire

Like The Blowhard, I'm happy that the Yankees signed Andy Pettite. It was a move that I was against, until he signed a short-length contract. Is he overpaid for an aging, injury-prone pitcher? Probably, but not as much as some other members of the Yankees' staff (*cough*RandyJohnson*cough*), and not as much as they might have for the likes of Barry Zito. The Blowhard has a great analogy for the quality of free agent pitchers this year--go check out his latest post.

Also, the baseball writers are currently voting on players to be inducted into Cooperstown this month, and none other than Big Mac himself is eligible for induction for the first time. McGwire, of course, has been implicated as a steroid user in Jose Canseco's book Juiced. I've read this book (it was over in my Recent Experiences bar for a week or two--did you miss it?), and while I found it entertaining in the same way I found a crack-smoking vagrant's stories about Ara Parseghian and hitchhiking across Ohio with a shiv entertaining, there's not a whole lot of evidence there to back up his wild allegations. Come to think of it, that's a lot like the vagrant's stories too. Nonetheless, one way or another, the Hall of Fame voters will be sending a message this year. If McGwire is denied, they'll be showing current players that the integrity of the game does matter. If he's brought in as a first-ballot Hall of Famer, the message will be loud and clear: home runs and offensive production matter more than keeping the playing field level for everyone, and it's OK to cheat as long as you don't get caught. That sort of attitude is fine for Bobby the Brain, but it's got no place in Major League Baseball.

1 comment:

  1. What happened to MLB pitching? No 20 game winners this year either. Give Jim Kaat the ball! Happy New Year, buddy!-Gary

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