Baseball got it "right"

Hard to be thinking about baseball with the temperatures below freezing, and occasionally below zero,  and snow/ice on the ground.  But then Spring Training is only about 38 days away.  Baseball is on my mind today simply because, this year least, the baseball writers association got the Hall of Fame selection right.  On Wednesday, it was announced that Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine and Frank Thomas were the players elected this year to the Baseball Hall of Fame.  This was the first year of eligibility for all three.

 

One other player, Craig Biggio, missed the selection by a mere .2 percent of the vote.

Managers Bobby Cox, Joe Torre and Tony LaRussa were voted in last month.  The actual induction into the Hall will be in July for all six new inductees.

One of the interesting facts is that both Maddux and Glavine played for Cox during their careers.

A reason I'm happy with the selections is that they represent to "good" in baseball.  They were the type of role models that dads' pointed out to their sons.  None of the famous, or is it infamous, steroid era players, notably Roger Clemens, Barry Bonds and Sammy Sosa, three of those eligible, even came close.  In fact, the percentage of votes for each actually was lower than last year.  Manny Ramirez will be eligible next year and it'll be interesting to see if he makes it.

 

Just 38 days from Thursday, we'll be watching the current crop of players to see who will grow into that HofF status down the road.

 

I have a TV Question not related to baseball.  Did the producers of CBS's NCIS swap Ziva (Cote DePablo) for new writers?  I am rapidly losing interest in what was one of my favorite network shows.  The loss of Ziva is dramatic and the new story lines are terrible.  That's one fan's humble opinion.

 

The Maine Legislature is back in session.  It's going to be an interesting session as the war between the Democrats and Republicans with Gov. LePage is already on a short stick.  Welfare reform, which this state very badly needs, and adding people to the Medicaid rolls, which states that have already done the expanding have discovered is extremely costly.  I'm still afraid we're all going to find this "affordable health care" enacted by Congress is going to be very far from affordable for many of us.  I think we'll begin to see the costs when paychecks begin to arrive this week.

 

That cold weather is beginning to call it quits.  Our temperatures should be reaching into the 40s here in the Greater Portland area of Maine by this weekend.  And the January thaw could continue into next week.

Dave