The Last Time
Probably my last post for the year, and all it’s really going to do is direct you to my foxblog, but probably the final entry into that space. Read it here.
We’ll turn the page into 2006 here next week, with some resolutions (Well, one. Finish the damn novel.) or at least some promises to work on the design of my site, which I’ve remained completely clueless about for nearly three years now. But I’m not quitting, or fading into oblivion. Some would say blogging is dead — I’d like to think that the blogging fad of 2003 and 2004 merely thinned out the ranks to the hardcore. So, MFG is still here.
Final point — In my posting on Fox yesterday, I evaluated most of this year’s Hall of Fame class, including Andre Dawson. As Cubs fans, we were thrilled last year with Ryne Sandberg’s deserved induction, and this year, I think Dawson should go, too. In fact, I could have quoted the same thing for Dawson as I said for Jim Rice:
Jim Rice - OK, Wade Boggs is in. Did anyone seriously watch the Red Sox in the mid-to-late-1980s and think, Well, Wade Boggs was their best player. No. End of discussion.
Same thing goes for Dawson. Because he had a great career until the end (Summed up nicely here by Phil Rogers, of all people.), but between 1987 and 1989, there is no way anyone watching the Cubs would think, Well, Ryne Sandberg is their best player. No way. Dawson dominated those years, and he was feared much more than the excellent Ryno. A great one-two punch, nonetheless.
And so that begs the question — if Boggs and Sandberg were such virtual locks in 2005 (Boggs on his first time, Ryno on his third), then how can Rice and Dawson be kept out? Boggs and Sandberg are HOFers — but they weren’t even the best players on their respective teams. It simply defies logic. Here’s to hoping they both are in this year.
Happy new year, I’d tell you all to be safe, but I will likely be stumbling into my hotel room at 3 a.m. in downtown Kansas City after a fight with a cabbie, so I’d prefer not to be hypocritical. See you on the flipside.