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[Lister]

Congratulations!  As a professional rhetorician, this Tiny Can of Dr. Pepper represents my salute to your argumentative skills.  Enjoy.

Thanks.  Being raised by and around lawyers has... effects.  Seriously.

[KeithHernandez]

One of my favorite lesser-known baseball blogs is Plunk Biggio, a site that managed to follow Biggio's quest for hit-by-pitch immortaility with an absurd but entertaining level of statistical detail.  Now that site is shutting down, for obvious reasons. I'm more saddened to see the site close than to see Biggio retire.

There's a new form of criteria for you: does a player deserve to make the Hall when you care more about trivia-based websites dedicated to him than the player himself?

So no Jim Thome? 

[V-Adore]

Jumping into this thread as at best a half-assed baseball fan, I have to make one assertion: a dude who has gotten hit by that many pitches should get a free pass into the HoF, or at least a first-ballot slot. I mean, damn.

[Carlos del Vaca]

All it shows is bad reaction time or an inability to get on base any other way.

And wearing an enormous freakin' elbow pad.

[JorgeFabregas]

Plus he's got the uniform that's two sizes too big. A lot of balls knick him. Also, a player is supposed to try get out of the way of a pitch. Every once in a while an umpire will refuse to grant a base if the player showed no attempt to get out of the way. Many players turn their back on pitches to act as if they're getting out of the way--when in fact they're giving the pitch a bigger target to hit. I'm pretty sure that Biggio does this a lot. It's borderline cheating.

[littlefallsmets]

Yeah, this is why I was never in debate club.

"Fuck it, man, dude just played a long-ass time and got a lot of fuck*ng singles on mostly-bad teams. I ain't feeling it."

Or maybe it's just because it's baseball and I've watched so ridiculous an amount of baseball, so much more than anyone who isn't trying to make their living off of something baseball-related, that some preternatural part of me strictly believes that I'm just right and I ain't gotta debate it, I can just know by looking and knowing.

Like my instincts tell my rational mind:

"Don't worry, I got this one. It's baseball."

The same way they say it's Chinatown at the end of Chinatown, you know?

It's baseball, it's Chinatown, that's all you gotta say.

Hm.

[RMJ12345]

do they even let national leaguers in the hall?

and if so, why?

Excellent point.

[Carlos del Vaca]

do they even let national leaguers in the hall?

and if so, why?

Eat a dick.

[melack]

John Smoltz wouldn't say that? Or is he not Hall-worthy?

[littlefallsmets]

Excellent point.

I am certain you get this all the time, Rumjay, and I am certain that it has gotten annoying over time.

However, I mean this genuinely and as a genuinely huge compliment:

By right of lineage alone and also more, you are one of the very few people I internet-know who I could possibly imagine being more correct about a baseball thing than I am, on some given baseball topic.

If I met one of Kurt Vonnegut's children, I would feel the same about them and writing or et-cetera.

[Carlos del Vaca]

John Smoltz wouldn't say that? Or is he not Hall-worthy?

Smoltz should get there, as will Mike Piazza, and Randy Johnson, and probably some other dudes who have played a good chunk of their careers in the NL.  I just didn't feel like cataloging them all.

If you field, you HAVE to bat, and vice versa, you AL fuckers.  It's how the game was meant to be played.

[Turbo Ninja]

Will Clark would be a first-ballot Hall of Very Gooder.  I was honestly very surprised that he didn't get enough HOF votes in his first year to consider further consideration.  Clark probably could've extended his career if he'd followed Raphael Palmeiro's example but I really think Will stayed clean.  A little HGH here and there and he would've cleared 300 homers, 1500 RBI and 2500 hits.  Not bad for a 15-year career.

As for Biggio's competition for HOF status, maybe Clemens will finally pack it in for realz after the Indians eliminate the Yankees next week.  Smoltz, Glavine and Trevor Hoffman have all got to be on the edge of retirement.  And who knows if Bonds will stick around.  He has his precious little record and I can't imagine he still loves playing the game (and putting up with the media) so much that he'd toil as a DH for some non-west coast team.

[melack]

If you field, you HAVE to bat, and vice versa, you AL fuckers.  It's how the game was meant to be played.

Except watching a pitcher hit is the most cringe-worthy part about professional baseball. Tradition is all well and good, but that shit is hideous.

[jaydub]

Except watching a pitcher hit is the most cringe-worthy part about professional baseball. Tradition is all well and good, but that shit is hideous.

So whose fault is this?  Why don't they put in the time to get better?  They're a bunch of lazy bastards, thats why.  No one expects them to hit well, they get paid either way, so they eat seeds in the bullpen and work once every 3 days.

[JorgeFabregas]

Robbie Alomar?