The Hall Of Lame.

Cooperstown, New York. It's a small, quiet town that just so happens to be the home of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, which can be described to those not fully tuned in as Major League Baseball's Promised Land. For every kid who plays catch with his dad in the backyard, for every teenager who takes extra swings in the batting cage in the hope of making his school's varsity, for every minor leaguer who plays his heart out for that call to the majors, and for every member of all 30 professional teams, the dream is the same: to eventually find themselves standing at the podium in Cooperstown on a warm July afternoon, give a speech looking back at their illustrious career, then be presented with a bronze plaque depicting their young, smiling face, to be overcome with the knowledge that they are joining baseball's upper echelon, the exclusive club that will forever mark them as one of the game's greatest, one of the game's best, a Hall of Famer.

But when your dream hinges on how some low-down sportswriter who was never good enough to even crack the surface of playing the nation's pastime on a national stage feels about you, things can get tricky. And all too often, these hypocrites get it wrong.

For the first time since 1996, and for only the 5th time since 1963 (1971, 1965, 1963), sportswriters across the country could not agree on a single player on the actual ballot (Veteran's Committee and Negro League Committee are not considered to be part of the actual ballot, as the players eligible for either one would not be eligible for the one the sportswriters get), and the 2013 Hall of Fame induction ceremonies will see 3 men make into the hallowed Hall: a player (Deacon White) who spent his entire career before the live-ball era (he played from 1871-1890, so OF COURSE we can easily find tangible proof of what a great career he had!), an umpire (Hank O'Day) whose biggest claim to fame is that he made the call in the infamous Merkle's Boner play (which took place in 1908), and an owner (Jacob Ruppert) who might be the most recognizable inductee, as he was the first man to make the Yankees a contender (back in the 1920s).

Give me a minute, I need to catch my breath. This is just such an exciting induction class, don't you think?

Maybe you don't think the top 3 deserve induction (I do), but how could the bottom 3 be denied even in their first year?

By now, my opinion of Bonds' and Clemens' HoF candidacy is common knowledge. They should be inducted into Cooperstown, regardless of how long it takes. Surprisingly, more writers agreed with me than I could have predicted. Here's the voting breakdown that was just released (* notes a player that appeared on the ballot for the first time this year):

Craig Biggio* - 68.2 percent.
Jack Morris - 67.7 percent.
Jeff Bagwell - 59.6 percent.
Mike Piazza* - 57.8 percent.
Tim Raines - 52.2 percent.
Lee Smith - 47.8 percent.
Curt Schilling* - 38.8 percent.
Roger Clemens* - 37.6 percent.
Barry Bonds* - 36.2 percent.
Edgar Martinez - 35.9 percent.
Alan Trammell - 33.6 percent.
Larry Walker - 21.6 percent.
Fred McGriff - 20.7 percent.
Dale Murphy (in his last year of eligibility) - 18.6 percent.
Mark McGwire - 16.9 percent.
Don Mattingly - 13.2 percent.
Sammy Sosa* - 12.5 percent.
Rafael Palmeiro - 8.8 percent.

I don't have to reiterate what I wrote in a long post back in June or July regarding steroid usage and how it should be viewed in relation to the Hall of Fame. If a player has the stats, the longevity, and the notoriety, then to pretend like they never existed, to keep them out of the one place they truly deserve to be in, is to further draw attention to the black eye that PEDs left on this sport. The healing process can't begin if we don't admit that we're sick. And lest we forget, sports fans, PEDS WERE NOT AGAINST THE RULES OF MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL UNTIL 2006. In 1991, commissioner Fay Vincent sent a memo to all (at the time) 26 teams, stating that steroids were against the rules, but that there would be no testing put in place. That's the equivalent of your boss coming up to you and saying, "If you get on Facebook or YouTube at work, you're going to be fired, but we're not going to look at your Internet history or even stop by and look at your screen from time to time." When you tell someone that they can't do something or else they'll get in trouble, and then do ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO PREVENT IT FROM HAPPENING, YOU ARE JUST AS GUILTY AS THEY ARE FOR ALLOWING SOMETHING TO HAPPEN RIGHT UNDER YOUR NOSE. Sportswriters have known longer than the rest of us that steroid usage was running rampant in MLB clubhouses, AND THEY DIDN'T BREATH A FREAKING WORD ABOUT IT FOR ALMOST 15 YEARS. Now, suddenly, they all have this guilty feeling, and they think they're making amends by not allowing Bonds, Clemens, Sosa, McGwire or Palmeiro into the Hall of Fame, when they all deserve to be. There is no way I can be the only person who sees a disgusting, massive problem with that logic.

Does a pitcher who won more games in the 1980s than ANYONE ELSE deserve to have a "statement" made against him?

My friend and fellow blogger just texted me saying that the sportswriters are making a statement by not electing anyone on the ballot this year. And he's right. The statement they're making is "Hey, none of us can keep our personal feelings separate from what is supposed to be impartial judgment, the system doesn't work, and we should all have our voting privileges revoked!" How did Mike Piazza, probably the greatest hitting catcher of all time, not even get 60 percent of the vote? How did Craig Biggio, a man who played 3 positions (catcher, second base and centerfield) that required massive skill AND hit more doubles than any right handed hitter IN HISTORY (668, 5th all time), not get elected? How did Curt Schilling, one of the best postseason pitchers of all time (11-2, 2.23 ERA and 120 strikeouts in October), get just barely more support than the two men this "statement" was supposed to be made for? Did you know that if a sportswriter sends in a blank ballot, then IT STILL COUNTS AGAINST THE PLAYERS ELIGIBLE FOR INDUCTION? Who decided that would make sense? I can't count how many articles I've read over the past 3 months of these smarmy, pencil-neck journalists extolling the virtues of NOT voting for the all-time home run leader and 7-time MVP (Bonds) and a 350-game winner and 7-time Cy Young pitcher (Clemens), while swearing they'd vote for Piazza, Biggio or Schilling, and then turning around and IMMEDIATELY GOING BACK ON THEIR WORD BY NOT DOING IT? By all indications, Piazza, Biggio and Schilling should have all gotten phone calls this morning from Lee Idelson, president of the Hall of Fame, congratulating them for their induction. Hell, all the sportswriters said they'd vote them in. SO WHY DIDN'T ANYONE GET ELECTED THIS YEAR?!

Maybe writing this an hour after the results were announced wasn't a good idea. I'm sure there's plenty of reasons why July 28th, 2013, will basically be just another day in Cooperstown, New York. And there has to be a reason why these high-and-mighty sportswriters felt the need to make a statement that only serves to make them look like bigger clueless morons than before. I don't know about the rest of you, but this just doesn't sit right with me.