Printer-friendly

Contact Author

August 8, 2005

An Objective Hall of Fame

Part One

by Clay Davenport

Let me start out by saying that I think the idea of a genuine, objectively selected Hall of Fame is the most idiotic idea since the inside the egg shell scrambler.

Then why are you doing a bunch of articles on it, Clay?

Just because I don't think the real Hall of Fame should be chosen in this way doesn't mean that there's no value in having an objectively defined Hall for us to know about. Ideally, you want the Hall to be a mix of objective greatness and subjective fame, which is a lot easier to do if you establish the objective Hall beforehand. Only then are you in a position to mark this guy down, and this guy up, based on everything else--character, personality, off-field contributions, you name it. When we are talking about the highest honor the game has, everything should count. We'll let real people make the final determination, but they should at least be able to start with facts, and then adjust--at least that's the idea.

Now, an objective Hall is going to require a set of rules. Simply taking the top N players in history right now would definitely not be the way to go; like the real Hall, the Objective Hall should evolve, and be based on the players who were available to the real Hall (within reason). I've tried to set these rules up, for the most part, to follow the rules the Hall actually uses, either de jure or de facto. So let's start with the easiest ones.

The objective Hall will start in 1936, the same year the real Hall started.

There will be a maximum of five inductees in any given year, in honor of the five men originally chosen in 1936.