Posted by tecwrg on 7/31/2014 1:04:00 PM (view original):
"suddenly tightening the standards makes no sense and defeats the purpose of the Hall of Fame".
That's a ****-poor argument.
Essentially, what you're saying is that it makes no sense to close the barn door once the horse has escaped. Yet you're ignoring the fact we're possibly putting new horses in the barn every year with each new HOF election. I want the damn door closed for next time.
Doubling down on bad decisions is not a very good approach. If fact, it's downright stupid. One can even say it provides low marginal utility.
It absolutely makes sense.
Say one day you take a little kid to the Hall of Fame 20 years from now. He looks at the third basemen (or whatever position) in the Hall of Fame and asks, "so dad/grandpa/old guy who kidnapped me, these are the best third basemen that ever played?"
Would you rather say:
"Yes, these 23 include the greatest of all time though there are probably a few that got in on reputation before we really understood baseball."
"No, most of these 14 guys got in before we understood baseball and because of that we stopped allowing other greats into the Hall."
Because, if Beltre isn't good enough to get in, who is? Not every Hall of Famer has to be Babe Ruth. Guys like Derek Jeter deserve a spot too.