On My Mind....

At least the hockey hall of fame voters can get it right. After baseball's hall of fame voters shunned Mark McGwire for ALLEGED steroid use (all while totally neglecting the fact that steroid use was never AGAINST THE RULES OF BASEBALL), it's promising to see a group of voters use logic and common sense instead of using some sort of arbitrary, sentimental reasoning. I mention all of this because there was alot of rumbling about how two good players (Igor Larionov and Glenn Anderson) deserved to get voted in. The problem, of course, is that only four get in. And this year's crop of eligible players included Mark Messier, so really, that only left 3 spots. Most people also considered Ron Francis a slam dunk to get in and I'm not going to argue with that statement. But after that is when things started getting dicey.

Also eligible were two defencemen, Al MacInnis and Scott Stevens, who happened to be two of the best defencemen of the 90's. MacInnis was the premiere offensive defenceman of that decade while Scott Stevens was the premiere defensive defenceman. When I read the list of eligibile players, I included both of these guys as slam dunk, first ballot hall of fame types (and rightfully so). So why, then, were so many sports writers pushing for one of Larionov or Anderson? Does Larionov belong in the Hall? If we take into consideration his international and pre-NHL career, then yes, as he would have been amongst the top scorers in the league every year had Russians been playing in the NHL while he was in his prime.

But what about Glenn Anderson? He was a good, solid player on a great team. But this isn't the Hall of Very Good. Or the Hall of Decent Players on Great Teams. Or even the Hall of Wayne Gretzky Coattail Riders. This is the Hall of Fame. To put things into perspective, should Bernie Williams or Jorge Posada be Hall of Famers? Probably not. They're great players that played on one of the best teams of all time. But they just weren't good enough to be considered elite. (Though Posada may have a chance if he puts together a couple more seasons like this one.) So why should we let Glenn Anderson in? If we let him in, we have to start considering players like Mark Recchi or Rod Brind'Amour. Recchi and Brind'Amour are good players, no doubt, but they just aren't worthy of the Hall of Fame.

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How bad is Isaiah Thomas' General Managerial skills? Considering the mess he left behind in Toronto and the mess he is currently creating in New York, I'd say pretty bad. Yet he was such a poor GM of the Raptors that the team is STILL paying the price. This year the Raptors were left with no draft picks. Their 2nd round pick went to Portland as a result of a trade that Isaiah Thomas made in 1997. 1997!!!!!!! That was 10 years ago! TEN! How the hell does any ownership group allow their general manager to trade a draft pick for a draft 10 years down the road? Who thought this was a good idea?

But let's not entirely blame Thomas for this year. Also on the hook is another pretty lousy GM, Glen Grunwald. He traded the Raptors first round pick in this year's draft in 2002 (FIVE years ago! What the hell???) in order to acquire Lamond Murray (yeah....THAT Lamond Murray....(I don't know who he is, either, but he's ranked 76 in NBA 2K1, so what a great deal!)). How does any ownership group allow their GM to mortgage their distant future so badly? And for such minimal return!?! You can't blame the GMs for these trades....they're jobs are year to year for the most part so they really don't feel the reprecussions of gambling away the future for present successes.

My advice to any sports franchise out there is to find a great GM and offer him a LONG term, secure contract. Seriously. The Oakland Athletics just did this with Billy Beane and its a brilliant idea. Beane just signed a 7 year contract. What this means is that Beane is happy, as he is guaranteed a sizeable income for the next 7 years. But Oakland should also be happy. Not only did they secure the services of one of the brightest front office minds in all of sports, but they can also rest easy knowing Beane isn't going to do anything stupid and mortgage the future for immediate success. In order for Beane to produce over the length of his contract (and let's assume he'll want to get resigned to another contract in 7 years), he has to make decisions right now that will ensure that his baseball team is still able to compete into the future. Ie. We won't be seeing Billy Beane trade away long term assets for minimal present value.

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I love reading hockey articles this time of the year. The hyperbole used to describe player's skills is hilarious. I've read that if Washington were to sign Mike Comrie this offseason, they'd immediately become cup contenders. Seriously? Mike Comrie is the key to turning a team into a contender? Has anybody watched this guy play the last, oh....5 years? It's funny following along with this year's UFA crop. Players like Briere, Drury, Gomez, and Souray are considered the cream of the crop. Mark my words....each one of those players will end up signing contracts that their team will soon regret. Especially Drury. Why is this guy considered the best player available? He's a solid two way forward, no doubt, but he's simply a younger version of Mike Peca with maybe a touch more offensive upside. And don't even get me started on Souray. I truly hope Montreal resigns him to a long term contract (I say this as a Boston Bruin fan.)