Opinion

There was a time not so long ago when the baseball world only thought it revolved around numbers. Players made an average of slightly less than $500,000 a year. The superstars made somewhere around $2.5 million. These figures were considered untenably exorbitant.

Dear Randy,

The first thing I would like to do is to congratulate you on a glorious 22-year career.

If there was ever a player who is certain to be a first-ballot Hall of Famer, you, sir, are the one. There should be absolutely no question in anybody’s mind that you rank among the best in history.

On Wednesday, the writers made a mockery of the baseball Hall of Fame yet again when they left a handful of worthy players out of the hallowed institution. The most notable player left out was Roberto Alomar, who many talking heads have argued is the finest all-around second baseman of all time.

What makes this an even greater shame is that five writers turned in ballots that were completely blank.

In 1937, someone who wasn't very intelligent invented the product pictured above. If it isn't evident from the image or from this article's title, the Baby Cage was meant to give an infant some fresh air by suspending them outside of a window in a wire cage.

Putting a child in a cage is inhumane enough, but hanging that cage dozens of feet above a busy street with nothing holding it up but thin metal rods borders on sadism. 

A big deal has been made about the length of Matt Holliday's contract.  There's certainly a risk that his production could decline after age 35 or that a big injury will hit him.   But this is something the current Cardinals ownership and management have done when they want to lock down a player to be part of their core. 

They've done it with Jim Edmonds, Scott Rolen, Albert Pujols, and technically, Chris Carpenter.  The Cards added five years with an option to the one year with an option remaining on his previous deal.

Congratulations to Andre Dawson for getting into the Hall of Fame, and as always after the Hall of Fame voting a few short sided characters (who seem to know nothing about baseball) start griping that Mark McGwire isn't in the Hall of Fame.

First of all, I want to give a disclaimer that I DO think that he should be in the Hall of Fame...eventually. I think he is deserving of the Hall of Fame simply because even if he used steroids, allegedly, when he hit all of those home runs, the reality is that the pitchers throwing to him were 'roided up too.

What impact does the A's resigning Jack Cust, their main source of power for the past three seasons, have on players like Jake Fox, Eric Chavez, Chris Carter and other DH-eligible players?

What if (and I know it's a huge if) Chavez does comes back next season and is able to at least swing the bat? Or what about the one-in-a-million possibility that Chavez returns to the hot-corner next season? What happens to the newly acquired Fox?

Excessive Politics and Subjectivity in Uneven Voting Process

When someone asks me if so-and-so should be in the National Baseball Hall of Fame, I have always stuck to my rule of thumb:

If you can't say yes in three seconds, the guy doesn't belong.

It's that simple, yet every year we argue about who belongs and who doesn't.

This year, Andre Dawson got in and Roberto Alomar did not. How could that be? How does Dawson get in and Roger Maris and Dale Murphy not?