Character matters when you vote for an athlete to be inducted into a Hall of Fame. If it didn’t, we would not be human but mere beasts of the field, snorting for roots in an open field.
As Homo-sapiens, we have the ability to decipher right and wrong, the knowledge of good and evil. What is right for one person is wrong for another but, unless you’re a nihilist, there is a line of right and wrong for all of us.
We make moral judgments every day of our lives and those decisions are different for each and every one of us. But no matter our vocation, no matter our lot in life, no matter our dogma, our morality (or lack thereof) governs the decisions we make.
It is morally reprehensible to vote a convicted serial killer into the Hall of Fame because he won 350-games as a pitcher in the Major-Leagues. Better still, it is sub-human. To do so places greater emphasis on a man’s athletic prowess than on our ability to reason, to think and to be human.
If a man was caught in the act of raping a 12-year-old girl, killed her and threw her body into a river, would you still vote for him to be inducted into the Hall of Fame because he hit 800 home-runs? Please…tell me you wouldn’t. Of course you wouldn’t!
A character line has been drawn, hasn’t it?
If you would vote for Mr. 800 to be inducted into the Hall of Fame, you just put the dignity of humanity under the thumb of some stupid rule that says the Hall of Fame is about what a player did on the field. In fact, that stupid rule just became your moral compass, your god.
In the above example, you would have made a moral decision to ignore the actions of a convicted child-killer in favor of honoring a stupid rule about Hall of Fame credentials being confined to a field or diamond. You would have placed more moral import on adhering to the rules than being human – unless you think killing children isn’t wrong.
And that doesn’t make you feel like a caveman? You can’t see there MUST be a character line – albeit an extreme line?
The Hall of Fame is about what a player did on the field or diamond. But that’s only because we haven’t had a player convicted of some horrific crime while being considered for the Hall of Fame. A player with great character should not be voted in because of said character, but a player that rapes a 12-year-old girl should not be considered based on our ability to know what is evil…and be strong enough to stand and call it as much.
I would never vote a player into the Hall of Fame if he was convicted of some heinous act.
Does that make me a moralist? No, it makes me human.
Comments? Email Us!
Wolf…I absolutely agree that character matters when voting for a hall of famer. Yes, there are people who are in the Hall of Fame that probably should not be there. O.J. Simpson for one, but we know that he was found innocent. (although I think everyone knows he was guilty.) But with Roger Clemens, we have the steroid issue, and now, the Mindy Mcready story on top of that.
There is no doubt that if it comes out that an affair took place at age 15, he is a child predator and if the law won’t take action, then sports fans should. He is a disgrace to baseball and I don’t care how many numbers he accrued, because they all fall back to the steroid issue. I applaud you for voicing your strong opinions on air and I totally agree with you, as does my husband. You are the reason we tune in every morning. Keep up the good work! Sincerly,
Katie Shroyer
This is a hard topic…I was listening to the show when Doug and yourself were discussing this topic, and it took me a while to respond. I’ll keep it short, and Wolf, you’re gonna totally disagree with my take on it. I believe athletic achievments and crimes are 2 seperate entities…if a player accomplished fantastic stats, put him in the hall…if he commited a crime, let him rot in prison. Although I completely agree that rape and murder are not criterea for honorable mention in ANY capacity, but I seperate what occurs on the field, and what someone decides to do OFF the field…the reason I’ve decided on this point of view came on a certain circumstance…say player ‘A’ was voted into a hall of fame. 2 years later, it was found out that he committed some henious crime. The player is convicted, and sent to prison. Do you take him OUT of the hall after he’s been chosen? Yes, I understand your position on this, and I’m NOT putting sports ahead of morality…but the hall is about athletic achievments, and prison is about moral mistakes.