Monday, July 30, 2007

They Don't Make 'Em Like That Anymore

This weekend, two great baseball players, Tony Gwynn and Cal Ripken, were inducted into the Hall of Fame.

It's a little startling-- these are guys who are about my age-- I was born in 1961, they were both born in 1960. It's odd to see players you watched play, like them and Ryne Sandberg, retire and go to the Hall of Fame.

They were immensely talented players. Gwynn regularly led the major leagues in batting average, sometimes coming close to batting .400 (for you non-baseball fans, batting over .300 is very good, batting .330 or .340 is incredible). He wasn't a home run hitter-- he never hit more than 17 in a season-- but he never batted lower than .309. Ripken was known as "The Iron Man," breaking Lou Gehrig's 56-year-old consecutive game record of 2,130 games. Ripken ended up shattering that record, playing 2,632 straight games! A baseball season is about 160 games long. That means he played about 16 and a half straight seasons without missing a game. This was all the more remarkable in that he played most of his career at shortstop, one of the most physically demanding positions.

Both players finished their careers over the 3,000 hit milestone: Gwynn had 3141 career hits and Ripken had 3184.

Both, incidentally, were part of teams that defeated Chicago teams in the playoffs; Ripken's Baltimore Orioles knocked the Chicago White Sox out of the playoffs and went to the 1983 World Series, and the San Diego Padres did the same to the Cubs in 1984.

There was something special about these two. First, they played for "small market" teams. One of the problems in major league baseball is that teams with "big markets" like New York and Los Angeles (and, supposedly, Chicago) have more money to work with and can buy talent away from smaller markets like Pittburgh, Toronto-- and San Diego and Baltimore. Gwynn and Ripken chose to stay with these teams, rather than vault off to the Yankees or Mets. And they stayed a long time-- they played their entire long careers (Gwynn, 1982-2001, and Ripken, 1981-2001) on the same team. You won't see much of that anymore.

They played with class and respect for the game-- and the fans.

In a few years, the Hall will have some choices to make. It's been assumed in the past that any player who hits five hundred home runs will eventually make the Baseball Hall of Fame. The steroids controversy in the last decade has challenged that assumption.



In the next week or so, Barry Bonds will tie and then break Hank Aaron's record for lifetime home runs. Aaron hit his 755 home runs over a 23 year career. He endured stupid racist threats as he approached Babe Ruth's record of 714 career home runs. Yet he played with grace and a respect for the game and its fans. Bonds, on the other hand, has shown contempt for the game, with his steroid use, and clearly disdains the fans. Blogger Phil wrote an excellent post on what he thinks are Bonds' motives for this, earlier this year on a sports blog he contributes to.

Whatever Bonds' motives, Hank Aaron still has class. When Bonds hits his 756th home run, Aaron will undoubtedly graciously and unironically congratulate Bonds. And at the end of this season, Bonds will probably retire, and in five years, the Baseball Hall of Fame will have a decision to make: whether or not Barry Bonds belongs in the same Hall as Hank Aaron, Babe Ruth, Tony Gwynn and Cal Ripken.

7 comments:

MacGuffin said...

Let's hope they make the right decision. The generation of kids coming up need a clear signal steroid use won't get you everything, esp respect.

Splotchy said...

Great post!

Say, is that a pic of McGwire right before he ate his bat?

SkylersDad said...

I am not a baseball fan, but I remember a story from a talk show on the radio while driving around. Tony Gwynn holds the distinction of being the only man to ever break a baseball bat...


On a CHECKED SWING!

Think about that kind of arm strength for a few moments there folks.

Moderator said...

Cal Ripken was playing the same kind of game ARod, Jeter, Noma and others play 15-20 years before they broke into the majors.

Anonymous said...
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BeckEye said...

Yay, Tony Gwynn! I used to be a huge baseball fan, but got sick of the prima donnas and the greedy bastards that have taken over the game. But Tony Gwynn was always an amazing player with a great attitude. He's one of the good guys.

Johnny Yen said...

Macguffin-
I agree.

The really sad thing is that Bonds is actually a great player, and probably would have made it without the homers and steroids. I imagine what they'll do is what they are doing to McGwire-- make him wait.

Splotchy-
That's actually a huge chicken drumstick.

Skyler's Dad-
I never heard that! Thanks! That is amazing.

Grant Miller-
Yes, he was a pioneer in that respect. He was also a lot bigger than most shortstops before then.

Interestingly, longtime Cubs shortstop Don Kessinger was tall. He played basketball in the off season to stay in shape.

Beckeye-
Yeah, that 1994 strike really pissed a lot of fans off-- both owners and players were complete assholes.

Yes, he was one of the good ones!