I found this post advocating Wally Joyner for the Hall of Fame over on Baseball Think Factory. I'll tell you right now. It's awesome. Unfortunately, it's the only thing on the blog. I'm hoping that we get even more analysis like this. I don't usually sink my teeth into all of the hubbub and statistics, but this stuff is like the second coming of Bill James. Suck on this Baseball Prospectus!
Some highlights:
Despite the fact that Tony Gwynn and Trevor Hoffman have been (Or were) Padres their entire baseball careers, and despite the fact that the Padres later acquired players like Phil Nevin and Ryan Klesko, the Padres have never returned to the World Series since the time they had a healthy Wally Joyner.
That's fairly significant.
On his character:
That's fairly significant.
Wally Joyner was something of the epitome of a good baseball character. He was described all around, by teammates and writers alike, as truly a great guy and a guy who gave baseball 100%. I think he also gave money to charities.
On his admitting to receiving steroids from Ken Caminiti:
As for the actual cheating? Well, it was in Spring Training, and probably wore off, given that Joyner only hit 12 home runs that year. Joyner certainly wasn't taking steroids to cheat, but only for medical reasons; and, of course, steroids are used relatively frequently in hospitals for, you guessed it, medical reasons. That doesn't make what he did right, but there's certainly a fine line between Wally Joyner and, say, Jose Canseco.
And it's not like Joyner's not sorry about the whole thing.
Like I said, awesome.And it's not like Joyner's not sorry about the whole thing.
I wish there was more, but for now, I'll be advocating Wally "The World" Joyner for the Hall of Fame.