You know, now that I've had a day to digest the exciting fact that my favorite baseball player is going to be inducted into the Hall of Fame, I've been thinking about the circumstances surrounding this particular year's ballot class.

A number of players included on the ballot this year have the taint of performance-enhancing substances on them. A number of the players are admitted steroid users (Ken Caminiti, Jose Canseco), and others are suspected or accused (Mark McGwire being the specific player everyone is focusing on). At least two sportswriters who received ballots to cast (and there are some 500 ballots cast) chose to leave the entire ballot blank in what they felt was a protest against the nearly unchecked use of steroids in major league baseball during the late 80's and early 90's. Fine, if you really feel the need to make the statement. But a number of people, some athletes, others fellow sports writers, and a whole lot of fans, are ticked off at the perceived snub to Tony Gwynn and Cal Ripken, Jr., the two athletes selected to the Hall this year. Both received enough votes to have two of the top ten voting percentages of all time, with Ripken 3rd and Gwynn 7th. But especially Ripken was close to being the first person voted into the Hall unanimously. Many people are angry at these two sports writers who turned in blank ballots because they feel it's an insult to those two players, neither of whom is likely to have used performance-enhancing drugs during their careers (I mean, if you look at Cal Ripken, yeah, he played in several thousand consecutive games, but he's a little skinny dude first of all, and secondly steroid users often end up with horrific injuries because they push their bodies beyond what the human body is capable of handling; Ripken wouldn't have survived that many games as a user. And Gwynn? I love the guy, but the only performance enhancers he's used have been Twinkies and tacos. I mean, look at the guy, even when he was in his prime. No 'roids there.)

I on the other hand am not necessarily angry at these two sports writers. I think there are better ways to make a statement, but OK. What I want to know is, who are the other two or three numbnuts who didn't vote for Ripken and Gwynn? WTF? What were they thinking?

Nick Canepa of the San Diego Union-Tribune made some good points over the weekend (before the results were in):

I never will vote for McGwire. Others will. They'll leave him off the first ballot “to teach him a lesson.” What lesson? Unless he owns up – and my Ouija Board says he won't – there never will be proof that he did or didn't, because baseball had no testing policy during the infamous Steroid Era.

There is at least one writer who won't vote for Gwynn or Ripken because they performed during the Steroid Era. I haven't spent much time around Ripken, but if Gwynn took steroids, then I'm Charles Dickens.

Besides, if you don't vote for a player on the first ballot, what makes him viable the next time? Have his numbers improved? Some Hall voters I just don't get, probably because they're sportswriters.

What the hell do we know? We seem convinced McGwire and Barry Bonds did steroids and yet we're basically positive Ken Griffey Jr., the most skilled player of his generation, is clean. I believe he is. But what the hell do I know?

Anyway, Gwynn and Ripken will be layups when this year's Hall class is announced tomorrow. But they will not be unanimous choices. No player has been. Not Mays, not Ruth, not Gehrig, not Aaron, not DiMaggio, not Clemente. Imagine, getting a Hall ballot with Willie Mays' name on it and telling yourself: “I'm going to pass on Willie this time around.”

Idiots.

The Gwynn and Ripken numbers, of course, are impeccable. Gwynn led the National League in batting eight times, had a .338 lifetime batting average, 3,141 hits, won five Gold Gloves and 15 times was an All-Star. Ripken had 3,184 hits, 431 home runs, won two Gold Gloves, made 19 consecutive All-Star appearances and smashed Gehrig's impossible record by playing in 2,632 consecutive games. And he played shortstop. Phenomenal.

That they chose to stay home for their entire careers is a tribute to their loyalty and love for their cities. Several times during his career, Gwynn could have gone elsewhere, for far more money, but chose to remain in San Diego, the city he adopted following a two-sport career at San Diego State.

That they did this may be more remarkable than their numbers.

Hear, hear.