Special Recognition

And the hype goes on.

These days, we're not just being treated to MLB's ongoing effort to pretend that a very talented ballplayer, Shohei Ohtani, is better than Babe Ruth. (He isn't.)

In between churning out more wretched, "City Connect" gear (See the San Diego Padres unis this month.  Or better, don't.), baseball is now in full gear, pouring out the honors hither and yon—whether the recipients deserve it or not.

The latest are Albert Pujols and Miguel Cabrera, who Lord High Commissioner Manny Manfred has decided should be "special selections" on this year's all-star teams.

"Albert and Miguel are two all-time greats whose achievements warrant this special recognition," claimed Manfred, the same man who once quashed a Florida state investigation into high school juicing so he could nail the arch-fiend, Alex Rodriguez.

Uh-huh. 

Look, I like the idea of selecting a couple of longtime stars as honorary selections. The question is just what stars are you talking about?

Many of us here are old enough to remember when talking to our fathers and grandfathers about when Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays were made honorary selections on the 1967 ad 1968 all-star teams.

That was a great idea.

The only difference?

Both were still starters. The Mick was still among the league leaders in most important hitting categories in those years, while Mays was still one of the best players in the game.  He was even the MVP of the 1968 game.

Pujols and Cabrera? Not so much.

What's more, neither Mays nor Mantle were major-league frauds, pumped up by illegal PEDs their entire career. 

In the same vein, nearly everyone connected with New York's second-most-beloved baseball team was, today, making a full-out case for how Keith Hernandez—being honored at The Stadium Named for One of the Most Irresponsible Banks in American History—just HAD to be inducted into the Hall of Fame at Cooperstown, or there was no justice in this world.

Well, kinda.

Maybe Keith WAS the best-fielding first baseman in the game, ever, as everyone was proclaiming today. I never saw a better one.  

And he was an outstanding hitter, leader, yadayadayada.

Hey, I got nothin' against the idea.  

But if so, then the man who played the same position across town from Mex during his time in The Big Kahuna—and who, as manager of the Marlins, was on hand to praise Keith to the skies today—should also be in there.

As I recall, at the time, NOBODY in baseball save Mets fans (and not even many of them) thought that Hernandez was a better player than Donnie Baseball.

The record bears it out.

Hernandez won half-an-MVP award? Donnie won a full MVP award.

Hernandez was a great fielder? Mattingly was just a notch behind him, winning 9 Gold Gloves. (And with a slightly higher fielding pct., .996 to .994.  Just sayin'!)

Meanwhile, Donnie Baseball had a higher BA (.307-.296), higher OPS (.830-.821), and considerably more power at a power position.

In the booth today, Mex's broadcast partner, Gary Cohen—who seems to be making a career these days of damning Yankees with faint praise—cried crocodile tears over how good Mattingly had been in his career but, you know, the back injury really limited his playing time by the end...

Okay, Metsie: 

Hernandez played 17 years to Donnie's 14, but only 303 more games.  Mex had 11 peak seasons, 1977-1987.  Donnie?  11, 1984-1993, and 1995.  

And one other thing...what was it?...oh, right!  Don Mattingly never got traded from a team because he was dealing coke to his teammates. 

Sorry. If Keith is going to Cooperstown, Donnie Baseball has to go, too.

I know that MLB, in its self-inflicted desperation, is going to hype anyone and anything it can—included frauds already pumped up to Macy's balloon size by all their juicing. But it can't be at the expense of our Boys in Pinstripes.

Oh, and enough of this crap: