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I'm wondering if the jail time and prison time these people are getting for 1/6 is doing little more than burnishing their cred with the red hats as they plan to take it all up another notch. There's not a half-bad chance they walk out heroes to welcoming arms.

That's what she gets for not vetting her Kennedy better.

He also has the lowest oWAR of all of them. He did make a shit-ton more money than the others, though.

Better than Tim Raines or Lou Brock. I'd vote Sammy in.

True. Well, there's a lot more than just that, but yes, that's a big one.

If Baseball started allowing players to lay down money on games in which they have a duty to perform, there's a good chance I would just stop following the game at that point. The one and only thing that keeps me interested in sports is the idea that everyone involved is trying their best to win, and I couldn't assume that anymore if those with a duty to perform in a game were laying money on games.

I definitely believe Sheffield is getting jobbed out of the Hall. Every eligible batter above him with a higher oWAR than his 80.7 and who's not being kept out because of PED moralizing or gambling is in, and the next highest eligible player who's not in is Dick Allen, and he's over 10 oWAR behind Sheff. As far as I'm concerned, there is nothing borderline about Gary Sheffield. Anyone who believes he doesn't belong in the Hall does so for reasons other than his performance.

Here's what I think is a really interesting trivial factoid about Sammy Sosa: he hit 60+ home runs three times and led the NL in home runs twice, and yet none of those seasons intersect with one another.

I don't know, 600+ homers and three years of 60+ bombs is a pretty big deal. Plus he's got really favorable Hall of Fame standard numbers and JAWS. The only real thing about him that's borderline is his bWAR is 58, although his fWAR is 60. I'd vote him in. But then, I'd've voted in McGwire, too, who had even better numbers, and when was the last time anyone talked about him and the Hall?

I believe they culled the voter list for the Hall a few years ago, removing those writers who'd been tenured into a voting position even if they hadn't covered baseball for many decades. Now I believe if you haven't covered the game for more than ten years, out you go.

A lot of a certain type of Cub fan will never abandon Mark Grace.

In all seriousness, I think Sammy's star started to plummet once he got busted for the bat breaking open in that Rays game, and it finally hit the ground after he walked out early on the team in the last game of the 2004 season, leading fan favorite Mark Grace to smash his boombox.

Maybe because Sammy isn't black anymore? 😏

Besides his legitimately great performance in playoff situations, Ortiz has the advantage of being, as you say, jolly. If he were a lippy black man with the same stat line, no way he gets in even with the postseason performances. But "beisbol been berry berry good" to him, so in he goes. Never mind that he never paid any price for his poorly-excused usage, but woe to the guy with almost 700 career homers who, when caught, quietly served his time, didn't lip off about any injustice or anything, then came back and just went right back to work. He did it right. And he'll never get in as long as this generation has a say in it.

Agree. Regardless of how much PED smoke or fire there is around the guy, they were always going to find a way to get David Ortiz into the Hall.

And here's another newbie using his first post on a sports-first forum to come in hot in the politics section.

Larry David is awesome.

The Tigers are far enough along where this does not sound like a ridiculous statement. Man, that feels good.

I agree. I think their new logo is too chintzy and minor-leaguey.

Houston is in fourth and under .500.

I would not doubt if they made week-long series a permanent feature of minor-league baseball even post-pandemic. It's certainly cheaper.

My half-baked first idea took the 20-day rule into consideration. Personally, I wouldn't mind seeing the first two weeks glommed onto the final two weeks, which would create a final day of season of October 16. I wouldn't mind a World Series stretching into mid-November. I think that would be kind of neat. But I think traditional fans would throw a hairy conniption at the very idea, and even semi-wintery weather would be a real concern for players. Depending on who's playing, they'd be more likely to have neutral site games in domed stadiums or warm weather venues, which would piss off fans of northern cities who would be robbed of the opportunity to see their boys play the Series locally. It would be a real shitshow to start late and still try to get in all 162. But, to your point, Baseball doesn't seem to care much about inconvenience to cities and fans.

I think it would depend on how much the season gets pushed back, but let's assume for this discussion my scenario of an April 15 start plus an extra week in October happens. That's two fewer weeks on the front end and one more week on the back end. One way would move part of the first two weeks to the back half, have a combination of doubleheaders and a couple or three fewer off days, and keep everything else as is. The easiest thing for the Tigers in that scenario would be to move the Seattle and Oakland series to the end of the year; move the Red Sox series to current off days July 21-22 (doubleheader on 21); move one of the White Sox games to off-day September 15 and the other two to make doubleheaders in the June 13-15 and September 15-18 timeframes; and add a doubleheader to one of the Royals series. It's all a pain in the ass, but workable. Another thing they can do is to simply push back the entire schedule two weeks and compress the schedule for some combination of fewer off days and scheduled doubleheaders. This could probably work logistically because teams' travel secretaries may not have made any arrangements with out-of-town hotels in light of the coming lockout and likely schedule rebalancing. I doubt they would simply reduce the season to the romantic ideal of 154 games because that would cost Baseball TV and gameday revenue, and Players would push for their constituents to be paid for an entire 162-game season, which I doubt Baseball would agree to. However it comes out, I can't imagine that they would not have the plan for a restructured 162-game schedule in place before they ink the new CBA deal. But who knows, maybe they're unconcerned about all that while no deal's in place. Maybe it'll be just sign the deal and we'll figure out

I’m still thinking they won’t talk in earnest until after the Super Bowl, when the spotlight shuts off football and people typically look toward baseball as what’s next. That’s when they know they’ll have to get busy in order to look busy. I’m still thinking 162 games starting around April 15 and ending October 9, a week late.