"integrity, sportsmanship, character": Hall of Fame criteria applied generally.

Yesterday the following players were inducted into the Hall of Fame:

Vladimir Guerrero, Trevor Hoffman, Chipper Jones, Jack Morris, Jim Thome, Alan Trammell

I did not watch the ceremonies on TV. These players did not interest me.

Guerreo, Thome and Jones are OK but nothing special as great players. None are Willie Mays or Mickey Mantle. Hoffman is a joke who threw only 1,089 innings. Morris and Trammell failed to be elected by the writers during all their years of eligibility and got in with one of the veterans committees. It's pretty much impossible to find any of this on the Hall of Fame website.

For the umpteenth time, the basic criteria for election:

https://baseballhall.org/hall-of-famers/rules/bbwaa-rules-for-election

5. Voting: Voting shall be based upon the player's record, playing ability, integrity, sportsmanship, character, and contributions to the team(s) on which the player played.
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"integrity, sportsmanship, character" are the subject of this post, not as they pertain to the 2018 inductees but in general.

Of the Halls of Fame of the three major team sports in the USA, baseball is the only one that considers character. It does so in an odd and inconsistent manner.

Only one National Basketball Association (NBA) player has refused to attend his induction.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Russell

Bill Russell refused to attend the ceremony when his jersey #6 was retired in 1972; he also refused to attend his induction into the Hall of Fame in 1975.
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Now this about the National Football League (NFL):

Terrell Owens finally reveals reason for decision to skip Hall of Fame ceremony
Terrell Owens is finally talking about his controversial decision
by John Breech @johnbreech July 29, 2018 cbssports.com

Terrell Owens announced that he wouldn't be attending the Pro Football Hall of Fame induction ceremony, making him the first living inductee not to attend...

Basically, it seems that the decision came down to disrespect: Owens didn't like the way the media portrayed him during his career and he didn't like the fact that voters made him wait three years to be inducted.
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Baseball players have not skipped their induction. In fact, none have told the voters that they are not interested in being elected. You'd have thought that by now Barry Bonds and/or Roger Clemens would have told the baseball establishment that they don't need Hall of Fame election to validate the greatness of their play on the field, that they don't appreciate being excluded on grounds of "integrity, sportsmanship, character".

Pete Rose Says Baseballs Are Juiced, Players Hit Too Many Home Runs
By JENNA WEST July 28, 2018 si.com

It's induction weekend in Cooperstown. As baseball fans gather to watch legends like Chipper Jones and Jim Thome enter the Hall of Fame, Pete Rose is keeping up his annual tradition of signing autographs down the street from the action.

Although Rose has been banished for life from Major League Baseball for betting on the sport, he still has plenty to say about the current state of the game.

Rose seems to be unhappy about the current number of home runs being hit and suggests that baseballs are doctored, according to USA Today.

"I’m going to argue with baseball until the day I die," Rose said, “that baseball is juiced. I don’t care what anybody says. They’ll say it’s not, which they have to.
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Is Pitch-Framing Cheating?
by Sheryl Ring July 27, 2018 fangraphs.com

Read it for yourself. Like typical articles on that website it's long, frustrating and unclear. It's also late to the game.

Pitch framing: isn't that like NBA flopping? Friday, April 3, 2015

The intent is to deceive, not the opponent, but the official. And isn't that cheating? ...

As far as I know NBA players are NOT rated and paid on their ability to flop successfully. In the Major Baseball League (MBL) catchers are now rated on their pitch framing ability and paid accordingly. See Russell Martin, now with Toronto.

The NBA tried to fix its problem. The MBL has institutionalized theirs.
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Honor Code: start with living Hall of Fame members. Monday, January 14, 2013
Honor Code: a player will not lie, cheat, steal, or tolerate those who do.

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Racist Friday, May 2, 2014

When did it become OK to call someone a racist?
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Lie about age: baseball crime against "integrity, sportsmanship, character"? Thursday, April 26, 2018

Albert Pujols

Obviously, when the Cardinals drafted Pujols they thought he was 19, not 22. Would it have mattered? Who knows?

When the Angels signed Pujols to that huge ten year contract for his ages 32 through 41 the Angels thought that Pujols was 32, not 35, which would have made the contract for ages 35 through 44, which would have probably meant that either it would not have happened at all or it would have been for maybe half the number of years and less money per season.

Now many people would look at any comparison of performance enhancing drug (PED) use and telling a lie, especially about something as innocuous as age, as absurd. But consider one of the reasons given for their staunch position against PED use:

It's unfair to clean players in that it may deprive another player of a roster spot and/or extra money.

Maybe Pujols got a Cardinal roster spot at age "21" that might have gone to another player who was 24. Maybe the tens of millions of dollars that Pujols is receiving in 2018 at age "38" might ... no, the Angels would not have given that ten year contract to any player for ages 35 through 44; nor would the Angels pay another 41 year old much, if anything.

And what about the team? The Angels probably signed Pujols through his perceived age 41 season for reasons other than what he could contribute as a player. Part of it was deferred compensation from the earlier seasons of the contract when the Angels thought they were getting Pujols at ages 32, 33, 34, 35. At those ages the Angels might have expected to get maybe 75% of the great player Pujols had been with the Cardinals. Did the Cardinals know by then that the 19 year old they had signed in 1999 had actually been 22? Was that a consideration in the Cardinals not matching the offer by the Angels?

Pujols may have also been signed for non playing reasons, maybe to appeal to the southern California population. Being older probably would not impact that unless his character became an issue. At this point it is highly unlikely that if it became generally known that Pujols is actually three years older than his listed age that the Angels would make it into a negative, which would reduce the value Pujols had.

So what about the Hall of Fame? Is this a big enough deal to prevent voters from supporting Pujols? VERY unlikely given that they never considered the admitted drug (cocaine) use by recent inductee Tim Raines. The list of things that would reasonably be considered cheating but have been ignored is long.

No, the one and only offense that is held against a player, preferably if the voters don't like him, is PED use. Now if it became known that Pujols had used PED, well then he might be in trouble. On the other hand even that is swinging away from where it was even five years ago.

Integrity, sportsmanship, character: what would be held against a player for any of these three things?
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