The Weekday Ramble is a daily dose of sports, music, culture, and more from Rambling On founder Erik Ritland. For more information check us out on Reddit, Twitter, Facebook, or at our website.
Tuesday January 6, 2015
Baseball writers get it right*, the Ramble rolls
MLB + HOF = LOL
The MLB Hall of Fame is a joke. Well, maybe not the Hall itself, but certainly its current induction process.
Every year when ballots go out there's controversy. Some writer that wants attention inevitably says something ridiculous or has a weak rationalization for voting or not voting for someone. It's a yearly circus that raises more questions than answers. Who is worthy of the Hall and why? What does the Hall represent? How important are statistics vs. intangibles?
There aren't definitive answers to any of these questions. One thing is clear, though: the good ol' boy feel of the Baseball Writer's Association is antiquated. Maybe change it to a committee? Or a select group of people with real baseball knowledge? I may not have the answer but I do know that having hundreds of opinionated, bratty writers decide the fate of Hall of Famers is ridiculous.
That being said each of this years inductees - Randy Johnson Jon Smoltz, Pedro Martinez, and Craig Biggio - deserve their place in the Hall. But if hardly dominant players like Smoltz and Biggio belong then so does Jack Morris, the most dominant pitcher of the '80s and important part of three World Series teams. But I digress.
Busy, busy, busy
The last couple weeks have been pretty busy at Rambling On. We began this daily series of blogs in addition to beginning our top 15 albums of 2014 list. Today we released reviews of #9, Americana master Bill Mallonee's Winnowing, and Foo Fighters latter day classic Sonic Highways.
To my surprise my podcast partner Peter Ripka also released a piece today. The title says it all:
Wild Report 1/6/15: Tired, Lackluster, and Downright Awful.
Erik Ritland is a writer and musician from St. Paul, Minnesota. His blog and podcast Rambling On features commentary on music, sports, culture, and more. He is also a contributor for Minnesota culture blog Curious North. Support Erik's music via his Patreon account, reach him via email, or find him on Facebook and Twitter.
RSS Feed
