Calling Cooperstown
Here's a vote for Perez, Cepeda ... and Rose and Jackson
Posted: Tuesday August 25, 1998 08:06 PM
ST. LOUIS (CNN/SI) -- It was good to see Don Sutton and Larry Doby
finally make the Baseball Hall of Fame a few weeks back. Sutton's
career (324 victories and 3,574 strikeouts over 23 seasons) was a testament
to consistency and longevity, qualities too often overlooked in this era of
instant gratification. And people forget that Doby, following Jackie
Robinson to the majors by just four months in 1947, faced just as much
racial prejudice - and handled it with the same quiet dignity, winning two
home run titles and an RBI crown along the way. So, this week's
question: Who's still not in Cooperstown who deserves to be? For
starters, there's Tony Perez, probably one of the best clutch hitters ever
to play the game. Look at his numbers. Eleven straight seasons with at
least 90 runs batted in, 379 career homers, not to mention the four
National League pennants the Cincinnati Reds won while
he anchored first base. Everybody still talks about Pudge Fisk's big homer
in Game 6 of the '75 World Series - and justifiably so -- but what about
Perez's two-run shot in the Big Red Machine's 4-3 win in the finale? I know
it bothers Doggie that he's still not in the Hall, and I don't blame him.
Orlando Cepeda may have an even better gripe. The Baby Bull was the
N.L.'s Rookie of the Year in 1958, the Comeback Player of the Year in '66
and the Most Valuable Player in '67, when he helped the St. Louis Cardinals
win the World Series. He batted .300 or better nine times and hit at least
25 homers in eight seasons. But after his career ended, Cepeda served 10
months in prison for smuggling marijuana, and that's hurt his chances -
unfairly, I think. There are plenty of people in the Hall of Fame
who led less than exemplary lives off the field. By all accounts, Ty Cobb
was no prince. And people rarely mentioned the words "babe Ruth" and "Boy
Scout" in the same sentence, either. Cepeda admitted the crime, he did the
time, and now he should be judged for what he did between the lines. By
that criteria, he belongs in Cooperstown.
"Pete is banned from baseball," said Smith. "How much more punishment can he get, being kept away from the thing he loves most?" AP | |
That, of course, brings
us to Pete Rose and Shoeless Joe Jackson. Should they be in? I think so.
No questioning their credentials, Rose the all-time hits king with 4,256,
Jackson second only to Ty Cobb with a .356 career batting average.
They're on the outside looking in solely because of what happened away from
the ballpark. Rose agreed to a lifetime suspension in 1989 after
allegations that he bet on baseball games. Jackson was among eight players
banned for allegedly throwing the 1919 World Series. Rose later went to
prison for income tax evasion, but neither he nor Jackson ever admitted any
wrongdoing in baseball. Pete is banned from baseball. How much more
punishment can he get, being kept away from the thing he loves most? When
people pay their debt to society, if they've got the numbers, they should
go in the Hall of Fame. I think Pete has paid his dues, and one of these
days he'll probably get in. The 6-4-3 with Ozzie Smith:
There's an interesting experiment going on in New York and Los Angeles.
Mets manager Bobby Valentine and Dodgers boss Glenn Hoffman are trying out
six-man pitching rotations. Good or bad? After all, old-timers who
remember Sandy Koufax and White Ford going out there steadfastly every
fourth day think today's pitchers are spoiled by the five-man sets. But it
all depends on managers knowing and properly handling their staffs.
Yes, starters will get an important extra day of rest between starts down
the stretch. But too much rest can backfire, especially for sinkerballers,
who are more effective when they're a little tired. And the six-man
rotation takes a middle reliever away, which can limit a manager's bullpen
options. We'll see what happens.
Ozzie Smith, a 15-time
All-Star, is the baseball analyst for CNN/SI, the 24-hour sports news
network from CNN and Sports Illustrated. His column appears every Monday
exclusively on CNNSI.com.
| 
