26. Cooperstown Confidential: Heroes, Rogues, and the Inside Story of the Baseball Hall of Fame by Zev Chafets

Category: 50 Books

26. Cooperstown Confidential: Heroes, Rogues, and the Inside Story of the Baseball Hall of Fame by Zev Chafets

I figured it was apropos to read this during the last week of July, yeah? For those of you who may not know, the last weekend in July is when they induct the newly elected players into the Baseball Hall of Fame. If there are any, that is, sometimes no one gets voted in. (And if you think the way we elect a president is bizarre, you’ll laugh your head off at how the Hall of Fame works.)

It’s an interesting book, short and sweet, and it’s a good overview of the history of the shrine as well as the overall problems with it: racial bias, perfomance enhancing drugs, the character clause, and Pete Rose.

Mr. Chafets does a great job explaining things so that if you’re a new fan of the game it’s easy to get what’s going on, and if you’re an old fan there’s some really good recent baseball dish out there. (Hugo Chavez?! What in the what now?!)

I haven’t read Bill James’s Whatever Happened to the Hall of Fame? so I’m not sure how they compare. I imagine Mr. James’s book is more about how some people shouldn’t be in the Hall because they don’t have the numbers to back up such an honor. Chafets does touch on that subject but it’s more an overview than any real complaining. Besides, who could do a better job than Bill James on that subject, right?

There were two sentences that I really enjoyed (you know my weakness for clever) the first of which is about Ted Spencer the head curator of the Hall of Fame:

As a boy growing up in Boston, Spencer rooted for the Red Sox and dreamed of becoming an artist. The combination of art and baseball has been helpful in trying to blend Cooperstown’s traditional Norman Rockwell portrait of American baseball with the United Colors of Benetton realities of the modern age. (p. 76 – 77)

The other one was about how if the sportswriters/Hall of Fame keep using steroids as an excuse to keep great ball players out of the Hall (especially when the ONLY proof has been hearsay. AND the fact that there’s no real study on the effects of PEDs and they’re effects [positive or negative] on baseball players.) then the Hall of Fame is going to end up more of a popular clique than any sort of actual honor. Chafets writes:

On the other hand, if the Hall of Fame decides to exclude the greatest players in baseball because a bunch of baseball writers – in conformity to Clark family values – think they lack character, Cooperstown will become about as relevant and as interesting as Colonial Williamsburg. (p. 193)

If you’re not a baseball fan it’s probably not interesting to you, but if you’re a rookie to the sport or an old timer, it’s an enjoyable and interesting read.

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