Madden: Hal Steinbrenner takes reins, but News had story last year

Forget Madden tooting his own rusty euphonium or his butchering of smorgasbord…it’s his Mussina - Morris take that’s a dilly.

Right now, that 2014 ballot is shaping up as a shmorgasboard of pitchers, with Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine and John Smoltz all potentially joining Mussina in ‘08 retirement.

Those three are “don’t even have to think about ‘em” slam dunks for first ballot election. Mussina, on the other hand, figures to require a lot of thinking since there are a lot of intangibles about him above and beyond his 270-153 record. For now, and for argument’s sake, I prefer to compare him to Jack Morris, who gets my vote every year but hasn’t been able to muster more than 42% in nine years on the ballot. Coincidentally, they also pitched the two greatest games I ever covered - Mussina’s one-out-from-perfect 13-strikeout gem against the Red Sox at Fenway Park on Sept. 2, 2001, and Morris outdueling Smoltz, 1-0, in 10 innings in Game 7 of the 1991 World Series.

...If the criteria comes down to which pitcher you would want in the seventh game of the World Series, the vote would almost have to be for Morris. Other than the lack of any hardware (which Mussina also shares), Morris’ only detriment is his high ERA. Conceivably, Morris still will be on the ballot, on the outside looking in, when Mussina comes up five years from now. It is interesting food for thought as to how the voters will view them side-by-side.