The Other "Hawk"

It's time once again for the annual, "Get Pissed Off About the Baseball Hall Of Fame Voting Results" ceremony. Not too much to get mad about this year however. Bert Blyleven and his 60 career shutouts once again got the shaft, and Roberto Alomar apparently still is serving his penance for spitting in John Hirschbeck's face. Both will get in next year though. Other than that, the voters actually tried to be somewhat consistent with this years lone player enshrinee Andre Dawson. I'll explain momentarily...

Please understand, that if The Beard had his way, he would kick people out of the baseball hall of fame, that have already been enshrined. The Hall should be for the very minuscule elite players that played the game. Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Joe DiMaggio, Cy Young, Willie Mays, Walter Johnson, Ted Williams, Henry Aaron, Frank Robinson, Tris Speaker, Mickey Mantle, Warren Spahn, Greg Maddux, and not too many more after that. Everyone else can pretty much take a hike because they don't belong among those types of elite players. Since this is not realistically possible though, we'll deal with the reality of the situation as it currently stands.

The Beard has long felt that Jim Rice and Andre Dawson were not great players, but just really good for a long time, with flashes of greatness scattered in between. Andre Dawson however, was clearly a better player than Jim Rice both in terms of power (438 Homers for Dawson, 382 for Rice), Gold Gloves (8 for Dawson, 0 for Rice), and base stealing (Dawson stole 314, Rice stole 58). Couple that with Dawson winning his lone MVP award on a last place 1987 Cubs team. The most impressive part about Dawson is that he is one of three players ever to have over 400 home runs and 300 stolen bases. The other two, are two guys named Barry Bonds and Willie Mays.

So since they put Jim Rice in, logically they would have to put Dawson in, and they did the right thing today. So congrats to Andre Dawson. He is one of the very few Cubs The Beard always respected over the years, and it's good to see him get recognition for his achievements.

Cubs Are "Cancer Free"

As we are all aware by now, the Cubs found a taker for Milton Bradley. As my astute cousin pointed out, the Cubs are now "cancer free", and I couldn't agree with him more. The details are as follows : Mariners get Bradley and the rest of his $30 million dollar dumb contract, in return for Carlos Silva and the rest of his $48 million dollar dumb contract, and an additional $9 million bucks from the Mariners, for in essence $6 million bucks in salary relief.

Reaction has, believe it or not been mixed, due to some observers actually being worried about Silva and his retarded contract. Sure, it's a lot of money for a bum pitcher. Silva is known for not walking anybody and pitching to contact too, and he still has a career ERA OF 4.72. It's expected that number would go up even higher in the National League where he would have to throw more fastballs.

In this blog's view however, none of that matters. It doesn't matter if Silva's arm falls off and he never pitches again, it's still a great deal for the Cubs, and a pointless deal for the Mariners. First of all, it was a foregone conclusion the only way Bradley was going anywhere is if the Cubs took on a bad contract from someone else. That was unavoidable. It turns out that Silva's bad contract plus some $ from Seattle was the bad contract they could live with.

Secondly, Silva will never :

1. Run the risk of constant ejections
2. Have near assaults of umpires
3. Have cry-baby tirades to the media of how he thinks the world is out to get him
4. Accuse his fans of making racial taunts without having the testicular fortitude to get into specifics
5. Speak of the "negative culture" that supposedly permeates the Cubs organization
6. Have to be given the "JUST GET THE F*CK OUTTA HERE" type of suspension from Jim Hendry.

In other words, Silva is not nearly the cancer on a stick that Bradley is. Cubs Nation should have a little more pep in their step knowing they will not have to put up with this jackass anymore. Seattle on the other hand, after making some very bold moves recently, might have derailed their own cause with this move. It's only a matter of pressure and time before Mount Bradley erupts, and even in a placid city like Seattle, he still will find a way to ruin a great situation.