Will the 90s be the next forgotten decade?

[SPTO]

I was listening to ESPN's All Night with Todd Wright last night and one of the regular segments is one with Tony Reali in which they do a "timeline". Anyways one of the topics was something to the effect of "in two years with a stricter (btw that should be "more strict") drug policy will we see the gaudy power numbers go down?" Both Todd and Tony said that they think the power numbers will go down some to the point that 50 HRs will be a big deal again.

Tony said to watch out for the HR/AB ratio as we will never see the 1 HR per 9-10 ABs again. Altho Tony did say that a .275/30/100 guy will never be a candidate for the MVP award again as some things have changed irrevocably.

Now to the point of this thread. If indeed what they think will happen does indeed happen then will the 90s become another lost decade in HOF voting? We all know that a lot of very good 80s players aren't getting their due because power numbers werent' as gaudy as they are today. Will the ppl that vote on the HOF balloting be more cautious about voting in guys that had huge numbers between '94 and '04?

I would tend to hope so because any player that had his heyday in that timeframe is going to go in the Hall with questions surrounding him like "did he achieve all that naturally? or was he on the juice?" "Should he even be in the Hall because his numbers were so inflated" etc etc.

This will be a huge controversy IMO in the next 20 yrs for baseball and it could get ugly if a lot of guys who put up huge numbers get in yet there's that nagging suspicion about the ways and means of how he achieved those numbers.

addendum: if you want you can also speculate on if you think 50 HRs will be special again.

[glucklich]

Re: Will the 90s be the next forgotten decade?

Yeah, I think I made reference to the pendulum swinging both ways in regards to this in the Sandberg thread. The only thing to factor in is whether the oldtimers will die off any time soon making it a younger group of voters who arent as stubborn. Time will tell. The only thing I do know is that if being strict requires keeping Rose out, its probably worth it to have stringent voting.

[glucklich]

Re: Will the 90s be the next forgotten decade?

Yeah, I think I made reference to the pendulum swinging both ways in regards to this in the Sandberg thread. The only thing to factor in is whether the oldtimers will die off any time soon making it a younger group of voters who arent as stubborn. Time will tell. The only thing I do know is that if being strict requires keeping Rose out, its probably worth it to have stringent voting.

[rsox]

Re: Will the 90s be the next forgotten decade?

I don't think 50 HR will ever be special again, When Cecil Fielder did it in 1990 it was special, when Albert Belle did it in 1995 (in a strike shortend year) it was special, but so many players have done it over the last 10 years it's become "normal".

As for the 90's being forgotten, there are certain things that will always be remembered. Cal Ripken Breaking Lou Gehrig's consecutive game streak, the McGwire/Sosa Home Run Race, the 1994 strike that canceled the World Series. But most of the decade will be forgotten, much like the 1980's.

The current decade is not off to a good start either, and other than the Red Sox winning their first world series in 86 years so far, the only thing we will remember about this decade is Balco and the great steroid controversy.
But there is still plenty of time to change that.

[rsox]

Re: Will the 90s be the next forgotten decade?

I don't think 50 HR will ever be special again, When Cecil Fielder did it in 1990 it was special, when Albert Belle did it in 1995 (in a strike shortend year) it was special, but so many players have done it over the last 10 years it's become "normal".

As for the 90's being forgotten, there are certain things that will always be remembered. Cal Ripken Breaking Lou Gehrig's consecutive game streak, the McGwire/Sosa Home Run Race, the 1994 strike that canceled the World Series. But most of the decade will be forgotten, much like the 1980's.

The current decade is not off to a good start either, and other than the Red Sox winning their first world series in 86 years so far, the only thing we will remember about this decade is Balco and the great steroid controversy.
But there is still plenty of time to change that.