Amen.
That's absurd. While everybody acknowledges he was the greatest hitting catcher ever, he was penalized for being 1) a poor defensive catcher, and 2) suspected of using PEDs.
As for 1): Yes, he had difficulties in throwing out baserunners. Yet, his catcher's ERA was typically excellent. And lest you dismiss that metric, more sophisticated studies have recently rated him as one of the best ever at blocking pitches and, most significantly, No. 3 all-time in handling pitchers. So his defense, in fact, was actually a positive.
Regarding 2): He never tested positive and wasn't named in the Mitchell Report. Critics are of course entitled to suspect him nevertheless, but to me that suspicion is not nearly enough to indict. That's tantamount to declaring him guilty until proven innocent.
Those Dodger and Met teams had some very good pitching on them. Now sure some guys drafted in the 62nd round have careers so spectacular to warrant HOF consideration... wait, that almost never happens.
I watched Piazza, grew up watching him. I'm a few months older than him in fact. He was really a bad catcher defensively, and played for teams with stellar pitching. With the bat, no doubt he was a force, though his numbers dropped significantly after 2002. And that actually lends credence to him not being a PED user. or if he was, he certainly saw the writing on the wall and quit. But as i said, i don't care if he did. My eyes say he was a bad defensive catcher and most HOF voters probably agree with that. If we are going by his bat alone, Edgar Martinez says hi.
Dubito Ergo Cogito Ergo Sum.
[Phil ] Castellini celebrated the team's farm system and noted the team had promising prospects who would one day be great Reds -- and then joke then they'd be ex-Reds, saying "of course we're going to lose them". #SellTheTeamBob
Nov. 13, 2007: One of the greatest days in Reds history: John Allen gets the boot!
Are the writers calling these guys cheaters the very same writers who voted in Gaylord Perry?
...the 2-2 to Woodsen and here it comes...and it is swung on and missed! And Tom Browning has pitched a perfect game! Twenty-seven outs in a row, and he is being mobbed by his teammates, just to the thirdbase side of the mound.
Can it be proven (writers knew)? It is a two-way street though. Perhaps the writers did not know during those players' careers (do you have proof that says otherwise, if so please share). Of course we all hear the defenders of these players say there is no proof that they did PEDs. You say the writers knew at the time. But many fellow defenders of these players say there is no proof. Can "the defenders" have it both ways?!?
But letting the writers decide these things has always been a bad idea IMO.
Any system that excludes Mike Piazza from the Hall of Fame is a joke. He is not a proven PED user to my knowledge and his performance on the field absolutely is Hall of Fame caliber.
Now we have baseball writers as judge, jury, and executioner based on public speculation about steroid use.
I just saw a panel on ESPN say the "system worked." Not it didn't.
What frustrates me is that the writers are punishing both the power hitters(and power pitcher) who they suspect used steroids because their numbers are "juiced" but they're also punishing top of the order hitters like Lofton, Trammel, and Raines because their numbers weren't out of this world great when compared to the "juiced" numbers of their contemporaries.
...the 2-2 to Woodsen and here it comes...and it is swung on and missed! And Tom Browning has pitched a perfect game! Twenty-seven outs in a row, and he is being mobbed by his teammates, just to the thirdbase side of the mound.
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