The Hall of Fame, which this week learned it will have two new players to induct in July, collects all sorts of artifacts from hundreds of players. Its officials are familiar faces at All-Star games, post-season games and other newsmaking and historic events.
The Hall, however, has missed a significant development, and it may be too late to correct its oversight. There might not be any mementoes of Steve Howe’s career to put in a glass case in Cooperstown.
Fortunately for Rickey Henderson and Jim Rice, the criteria for election to the Hall of Fame do not include a requirement for candor. Judged on their responses to questions yesterday, they would have failed the candor test and not made it.
Henderson and Rice were elected to the Hall Monday, Henderson with plenty of votes to spare on his first appearance on the writers’ ballot, Rice with few votes to spare on his 15th and last time on the ballot.
In baseball, loyalty does not travel a two-way street.
“When you get in a situation in negotiations when a player who’s been there a long time winds up leaving, it’s the player who is greedy and not loyal,” said Tom Glavine, who based his observations on 22 years in the major leagues. “But when the player wants to stay and the club doesn’t keep him it’s a business decision. You can’t have it both ways. Either it’s loyalty or not. You can’t blame a player when he makes a business decision and not say the same thing about the team.”
