On the Hall of Fame and Critical Race Theory
Yes, you read that correctly
I would like to preface this discussion about the Baseball Hall of Fame as well as Critical Race Theory (CRT) by explaining two major things:
I’m not truly knowledgeable about baseball except as a longtime fan of the San Francisco Giants and many years (since ended) of playing fantasy/rotisserie baseball
I’m not remotely an expert in Critical Race Theory
So, those are two fairly large disclaimers.
That said, as CRT goes, the main argument against schools discussing the history of slavery and how racism plays a major part in our history is that it’s biased and it’s inappropriate for children to be learning things that are negative about America. (Note: The discussion about CRT is largely a head fake and a political argument because it’s a college level curriculum, and not being taught in grade schools anywhere. College students can choose their own courses, so this is completely made up as an argument for Fox News and others to stoke fear. Good stuff.)
But I thought about CRT the other day when the annual discussion about who is going to be elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame came up. And several people stand by their refusal to vote for anyone associated with steroids, or of course for Pete Rose (long since past the voting stage) because he admitted to betting on baseball.
Any Hall of Fame - a museum dedicated to a sport and the very best who played it - that steadfastly refuses to elect players who were clearly, without doubt, some of the very best to ever play, is a farce.
What’s more, it’s a completely grey area. I’m not here to suggest that the fact Barry Bonds never failed a drug test means he didn’t do steroids - I’m as convinced that he did as anyone else. But I’m also not convinced that players folks state never did - guys like Jeff Kent, Curt Schilling, Ken Griffey, Chipper Jones - for sure did NOT do steroids. In fact, I assume they did. Why? Because these are the most hyper-competitive humans and most of them do absolutely anything to compete.
But again, that’s not what this post is about.
It’s that refusing to put these guys into the Hall of Fame is the same approach as folks who don’t want CRT taught in schools. It’s hiding from our history, an ostrich with its head in the sand. And putting horse-blinders on doesn’t mean that most of the late 1980s and 1990s were positively riddled with guys taking performance-enhancing drugs, nor that it was largely known and even encouraged by MLB.
Elect the best hitter (Bonds) and pitcher (Roger Clemens) of their generation. Put the steroid allegations on their plaques. (For the record, while Bonds was one of my favorite players of all time, Clemens is easily in the top-3 of my most hated players of all time. But there’s no denying his greatness.)
In fact, create a wing of the Hall of Fame talking about PEDs, about drugs in baseball, Pete Rose’s issues, etc. It’s not celebrating these misdeeds, but acknowledging them and ensuring that we understand the sins of our past, so that we don’t commit them in the future.