While I think Schilling may have to wait a few years I think he’s done enough to deserve a spot

While I think Schilling may have to wait a few years, I think he’s done enough to deserve a spot in Cooperstown. Gary Sheffield Sheffield, one of the most intimidating hitters in the game for much of the past two decades, has compiled some pretty good career numbers when you consider that he couldn’t string three full seasons together until 1996-98, after he’d already been in the majors for eight years. Now he’s within striking distance of 500 home runs and 1,600 RBI with a .915 career OPS.Of course, he’s had to deal with plenty of steroid allegations, and perhaps more damning, has never been viewed as a stellar teammate. I lived in Los Angeles when he was a Dodger, continually asking to be traded and then rescinding those demands He’s been passed around to seven teams, mostly via trade. Perhaps that’s a byproduct of being thrust into the spotlight as a teenager in 1988.Perhaps because of his injury history, he’s only been an All Star three times. But if his absurd bat speed can help him eclipse 500 home runs and he can overcome the steroid allegations, he might just have enough juice (no pun intended) to work his way in. John Smoltz The member of the great Braves trio of starting pitchers who actually had overpowering stuff has reinvented himself twice and continues to be an upper-echelon pitcher even into his forties.

He was the most intimidating of the three on the mound (at least until he took off his hat and revealed his bald dome), and the only one who could rear back and simply blow hitters away. He only won 20 games once, his Cy Young season of 1996, but has 210 for his career, and this after becoming one of the best closers in the National League for a three-year span from 2002-04 before re-converting to the rotation.He accumulated 155 saves in those three-plus years. He has over 3,000 career strikeouts against less than 1,000 walks. While his career numbers may be lower than his teammates, he was just as memorable and effective a pitcher for a team that has made the postseason (October stats: 15-4, 2.70 ERA) practically every year of his career.

It would be just if he, Maddux, and Glavine can all enter on the same ballot. Frank Thomas The Big Hurt was being talked about as a first-ballot cinch ten years ago, after becoming the first hitter ever to compile at least a .300 average, 20 home runs, 100 RBI, 100 runs, and 100 walks for seven consecutive seasons (Ted Williams did it for six), picking up AL MVP honors in 1993 and 1994 along the way. After that, of course, he had trouble staying healthy, but still put together huge years in 2000, 2003, and 2006.There shouldn’t be any steroid questions about him; the former college tight end was always enormous, and struck fear in the hearts of pitchers before even stepping in the box by swinging a huge rusted iron pipe in the on-deck circle. He’s gotten the career numbers (.302/520/1701/.978), and although he may not make it on the first try, he’ll get in shortly after that. Jim Thome Thome, like Thomas, has always been known for being a good hitter with limited defensive skills, but he never really reached the same “Oh my God!” level that Thomas did. Thome has always been somewhat of an all-or-nothing hitter; 919 of his 1,963 hits have gone for extra bases, and he has struck out 2,099 times, good enough for third all-time.He does have a respectable career line of .280/517/1426/.968, but has never won an MVP, and has only been an All-Star twice. Still, he has been a feared hitter for a long time, and his career numbers should get him in at some point. Billy Wagner How does a man that small (5′11″) throw the ball that hard? Wagner has been one of the more intimidating closers in the game since 1997, when he struck out 107 batters in 66-1/3 innings. Only once in his career has his K/9 dipped below 10.0 (an injury-shortened 2000), and that was also the only year his ERA has been north of 3.00.He has 369 career saves, and despite losing five miles per hour off of his best fastball, he can still dial it up to 96-97.

With all that said, however, he’s clearly behind Rivera and Hoffman, and I’m not sure that the Hall voters will put another reliever from this era in. I, however, would, and even if he has to wait out his fifteen years until the Veterans’ Committee elects him, he should get in. . A few weeks ago, I was driving back from seeing my daughter sing at a state competition. She has one of the most beautiful voices, and she has won almost every singing competition she has entered. She even sang for the Queen at the Oklahoma Renaissance Faire.But I’m getting off the subject. On the way back I decided to stop at a Wal-Mart in, of all places, Okmulgee, Oklahoma a little spit of a town here in Okieland.

Oklahoma is full of these small towns whose big claim to fame is that they have a “Super” Wal-Mart.It’s not that this upsets me but it makes me laugh. I came down here from Detroit, a city with a population of two million people as opposed to a whole state of that same population.You measure distance by how long it takes to get somewhere, not by milage. Getting directions from someone is not, “Right at Main Street, left at Cleveland, etc.”It’s more like, “Go down here about a mile and a half and turn left at the first dirt road, and pull into the driveway of the third house. That’s my cousin’s place and he’ll tell you how to get to where you want to be.”Anyway, you get the idea Lovely people but very backwoods. They’re friendly to the 10th degree, and can teach you anything about milking cows.So there I am at Wal-Mart in…Okmulgee, Okieland. I search the store, buy my stuff, and I’m heading back to my car in the parking lot. I guess I either forgot what I was wearing, or just wasn’t really thinking about it, but the most amazing thing happened next.As I am heading to my car, an old junker of a vehicle passes by me in the parking lot searching for a spot and I hear, “GO RED WINGS!!!!!!!!!”Being from Hockeytown, I just didn’t think about where I was or what I was doing, but my automatic reaction was to yell back, “GO WINGS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”Then it hit me like a ton of bricks.