Rant #3,059: Fame

Today, I am going to talk about what a “Hall of Fame” actually means, and not the diluted versions that we are presented with each year by the sports and music community.

I am going to pinpoint my talk around the Baseball Hall of Fame, which like the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, is more about politics than the areas that they cover.

Scott Rolen was an excellent player during his career, and yes, there are not many third basemen that are in the HoF, but his election to these supposedly hallowed halls demonstrates once again that the Hall of Fame has become a Hall of Very Good Players, and little more.

His election makes me wonder how a player like Don Mattingly is not in the HoF, and don’t get me started on Carlos Beltran.

And how did Mr. PED, David Ortiz, slip into the HoF?

‘Nuf said about the Baseball Hall of Fame, and we have the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame nominations coming up, and they make their baseball counterparts look like a day at the park when you consider that many of the nominees have as much to do with rock and roll as Topo Gigio does.

Why do we need Halls of Fame anyway?

I can see if legitimate personalities were in there, and yes, over the years, both Halls of Fame have put in the right people, but over the generations, this list of inductees has been completely watered down, much of the time by politics.

Certainly, the PED and cheating scandals have greatly impacted the Baseball HoF, but when you do not have your top home run hitter (Barry Bonds), your top hits leader (Pete Rose), one of the greatest hitters that ever lived (Shoeless Joe Jackson) and one of the greatest pitchers of all time (Roger Clemens) in a facility celebrating the greatest players ever, it is hard to imagine that these players are not in there, scandals or no scandals.

And the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, in its desire to draw advertising dollars to its telecasts, has pretty much forgotten its vow to put in those acts who greatly influenced others, and a HoF without Chubby Checker, Lesley Gore, The Monkees, Paul Revere and the Raiders, Tommy James and the Shondells, The Turtles and a whole bunch of other acts is no Hall of Fame at all.

I have actually been to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York—twice—and it is a magical place, where you can actually see and learn about the greatest players of all time, including Babe Ruth, Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, Joe DiMaggio … what a great lineup of athletes are in this HoF.

But then you get some others, who I will not name, and well, you really have to wonder what politicking got them in there.

They were all fine players, but fine is quite different from the historic game changers I mentioned above.

I have never been to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio, and I probably will never go there.

That place has become anything but “Rock and Roll” over the years, and for every Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Beatles, Rolling Stones and the like, you have artists who have absolutely nothing to do with rock and roll … so why even name the place “The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame?”

A lot of that disparity has to do with Rolling Stone publisher Jan Wenner, who had his likes and dislikes, and put them on the heads of those who voted for acts for admission.

But he no longer has such a pull on the voters—supposedly—so you would think that the nominations would reflect that, but they simply don’t.

It is all about politics in both of these Halls, and it takes away from the primary purpose of each of them, which is not only celebration, but education.

I mean, how can you have Joan Jett in there—twice yet—and not have Lesley Gore as an inductee?

It makes absolutely no sense at all, but again, like the Baseball Hall of Fame, politics rule the list of nominees and the list of inductees each and every year.

I used to get all fired up about these two Halls of Fame and who was nominated, but apart from today’s Rant, I haven’t spoken much about it in recent times.

I mean, why bother?

Neither Hall of Fame listens to the public when they make their decisions about who should be in these two HoFs, respectively, so what do I have to say that has any weight over anything they decide to do?

How many petitions do I have to sign to get a particular act into the HoF, and truly, why bother when the HoF doesn’t pay the least bit of attention to these fan-based exercises in futility to begin with?

Both Halls of Fame have their respective agendas, and they follow them to the letter … almost basking in the fact that once it is known who is going in and who isn’t, it spurs controversy that goes on for weeks and sometimes months—until the newest list of nominees and eligible performers is released.

However, I can shake my head over their choices, and I still do that, but then I move on from it, because it really doesn’t matter.

I have been going to baseball games and been a fan since I was seven years old or so, so what do I know about baseball?

Heck, I have 10,000 records in my collection, so what do I know about rock and roll?

Nothing at all, and I do mean nothing, according to both Halls of Fame … and that is just plain wrong, wrong and wrong.