So…what’s it like to see your vote—and a column whose traditional audience is generally limited to retirees—met with such Web-based outrage?
Not so bad, actually. “It doesn’t bother me,” Corky Simpson told me, “because, one, I’m too old, and my skin is too thick, and I’m a stubborn old mule from Missouri.”
And also because Simpson simply doesn’t spend much time on the Web, he says, so is pretty much immune to the heated rhetoric that often permeates its (virtually anonymous) conversations. “I think of the literature on the Internet in the same way that I think of the literature on the walls of public bathrooms,” Simpson told me. “With the exception that the literature on the walls of public bathrooms is a little higher class.”
...Still, though, Simpson thinks, the anger directed at him is absurd. He’s just one guy, he says—his vote isn’t going to keep Henderson out of the HOF, so why make such a big deal about it? “No one in the history of baseball has ever gotten into the Hall of Fame on a unanimous vote,” he notes. “I mean, we’re talking about Babe Ruth and Ty Cobb and Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays, Jackie Robinson—nobody. And if anyone out there thinks that Rickey Henderson can carry one of those guys’ shoes, he’s crazy.”
And he laughs off charges that the Henderson omission was a publicity stunt. “You couldn’t possibly sit down and say, ‘How could this ballot be controversial?’” Simpson says. His Rickey-less ballot was a simple, classic slip-up, nothing more. And the attempts to read more into it—publicity, senility, whatever—only validate, as far as Simpson is concerned, his take on the Web: “The Internet is like a sewer. It’s very necessary, but you wouldn’t want to spend a lot of time there.”
Reader Comments and Retorts
Go to end of page
Statements posted here are those of our readers and do not represent the BaseballThinkFactory. Names are provided by the poster and are not verified. We ask that posters follow our submission policy. Please report any inappropriate comments.
1. Alex Vila Posted: January 10, 2009 at 05:38 AM (#3048200)It only goes as high up as Uranus.
Which is pretty high up, one has to admit.
Higher than a baseball goes anyway.
Roll their **** in tiny balls.
Those who read these words of wit,
Eat those tiny balls of ****.
Whereas "slip-up" does not. For one thing, what on earth does it mean? He meant to check Rickey's name off, but his pen slipped and he checked Dawson instead? And since he was using pen, he couldn't correct it? For another, it doesn't match his first explanation.
Indeed, if you read this post, he's still trying to say that Rickey wasn't that good. (True, Rickey wasn't as good as Babe Ruth, but that isn't really what Simpson is saying. Plus, it's stupid logic under any circumstances (why would Ruth's vote have any bearing on whether one voted for Rickey), and especially in the case of Ruth, who wasn't unanimous because of the setup of the vote.
I agree that publicity and senility aren't likely explainations, to me the most reasonable explanation is that he doesn't take Hall of Fame voting that seriously.
Did my ballot problems started...
Next time I think I'll take a chance...
and think ahead, oops! **** my pants.
Best Regards
John
Maybe the guy just a had brain fart. Granted, that's more like brain crap-your-britches, but it doesn't necessarily mean he's losing his mental faculties.
Sadly, I agree with this. At his age, he apparently understands there's better things to do than worry about people who are outraged that Rickey Henderson will miss unanimous induction by a few decimals.
I'd rather Corky not worry about voting at all and leave it to others who take it more seriously.
My point is that depending on where on looks on the web one could easily come away with the impression that it's a hellish place. That will probably shift over time, obviously, but I can certainly understand seeing crappy stuff, getting turned off and never giving it another shot. Sort of how I feel about Philadelphia.
Bathroom wall ditty in honor of Rob Neyer:
If you sit there feeling hurt
****ing 'neath your flannel shirt,
Give this number a quickie call.
Now I'll stop writing about base balls.
I don't see how you can read it as anything other than making sure Rickey isn't the first.
I'd wish he just say that then. It's hard for him to claim the high road if he can't be honest about his intentions.
He didn't because staddling the "oops! I screwed up" line will give him less grief than if he was truly honest about his intentions.
Robinson was a great player and would have deserved enshrinement based solely on his stats, but Henderson had the better career.
The early HOF elections had a lot of quality candidates to choose from since there was a major backlog, so that's one reason why there weren't any unanimous selections right from the start. The rules weren't carved in stone yet, so you had voters placing active players on their ballots for a while, too.
now corky gonna get all immortal along with 8675309
i saw it
i saw it
i saw it on the walllll
for a dumb vote
for a dumb vote
callllllll
Ruth might not even be unanimous. After all, he did take steroids :)
-- MWE
You must be Registered and Logged In to post comments.
<< Back to main