I am a native New Yorker who still lives in the NY\/NJ area and I watch the 6 PM News on NBC each evening.\u00c2\u00a0 On Monday, December 6, the sports newscaster announced that George Steinbrenner was not elected to the Hall of Fame \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and that was it.\u00c2\u00a0 No mention that Pat Gillick was elected or any comments about the other candidates on the ballot.\u00c2\u00a0 I thought to myself:\u00c2\u00a0 No wonder non-New Yorkers think of us in a certain way.<\/p>\n
If ever the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153character\u00e2\u20ac\u009d issue was relevant to someone being in the Hall of Fame, it is for Boss George.\u00c2\u00a0 George Steinbrenner was suspended from baseball not once but TWICE.\u00c2\u00a0 And this happened under TWO DIFFERENT COMMISSIONERS.<\/p>\n
Bowie Kuhn suspended Steinbrenner after he pled guilty to conspiring to make illegal contributions to the re-election campaign of Richard Nixon.\u00c2\u00a0 And Fay Vincent suspended him for paying a gambler to dig up dirt on Dave Winfield (a true Hall of Famer).\u00c2\u00a0 Character?\u00c2\u00a0 What is such a person even doing on the ballot for the Hall of Fame?<\/p>\n
We all know that Dick Allen is not in the Hall because of alleged \u00e2\u20ac\u0153character\u00e2\u20ac\u009d issues.\u00c2\u00a0 So, here is my thought.\u00c2\u00a0 If \u00e2\u20ac\u0153character\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is supposed to be a consideration for induction into the Hall of Fame, I believe that the Veterans Committee should adopt the following resolution:\u00c2\u00a0 \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Be it resolved that George Steinbrenner will be considered next for the Hall immediately following the induction of Dick Allen.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
I really enjoyed the quote attributed to Johnny Bench after the election regarding Steinbrenner\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s ability as an owner:\u00c2\u00a0 \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s kind of like, if Glass had $200 million a year in Kansas City, he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d probably be a winner, too.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00c2\u00a0 Amen to that.<\/p>\n
Mike Hoban is professor emeritus of mathematics at City U of NY.\u00c2\u00a0 He is the author of the soon-to-be-available, A GOOD CAWS: The 2011 Hall of Fame Handbook<\/strong>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I am a native New Yorker who still lives in the NY\/NJ area and I watch the 6 PM News on NBC each evening.\u00c2\u00a0 On Monday, December 6, the sports newscaster announced that George Steinbrenner was not elected to the Hall of Fame \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and that was it.\u00c2\u00a0 No mention that Pat Gillick was elected […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,77,19],"tags":[188,12463,12460,12462,2015,5468,12464,445,4200,21230,284,12461,4637,3107,12458,7667,12459,1259,4608,9293],"class_list":["post-9958","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","category-hall-of-fame","category-prof-hobans-hall-of-fame-blog","tag-bowie-kuhn","tag-caws","tag-character-issue","tag-character-issues","tag-dave-winfield","tag-dick-allen","tag-election-campaign","tag-fay-vincent","tag-george-steinbrenner","tag-hall-of-fame","tag-hoban","tag-illegal-contributions","tag-induction","tag-johnny-bench","tag-native-new-yorker","tag-pat-gillick","tag-professor-emeritus","tag-richard-nixon","tag-true-hall","tag-veterans-committee"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t