I'm Really Beginning To Hate This Guy...

A partial article from Keith Law (partial because I refuse to pay to be an ESPN insider) about the HOF selctions.

I don't have a Hall of Fame ballot -- according to the BBWAA, I don't exist

If only that were true.

-- but if I did, here's who'd be on it.

I'm riveted. Do tell.

Cal Ripken, Jr.: I do agree with the criticism of Ripken's streak -- he probably hurt his team at a few points by his refusal to take a day off --

I'm not going to curse in this blog, I'm just not. But %#$! I hate this argument. I heard it for years. Who was going to come in off the bench, play a great defensive shortstop and produce offensively the way Cal could? These were the Randy Milligan-Leo Gomez-Kevin Bass Orioles. Who was going to outperform him? Bret Barberie? Jeff Huson? Answer me Keith!

-- but he's also one of the five best shortstops in history and changed the way people in baseball think about who can stay at shortstop. (Let's hope that Ripken prominently thanks Earl Weaver in his acceptance speech, as it was Weaver who put Ripken at short, contradicting the conventional thinking that shortstops needed to be small and slight.)

Let's hope? If anyone thinks that Cal will not be gracious and understand who helped him get where he is now, they have not followed the man's career at all. Forget to credit Earl Weaver? Yeah, sure.

I'll be watching you Keith...