Punish or reward consistently

Who better to grace Cooperstown this summer than Cal Ripken Jr. and Tony Gwynn, two hard-working ballplayers who defined their generation?

The watering down of pitching talent aside, Gwynn showed the world exactly how to hit successfully. The first person to get Gwynn to do a hitting video will be the luckiest person out there. And Ripken gave everyone, baseball or not, incentive to go that extra mile to "be there" every day, whether it be to our workplace or even to our homes to keep family together.

But much fuss was made in the press, both local and national, about Mark McGwire finishing so low in the balloting in eligible year one. And if I can pull an "Amazing Kreskin", it will be safe to predict that Barry Bonds will face the same situation five years after he retires.

We know the story surrounding those two, as well as Rafael Palmeiro, very well. Questions have been raised about how much these players' pasts should be factored into Hall Of Fame consideration. Are we really thinking too much into their pasts while overlooking the sheer importance of their numbers?

I have no honest opinion on the subject, other than to say this: treat all questionable ballplayers the same. Either vote them in, or ignore all of them in order to "keep the dirt" out of the Hall.

People will say that McGwire's refusal to testify in the steroid trial shouldn't keep him out of the Hall. Then why aren't Pete Rose and Shoeless Joe Jackson in the Hall already? Bonds could pass Hank Aaron in the homer race this year; don't numbers enough qualify you for the spot no matter your personal history? Personally, I believe 4,256 lifetime hits are more impressive than being the all-time dinger leader.

But if there's truly no effort to put Rose & Jackson in the Hall Of Fame, perhaps there should be NO debate as to whether McGwire, Bonds, Palmerio should be in there too... that answer should be a definite "no" in that case, too. Don't even attempt to make a case for Sammy Sosa in a few years either, especially if those in front of him don't make it.

You either eliminate all the dirt and let all the Hall Of Famers have clean, personal resumes, or you just admit that mistakes have been made through time (we are all human, after all), and recognize them for their outstanding in-game talents who did put fans in their seats to see milestones accomplished.

It doesn't matter which way the thinking goes, but that thinking has to go across the board - an all-or-nothing proposition. Don't elect one without at least thinking about the others who worked as hard, and ended up as human as those now under the microscopes of the press.

America's pasttime should be fair, and diverse as well.