I Don’t Want RBA In The Hall Of Fame, And Why I Hate An HOF
By Chris Baker
At this point I do not want to see Rod Brind’Amour in the Hockey Hall of Fame. Not as a player with 1,484 NHL games. Not as a coach who has taken his team to at least 5 straight play-offs, and proposed solid innovations to how the game is called. When he becomes a general manager, he doesn’t go in. If he buys a team, I rue the day they put him in as an owner. There will be some grievances aired at Festivus, that is for sure. “Fundits” and pundits can argue and debate all day long. I say throw the whole HOF thing out and move on. Every last one of them!
Debates over who is in and who is out of an HOF are great for water cooler talk (if you are lucky enough to work with people who are interesting enough to converse with on such matters). Certainly I have entered the fray in my share conversations over the ins and outs of a Hall of Fame nod. Ask DFS writer Pearce Dietrich about them. We’ve had plenty of planning period arguments, much to the chagrin of our colleagues.
Most folks see these gab sessions as a strength rather than weakness for those who are already in a Hall of Fame, I see them as true cheapening of anyone and everything ever inducted to a HOF.
Every Hall of Fame I can think of has glaring omissions and inductees that have no business being there in the first place. Nirvana (class of 2014) was in the Rock’n’Roll HOF before Chicago (class of 2016). Why Run DMC is there at all, much less before The Allman Brother Band is beyond me? Dale Murphy is still not in Cooperstown but Barry Larkin has been for 11 years. Tony Gwynn, justly, made it on the first ballot. Joltin’ Joe DiMaggio made it on the fourth.
The list goes on and on. People even write songs about it.
It might seem as though this is all sour grapes, and fans of someone or something in a HOF will see this article will see it as such. But having loved of more than a few things left out of a Hall of Fame, including Rod Brind’Amore and Dale Murphy, I am left with nothing else but healthy, well earned disgust for them on their very principle. It is only natural!
What am I to do?
Let’s say tomorrow the Hockey Hall Of Fame says “Opps! We made a mistake, and forgot Rod was on the list. Our bad. Welcome to the Hall!”
Are we to suddenly jump for joy that our case is finally made? As if all those years of arguments and stressing the merits of our viewpoint are to be forgotten? The one thorn in an otherwise happy side removed as if it was never there?
I think not.
And frankly I am objectively justified.
Having to continually make a case for something or someone to break the sacred threshold of a Hall of Fame when it is clear they should have long ago, makes my disinterest, that borders on disdain, that much more qualified.
Are you here to tell me Barry Larkin is better than Dale Murphy? Larkin, in only 13 MLB seasons had 960 RBI, with a OBP of .371 and hit .965. Murphy on the other hand had 19 seasons in the big leagues, with 1,266 RBI, 398 dingers ,was a 7 time All-Star, and won 5 Gold Gloves.
Should we just forget that Rod Brind’Amour has a stat sheet that far outweighs many of the current members of the Hockey Hall of Fame? Did those 452 goals, 732 assists, and the Stanley Cup just not count?
Is Nirvana sonically superior to Chicago?
I think not. In fact I know not! On all fronts!
Furthermore, semantically speaking, if there is just one inductee admitted to a Hall of Fame that does not strictly meet the specifics laid out for induction, then all of the inductions are not as valid. Inversely, if someone is NOT inducted (as the case with Rod Brind’Amour, Dale Murphy, and until 2016 Chicago) that has met the requirements then the same can be said.
When it comes to a Hall of Fame, the great philosopher Groucho Marx was right. A HOF only as good as those kept out, and those let in. If you let Run DMC into Cooperstown, than Joe DiMaggio being inducted doesn’t matter as much. If Rod Brind’Amour, Dale Murphy and Chicago are not in their respective HOF, than those Halls of Fame suck!
So please, let’s throw the baby out with the bathwater when it comes to a HOF. They are grist for the mill of “fundits” and pundits, great for school kids to argue over PB and Js, and give those “lucky” enough to have been elected something to brag to their buddies at the golf course about, but that’s all. They back fans onto a corner either justifying their choice for who is in, or complaining about who they think should be in.
On a programming note, I’ll return to my regularly scheduled, shotty reporting on the Carolina Hurricanes after I am done being a sore loser, snacking on sour grapes and spilled milk over Rod Brind’Amour still not being in the Hockey Hall of Fame.
Until then, any is HOF is a dumb HOF.