Thursday, February 3, 2011

Why is Jon Heyman a respected writer?

I was looking into my archives for something, and found a reply I sent to him on this article.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/writers/jon_heyman/12/20/hall.blyleven/index.html

Why I didn't cast a Hall of Fame vote for Bert Blyleven, again.

I kind of enjoy reading articles by writers who show their ignorance in defending their positions.

This was my reply, which of course I never got a response too.

I'm amused that you would claim that Jack Morris was the "Ace" of 3 World Series  teams. In 1984, Dan Petry had a better season, and Willie Hernandez won the Cy Young AND the MVP as a reliever. Clearly Morris was only the 3rd best pitcher on his own team.
In 1991 with the Twins,  both Kevin Tapani and Scott Erickson had better seasons than Morris, and Rick Aguilera in the bullpen was far more important to the team. And in 1992 with the Jays, only amazing run support gave Morris a good record, and Jimmy Key, Juan Guzman, Tom Henke and Duane Ward were all much better pitchers that season. Morris was no help at all in the post season for that team.


You also give Morris credit for pitching to the score, yet you fail to do that for Blyleven. You denigrate Blyleven because he didn't win enough games, while at the same time pointing out that his W/L was better than the teams he played on. And to suggest he's not a HOF due to "impact"? How exactly does one measure "impact"? Seriously, that's a laughable statement.


I think you prove that you don't know what you're doing by the fact that you voted for Dave Parker 15 times.
I'm glad Byleven got in despite writers like yourself who don't have a clue. And I'm glad that Parker never got in, and hopefully won't from the veteran's committee. 


And you know what? You can't write off guys for steroids. Why? Because then you have to go back and look at all the of the guys who had weird seasons. Like Ryne Sandberg for hitting 40 home runs. Like Dennis Eckersley for magically becoming a super reliever with Oakland. You know, that same Oakland with Canseco and McGwire and Rickey Henderson....yeah, he's another PED user. And if the only reason Clemens pitched well into his 40's was PED's, well then what about Nolan Ryan? Who is there to say that he didn't do a little more than pop advil?


Face it, throughout baseball history players have used illegal and illicit substances to get an advantage, whether those substances be steroids or amphetamines or what have you.


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