Sports Then and Now

Andre Dawson finally earned induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame in his ninth year of eligibility.

After a far longer than deserved wait due to the over-inflation of statistics during baseball’s “Steroid Era”, Andre “The Hawk” Dawson has finally earned his rightful place in the Baseball Hall of Fame. Dawson received 77.9% to eclipse the needed 75 percent mark and earn induction in his ninth year on the ballot.

The news was not as joyful for perennial bridesmaid Bert Blyleven or for first-time nominee Roberto Alomar as they both were tantalizingly close to earning induction. Blyleven earned 74.2% of the vote (five  votes short of induction) while Alomar received 73.7% (eight short).

Dawson will join former Chicago Cubs teammate Ryne Sandberg, who made a staunch case for Dawson’s selection during his own Hall of Fame induction in 2005. He also joins former Montreal Expos teammate Gary Carter as prominent former Expos in the Hall of Fame.

During his 21 major league seasons, Dawson hit 438 home runs, drove home 1,591 runs and stole 314 bases. He is one of only three players in major league history (Willie Mays and Barry Bonds are the others) with more than 400 home runs and 300 stolen bases.

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After 22 seasons and 303 wins, Randy Johnson has announced his retirement.

The day before the 2010 class of the Baseball Hall of Fame is announced, flame-throwing lefthander Randy Johnson has announced his retirement from baseball after a career that will unquestionably culminate with a trip to Cooperstown.

While there is no guarantee that a player will be selected for the Hall of Fame when the 2010 voting is announced tomorrow (Wednesday), Johnson will be one of those no-brainer selections that make the Hall of Fame committee happy.

The most dominant pitcher in the game for a significant stretch of his career, Johnson used his 6-foot-10-inch frame to intimidate and dominate hitters for nearly 20 years.

Originally drafted by the Montreal Expos, Johnson was sent to Seattle in a 1989 trade for Mark Langston.

As it turned out, Johnson became the dominant left-hander the Expos thought they were getting with Langston.

Johnson teamed with Ken Griffey Jr. to give the Mariners two of the best players in baseball during the 1990s.

His first standout season came in 1993 when Johnson went 19-8 and finished second in the Cy Young voting. By 1995, Johnson was unquestionably the top lefthander in the American League.
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Albert Pujols was the toast of the league during the last decade.

The most prevalent storyline in Major League Baseball during the decade wasn’t a player or even a team. Instead, the subject of steroids dominated the decade. There were so many of the best players of the era linked to performance enhancing drugs that no player was above scrutiny.

For that reason, selecting the best players of the decade is a very difficult challenge. Alex Rodriguez and Barry Bonds posted statistical seasons that rank among the best of all time, yet Rodriguez has admitted to using a PED and Bonds is under federal indictment for supposedly lying about his use of drugs.

Because I have no true idea which players actually have used PEDs, I chose not to make potential use a major factor in selecting this list. Instead, it was a secondary factor in where a couple of the players on this list were ultimately placed.

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Below is my top 10 list of the best Major League Baseball players of the decade:
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The Mets didn't have a lot to cheer about in 2009.

Like all loyal and lifetime New York Mets Fans 2009 will certainly go down in Mets history as the most injury plagued season in their entire 48 seasons of National League play. Everybody knows that every member of “The Core” players were down for various amounts of time during the season and if the core played together for ten games all season long that would probably be an exaggeration.

Dirt was thrown at everybody from the ownership down to and through the medical staff, the Minor League organization and most obviously the Manager Jerry Manuel and the General Manager Omar Minaya . Nobody was as critical of these two so called professionals than me. I gave them some credit for their valiant try to finish on top in 2008 and even went so far to say that the team overachieved in getting down to the last day to decide their fate for the playoffs.

I wrote at least four articles on websites for the Mets to resign Pedro Martinez. Their rotation was a disaster coming out Spring Training and although I like and enjoy the World Baseball Classic it’s timing last year couldn’t have been worse for the Mets as 17 players left camp to play for their countries. Was it a big surprise that so many of those players who did go to the WBC come down with critical injuries during the season? I will address the WBC situation at another time. Read the rest of this entry →

For many Mets fans, the franchise low-point occurred with the trade of Tom Seaver to the Cincinnati Reds in 1977.

1974 was a big transition year for me. For the first time in my 29 years I was venturing out of the safety net of the New York City, Connecticut, and New York State area and venturing into new uncharted Philadelphia Phillies territory down the New Jersey Turnpike to Exit 4 better known to most as Cherry Hill.

We actually didn’t live there but close enough so that when people asked me where I lived that was the most recognizable. Later, after just a few months there, it became simply known as South Jersey which in reality is a state all of its own.

Unlike North Jersey that has a healthy selection of New York Mets fans, in 1974 there was only one New York Met fan in South Jersey. Me, and here I was starting a new job, in a new area still only 90 miles away that seemed like another continent.

South Jersey starts just below Trenton, goes east to the Jersey Shore to Seaside Heights, and south to Cape May. It is completely 100% Philadelphia fans in every sport out there and maybe some time somewhere in the future during football season I will tell a similar story about the Eagles, but for this series the Phillies ultimately play a pivotal role in my life. Read the rest of this entry →

Whitey Herzog led the St. Louis Cardinals to the 1982 World Series title and won three pennants with the Cardinals.

Regardless of what happens with the general election in January, there is guaranteed to be a 2010 Class for the Baseball Hall of Fame. The selection today of former manager Whitey Herzog and longtime umpire Doug Harvey adds two more colorful characters to the Hall of Fame. However, another colorful character, former Union leader Marvin Miller, failed to earn selection.

The continued snub of the man who brought baseball salaries out of the Stone Age is disappointing, but not surprising. At age 92, Miller has been tantalizingly close to Hall of Fame induction for many years, but while he receives strong support from players, others seem intent on keeping him out of Cooperstown.

Sadly, I expect Miller is destined for a fate similar to that of former manager Leo “The Lip” Durocher, who was purposely held out of the Hall of Fame by grudge holding sportswriters until following his death.

Given Miller’s feisty personality – he wrote a letter in 2007 discouraging his selection into the Hall of Fame because he felt it was too little too late – if his selection comes following his death I can see him having a letter read at the ceremony declining the honor. Read the rest of this entry →