The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum is a victim and a beneficiary of circumstances beyond its control, whether it’s the vagaries of the players, trends or rules or Major League Baseball or the wrong-headedness of the baseball writers who vote on which players to enshrine in Cooperstown.
But there is one thing the hall does independently control: How it presents the past and present of the game.
For years, I’ve asked President Jeff Idelson when the Hall of Fame would tell the story of the Steroids Era. It will come, he said. Time must pass to put the tale in historical context, he said.
Time has passed. And the story is being told.
The hall’s performance-enhancing drug display is part of a new exhibit that opened Saturday. “Whole New Ballgame” covers baseball from 1970 to present, and lays waste to one of the most common myths in sports: Baseball is a constant.
“A lot of people have the misconception that baseball doesn’t change,” senior curator Tom Shieber said Monday. “In actuality, it’s been changing a lot. . . . Whether PEDs or free agency or instant replay, which is in its infancy, there are significant changes.”
In the performance-enhancing drugs display, artifacts from Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire are prominent, as is the timeline of key events from the era. Noted is how steroids severely damaged baseball’s reputation — and also fueled the home-run binge that restored the game’s popularity following the 1994-95 strike.
A Faustian bargain, indeed. Was it worth it? You decide.
Because PEDs as an issue remain so fresh, so annual, with the doors to Cooperstown locked to Clemens and McGwire and Sosa and Bonds, you would think it had to be the most dominant issue to arise in the years covered by this exhibit that includes interactive displays, artifacts and even fan-generated tweets on hot topics ranging from PEDs to Pete Rose and the designated hitter.
Look closer.
Were PEDs a bigger change agent to the game than free agency? That player movement altered the fundamental structure of the big leagues.
How about the influx of money in general to baseball thanks in large part to fat local TV contracts? Here are some stunning figures:
The New York Yankees were worth $645 million in 2000. The number today: $3.2 billion.
The Tampa Bay (Devil) Rays were worth $150 million in 2000. The number today: $625 million.
That’s right: The most money-starved team in baseball is worth roughly what the richest franchise was worth just 15 years ago.
PEDs — which also includes amphetamines (which actually predate 1970 in baseball) — certainly skewed numbers. But more so than the introduction of the designated hitter? How about the abrupt rise of the one-inning closer starting in the late 1980s, popularized by Dennis Eckersley?
Without the advent of Tommy John surgery, numerous careers would have been derailed. Where does that fit into the timeline of the post-1970 Era? How about the rise and fall of artificial turf? Expansion? The internationalization of the game?
One of the biggest changes baseball has seen in the past 45 years is a recent development, one the hall dubs “Big Data.” That’s all the specially statistics used in breaking down the game, from WAR and beyond. That information, available to coaching staffs on dugout iPads, is why you see the growing prevalence of ridiculous shifts as seen in the World Series.
(For the love of God, and for the last time: Bunt.)
The new exhibit is certainly worth your time. And the PED portion, at last, puts steroids in context at baseball’s museum. Their rampant use is a blight on many of the game’s historical accomplishments.
But do they define the game over the past 45 years? Believe it or not, no. There was a lot of other things going on in an ever-changing game.
GRIFFEY A LOCK; THIS IS PIAZZA’S YEAR
The hall has released the names of the 15 new candidates on the 2016 Hall of Fame ballot. Book Ken Griffey Jr. being inducted on his first try. He was great — a 630-homer Gold Glover. He was clean. He is in.
The only other name worthy of consideration, and not on the first ballot, is Trevor Hoffman. His 601 career saves and 856 games finished are second only to Mariano Rivera (652, 952).
Which means one thing: Mike Piazza is getting in.
Finally.
The best-hitting catcher in baseball just missed getting in this year, his third on the ballot, earning votes from 69.9 percent of writers — 28 votes shy of induction (the threshold is 75 percent).
There is an outside chance that Houston Astros first baseman Jeff Bagwell (55.7 percent) gets in. But definitely Piazza. And as a New York Met.
If he goes in as a Dodger, forget every nice thing I ever said about the hall.
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