No Diving = No HOF

And Another Thing! finds out who the idiot is writing an article on why Ryne Sandberg should not be a Hall of Famer. Basically the staff writer keeps repeating over and over because Sandberg's uniform isn't dirty he can't be a great fielder.

Yeahhhhhhhhh, ohhhhhhh kkkkkkkkkkkk.

Great fielders, Hall of Fame fielders, get to balls. For Sandberg fans, let me translate: That means diving for balls.

If Sandberg had dirtied his uniform, he would have Hall of Fame fielding stats.

And finally the ultimate judge of who should be a Hall of Famer.

The most damning stat for me? Sandberg led the Cubs to zero World Series. That's why the game is played, why Morgan belongs.

You hear that Ted Williams? YOU STINK! You shouldn't be a Hall of Famer because you never won a WS title! Cal Ripken? No Hall of Fame for you either buddy. If your ace in the hole for a reason why a person should not be in the Hall of Fame is he never won a WS title, your really a pathetic, petty, bitter man who can't find anything else negative to say about the man.

But what gets me is this...

And Sandberg had several advantages. He played behind great ground-ball pitchers, including one, Greg Maddux, who will be in the Hall of Fame. He played with one of the greatest fielding first basemen of his time in Mark Grace and a shortstop with excellent range and one of the greatest arms ever in Shawon Dunston.

Can anyone else remember the Cubs great ground ball pitchers that pitched along side Maddux? I don't even think the author knows of any either. But it looks good to talk about it 10+ years later like you knew all about them.

The author mentions Joe Morgan but never takes away from his accomplishments like he so half handedly does to Sandberg. I guess he forgot about Dave Concepcion that Morgan played along side with in Cincinnati who won 5 gold gloves to Dunston's zero. And let's not forget Tony Perez, who was on that team as well, he was a fine fielding 1B in his day. .992 career fielding % at 1B to Grace's .993. And then on top of that to talk down about Sandberg's offensive achievements. Sandberg didn't have the benefit of Pete Rose, and Johnny Bench either.

Wow, 3 Hall of Famer's (Pete is one, I dont care) , and a 9 time all-star (Concepcion) who had just as much to do with Cincy winning WS titles than Morgan ever did. Let us not forget that Morgan only hit .183 in 50 career post season games. So who was really leading the Reds to World Championships? Pete Rose was the guy, and Johnny Bench and Tony Perez did a hell of alot more than Morgan ever did to help those teams win a WS.

Morgan had those guys to fall back on to pick up the slack. WHO IN THE HELL DID SANDBERG HAVE TO CARRY THE DEAD WEIGHT? Certainly wasn't 3 Hall of Famers and a 9 time all-star. Sandberg was the Cubs offense. Morgan was NEVER the main offensive force of his team EVER. I am sure Sandberg could of put up much better career numbers offensively and defensively if he had that level of talent around him. If anything Sandberg's accomplishments should stand out even more with the low amount of talent they put around him for so many years and still year after year he produced.

A word of advice for the Sun Times, don't get a White Sox fan to weigh in on why Sandberg should not be a Hall Of Famer. That is like asking Redsox fans should Derek Jeter be a Hall of Famer? It always ends badly. This opinion might be more respected from a Cubs beat writer, but then again no Cubs beat writer would be dumb enough to come up with an article this stupid.