Issue Date: August 14, 2005

SPORTS

Who'll be next in the Hall of Fame?

With the class of '05 inducted, baseball aficionados begin the debate over next year's Cooperstown nominees.

By Tim Wendel

Few clubs are as discriminating as the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y. Since what we now know as Major League Baseball began in 1871, more than 16,000 players have taken the field. Only 195, or about 1%, have been inducted. And no one, not even Babe Ruth or Willie Mays, was a unanimous choice.

So, who should be in? Each year the judges -- seasoned sportswriters -- have to consider star athletes who have been passed over in previous years as well as mull over new nominees. Players become eligible for the Hall of Fame five years after they retire; in 2007, this group will include Mark McGwire, Cal Ripken Jr. and Tony Gwynn.

Baseball's playoffs are now approaching -- a time when the game's greatest stars shine. But which stars of the past are Hall-worthy? To add fuel to the fiery debate, we asked two of the top baseball commentators today to field our hard-hitting questions: Rob Dibble first gained notoriety as a heat-packing relief pitcher -- dubbed one of the Cincinnati Reds' "Nasty Boys" -- and won a World Series championship in 1989. Today, he's part of Fox's "Best Damn Sports Show Period" crew. And Tim Kurkjian is a senior writer for ESPN "The Magazine" and a regular on "Baseball Tonight." Recently, both men chatted with USA WEEKEND Magazine about baseball's Hall of Fame:

What former greats are getting robbed with a Hall of Fame snub?
Dibble: For starters, Jim Rice, Keith Hernandez, Goose Gossage and Bruce Sutter.
Kurkjian: I agree, except for Hernandez. He might be the greatest defensive first baseman of all time, but he doesn't have enough power numbers at that position. When you're playing first base, you're going up against the likes of Jimmie Foxx, who collected 534 career home runs, and Lou Gehrig, who went 13 consecutive seasons with both 100 runs scored and 100 RBIs.
Dibble: C'mon, Tim. Hernandez was an 11-time Gold Glover. He was a league MVP and on two World Series championship teams. He did everything but hit the home runs. There seems to be some kind of bias if you don't have 500 home runs and/or 3,000 career hits. I don't think that's right.

Who's a lock for Cooperstown?
Dibble: Cal Ripken and Tony Gwynn are probably the only guys who are guaranteed to get in. To me, Ripken and Gwynn should be unanimous picks. But they never will be. Nobody in the history of baseball has been a unanimous pick, and that bothers me.
Kurkjian: Willie Mays and Hank Aaron weren't unanimous.
Dibble: And that's crazy, Tim.
Kurkjian: I didn't say it was right. I need somebody to tell me why he didn't vote for Mays the first time he was eligible.
Dibble: Some writers will always make a guy wait. They don't want anybody to be a unanimous choice. But how can you be a Hall of Famer on the fifth or sixth ballot but not the first one? You don't get better after you retire. I find it ridiculous that some writers play that game.
Kurkjian: I agree. You're either a Hall of Famer or you're not.

Is there a bias against relievers?
Dibble: There sure is. Besides Sutter and Gossage, we should be taking a long look at Lee Smith and John Franco, too, because they saved games for a lot of years. But I don't think the voters really appreciate great relievers.
Kurkjian: You were a reliever.
Dibble: Forget about that. But Tim, you have a vote. Explain to me why some of the writers don't value relief pitchers as much as starting pitchers. From the 1970s on, if you didn't have a good closer, you often didn't win a championship.
Kurkjian: The bias is slowly starting to fade now that Dennis Eckersley is in.
Dibble: But what helped him was that he was a starting pitcher, too.
Kurkjian: You're right. Eckersley made it because he was a well-above-average starting pitcher before he went over to the bullpen. Sutter and Gossage were not as efficient, but they're starting to get a little more support now.
Last time we saw Mark McGwire, the former slugger was ducking questions before Congress about steroid usage. Does this guy belong in the Hall?
Dibble: Yes. It's not proven that steroids enhance their game. Mark McGwire brought baseball back after we went on strike in '94. You can't go back and say, "What if?" If you start doing that, Cooperstown would look a lot different.
Kurkjian: I'm voting for him, but if the vote was taken today, I don't think he's getting in.

The Veterans Committee can pick among the older players. If you were on that committee, who would you push?
Kurkjian: I wouldn't be surprised if the Veterans Committee didn't vote in anyone over the next 10 years. That's because they want their club even more exclusive than what the writers want.
Dibble: I'd love to see Shoeless Joe Jackson get in. Enough's been said about the 1919 Black Sox scandal. If his numbers add up, and they do, put him in the Hall. He's been dead long enough.

Tim Wendel is the author of several books, including "The New Face of Baseball" and "Castro's Curveball."