By Punch N. Judy
BaseballBigMouth.com baseball news 

Maybe you didn’t notice, but the boys here at Baseball Bigmouth, renegades that we are, treated the recent Hall of Fame inductions with basically a collective yawn.

Sure it was a record crowd on hand in Cooperstown, estimated to be in excess of 75,000, but looking past the whole Iron Man thing, The Heckler and I could just never reconcile ourselves with this alleged Cal Ripken Jr. “greatness” and — in fact – putting it quite simply, feel him to be the most overrated ball player who ever laced up a pair of spikes.

Without going too in depth with career numbers that were as mediocre as the man’s range, I will only say that if you are insulted enough to check out Baseball Reference.com, make sure to have your calculator on hand, ready to punch the divide button when tabulating those career stats. When you figure out that he averaged 276. at the plate with around 20 HR’s and 80 RBI’s over a 20 year career, I hope you come to realize just how important the Streak was to this guy’s Hall candidacy.

Make sure to check out the fielding stats as well, where Ripken somehow wrangled a pair of Gold Gloves in the early 90’s, the first one most likely to justify the MVP votes that writers absentmindedly punched after Cecil Fielder posted 44 homers along with 133 RBI in 1991. Finally, don’t forget to scroll down to those playoff numbers where Ripken despite the 336. BA, drove in a paltry eight runs with one HR over 28 games. We’re not exactly talking Kirk Gibson here folks.

While it’s generally thought that Ripken was one of the game’s perennial good guys, truth is he was much more Eddie Murray than fellow 80’s icon Kirby Puckett. In fact, when the O’s late 90’s resurgence brought several new veterans into the fold, many were shocked at how aloof Ripken was as a teammate. Is the separate hotel room on the road and the car that he drove in behind the team bus any different than Barry Bonds sitting in his infamous recliner before home games?

Don’t get me wrong here; Ripken does belong in the Hall. I left out comparisons to Pee Wee Reese and the Scooter and didn’t even once bring up how Alan Trammel was most certainly the best shortstop of that era. It’s just that when it’s all said and done the Hall of Fame’s selection process is dubious at best and completely unfair at worst. Ask  guys like Goose Gossage, Jack Morris, and Jim Rice to name a few.

For those who love Cal Ripken and disagree with the opinions above, I must tell you this: You’re lucky it was me and not The Heckler who chose to roast this fowl bird.

Clown of the Week – It’s a tie. Cal Ripken and Tony Gwynn. While these two cornbread eating bozos were basking in their HOF inductions, neither made mention of today’s MLB, which is thriving with record attendance figures and at long last, TV ratings. If they were such role models some sort of opinion on the present and future would have been appropriate.

Quote of the Week – “When I came over here all I heard was that it was the stronger league with amphetamines all over the clubhouse. All I found was Michelob Dry.” – Dan Quisenberry in 1987. (And here you thought the drug problem was breaking news - Punch)

Editor’s note - Baseball and Eggs will appear every Thursday, and serves as a form of self–therapy for this clinically insane baseball fan. The baseball part is self–explanatory. The eggs however, could pertain to just about anything on Punch’s mind from Thursday to Thursday.

CLICK HERE to read what Baseball Big Mouth thinks of Tony “The Town Drunk” LaRussa

CLICK HERE to read about Boras’ proposed Best-of-Nine World Series

CLICK HERE to read about former Detroit Tiger/New York Yankee Cecil Fielder’s latest gig

CLICK HERE to read what Baseball Big Mouth’s really thinks about ESPN’s Joe Morgan

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 2nd, 2007 at 4:01 pm and is filed under Baseball History, Baseball and Eggs, Baseball News and Views, Baseball. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.