2 comments Terence Moore Seems to Have Issues with Problems That Are Complete Non-Issues

Terence Moore likes to take on the real non-issues in baseball. He takes on the issues that seemingly no one else really has strong feelings about and tries to make them into issues, like the six man rotation, celebrations, and those days when the iron men didn't exist existed. As I have well-documented, Terence hates expanded replay as well. That of course is an actual issue and not something random that Terence just seems to dislike. Terence also doesn't like that Tony La Russa and Greg Maddux are going to enter the Hall of Fame without a team logo on their cap. In the realm of issues, this is pretty low on the totem pole. When Terence isn't railing against expanded replay, comparing any and everything to the Big Red Machine, or cursing at the clouds for the existence of rain he doesn't have much else to write about. So the small things are what he targets his ire at and then in his column he tends to contradict himself or accidentally point out why his point of view is wrong.

I'm a Braves fan. I really would have liked Greg Maddux to go into the Hall of Fame with a Braves logo on his hat. I was disappointed when I found out he would not have the Braves logo on his hat. Then I found out Maddux didn't want a logo on his hat and that was that. It's his career and his Hall of Fame bust, let him do what he wants. Who am I, and who is Terence Moore, to tell Greg Maddux what team's logo should go on his Hall of Fame hat? The same goes for Tony La Russa. If he doesn't want a certain team's hat on his bust, so be it. But hey, Terence Moore has a perception of how he wants the Hall of Fame to look and he'll be damned if the 86 other Hall of Fame members with blank logos on their hat will deter him from making a big deal out of La Russa/Maddux not having a logo on their hat.

I'm sorry, but Greg Maddux and Tony La Russa have to choose. 

But see, they really don't. Shortly, Terence will point out 86 members of the baseball Hall of Fame do not have a logo on their hat, yet Terence insists Maddux and La Russa have to choose...even though Terence Moore has given a good example of why they don't have to choose. There is a precedent of certain Hall of Fame inductees not having a team's logo on their cap.

They announced Thursday that they've decided in conjunction with Baseball Hall of Fame officials not to have a logo on the cap of their bronzed plaque in Cooperstown, N.Y. Since they prospered for several teams, they said it wouldn't be fair to pick one over the other for such an honor.

I want Maddux to have a Braves logo, but I think he has the right to choose the logo on his Hall of Fame hat.

I hear them. I disagree, but I hear them.

But you don't hear them. They don't feel they can choose a logo and they don't have to choose a logo. It's their decision.

In recent times, Catfish Hunter had the same dilemma. He was among the reasons the A's formed their dynasty during the early 1970s along the way to three consecutive World Series championships. Hunter also helped push the Yankees back into prominence later that decade. Hunter said he cherished both A's owner Charlie Finley and Yanks owner George Steinbrenner, so he became one of the 86 players without a logo on his Hall of Fame cap.

Terence begins this sentence with, "In recent times..." as if Maddux and La Russa not choosing a logo on their hat happened fifty years ago and wasn't more recent than Catfish Hunter not choosing a logo. You can understand my inability to understand why Terence thinks Maddux/La Russa have to choose a logo when they really don't HAVE to choose a logo.

Yogi Berra was another one, but it had nothing to do with his feud with Steinbrenner that kept the legendary Yankees catcher away from his old team for nearly a decade.

You see how Terence Moore can submarine his own point? He seems to do this consistently when writing a column where he takes a certain viewpoint. He takes that viewpoint and then includes information that ruins his point or shows where the fallacy in his thinking may be. Obviously I would prefer he acknowledge an opposing viewpoint as opposed to being like Gregg Easterbrook and just lying to his readers, but Terence doesn't really do anything to counter the opposing viewpoint. So by not countering the opposing viewpoint or explaining where that view is wrong, he makes it look like he's making a poor argument.

Terence starts this column off stating Maddux/La Russa have to choose a logo for their Hall of Fame plaque, then proceeds to list a few of the 86 other baseball Hall of Fame inductees who don't have a logo on their cap. This shows, guess what, Maddux and La Russa DON'T have to choose a logo and it's no big fucking deal. End of story. Yet, Terence goes on.

"You have to remember that, back during that time, when Berra entered the Hall of Fame, choosing a logo for your cap wasn't that big of a deal," said Dave Kaplan, who runs the Yogi Berra Museum and Learning Center at Montclair State University

Yes, and it is still not that big of a deal. If Yogi Berra, who spent every year but one of his MLB career with the Yankees, doesn't go into the Hall of Fame with a Yankees logo on his cap then it's not a big deal for Tony La Russa and Greg Maddux to enter the Hall of Fame with no team logo on their cap.

"If you look at Yogi's plaque, it's more of a profile, so it doesn't matter as much if his cap has a logo."

Well then make La Russa and Maddux's plaque into more of a profile. Problem fixed.

Actually, it does matter. When you say Yogi, you think pinstripes.

Which is exactly why it doesn't matter if Yogi Berra has a Yankees cap on or not. When you think of him, you think of the Yankees. No cap needed.

Honus Wagner. Rogers Hornsby. Johnny Mize. Nap Lajoie. They are among the others joining Berra and Hunter without a logo for their Hall of Fame cap, and they all have that distinction for various reasons.

I'm sure many are logical.

I would count "This manager/player spent a decade or more with two different teams " as a logical reason for no logo on their Hall of Fame cap. It makes sense, even if I as a Braves fan don't necessarily like it.

The ones that aren't? Well, either Hall of Fame officials, the inductees (if they are still living) or the representatives of anybody in Cooperstown without a logo on his cap should change the situation.

I find it interesting that Mr. "Don't Change Anything about Baseball Because Tradition is the Best" wants the Hall of Fame to change the plaques in order to put logos on the caps of those inductees who don't have logos on their caps. It's terrible to expand replay in any way to adjust to modern technology, but sure, let's change the plaques in the baseball Hall of Fame to represent the modern day thought.

If they really think about it, they'll discover that one team from a Hall of Famer's past was either greatly or slightly superior than the rest of them. Choose that one.

Of course this is a matter of opinion, but nonetheless I still like the idea Terence Moore wants to change the contents of a museum to fit modern thought.

Trying to rectify the past is difficult, but we have a splendid chance to affect the present and the future. Which is why I'm urging Maddux and La Russa to pick a logo for their Hall of Fame plaques between now and the time they take the stage in Cooperstown in July.

It really doesn't matter at all. Terence Moore is excellent at picking out hot-button issues that aren't hot-button at all.

"I feel good [about picking nobody]," said Maddux, talking to reporters in Arlington on Thursday between working at a pitching minicamp for the Rangers. "I spent half my career in Chicago and half my career in Atlanta. I came up a Cub, played there for six years and went back for three more. I was in Atlanta for 11 years. It comes out to about the same amount of time in both cities. Love both places. Obviously, I feel like I had more success as a Brave."

Why shouldn't Greg Maddux be able to choose to have no logo on his Hall of Fame plaque? He certainly earned his Hall of Fame induction and I think that means he earned the opportunity to have some input on which team's logo will be on his cap or if there is a team's logo at all.

You've guessed it: Maddux is more Atlanta grits than Chicago pizza.

Except he doesn't consider himself to be more Atlanta postseason choking than Chicago postseason choking. I think this has to count for something. Plus, there are 86 other members of the Hall of Fame without logos on their cap and miraculously the baseball Hall of Fame has continued standing and the sun will rise to shine another day.

Just like La Russa is more Gateway Arch than Golden Gate Bridge, and we won't even talk about his White Sox years.

Yes, let's not talk about the third team that La Russa managed where he spent eight years of his career. That would just further muddy the waters and help to prove the point that La Russa may not have one definitive team he should be associated with when being inducted into the baseball Hall of Fame.

In fact, the La Russa-led A's made three consecutive World Series trips through 1990, and they won it all in 1989. He also reinvented Dennis Eckersley as a closer. Now, the former Oakland starter is in Cooperstown, where La Russa is headed -- without the logo of either the White Sox or the A's on the cap of his plaque.

Oh my God, the horror! Now those people who visit the baseball Hall of Fame will have to read La Russa's plaque that describe his accomplishments as a manager and then be very confused as to which MLB team they must associate La Russa with the most. It's not enough the baseball Hall of Fame will list the teams and accomplishments of La Russa on the plaque, he must have a logo and be associated with one certain team or it's the end of baseball as we know it. It's like the advent of the designated hitter all over again.

While La Russa won three pennants and that World Series championship with the A's, he captured three NL pennants and two Fall Classic titles with the Cards. There also was the longevity factor: He spent 10 years in Oakland compared to 16 in St. Louis.

So La Russa goes in as a Cardinal, and Maddux goes in as a Brave.

I still don't see how it matters. Their achievements with each team will be noted on their Hall of Fame plaque regardless.

See how easy that is?

It's almost as easy as an umpire viewing a replay to determine whether the runner's foot tagged first base before the ball got into the first baseman's glove.