Mike Piazza's Entry into Hall of Fame is Long Overdue

It took long enough, but sometimes the phrase “better late than never” is actually true. In his fourth year on the ballot, 12-time All-Star catcher Mike Piazza was finally elected into the Hall of Fame and will be enshrined in Cooperstown as part of the class of 2016. Today is a day for Piazza to enjoy and for fans to reflect on the remarkable career he had. However, while today should be a day to celebrate Piazza’s acceptance into the Hall of Fame, it’s hard not to think that this day is long overdue and that the voters who kept him out of the Hall until now should be ashamed that it took Piazza four years to get in.

To any baseball observer, there should be no doubt that Piazza is a first-ballot Hall of Famer, and the fact that he wasn’t steals legitimacy from the Hall of Fame itself. Piazza was one of the best hitters of his era, easily the best hitting catcher of his era, and arguably the best hitting catcher of all time, with few catchers outside of Johnny Bench even in the conversation alongside Piazza. With 427 career home runs, a lifetime batting average of .308, and a lifetime OPS of .922, Piazza was far from just another power hitter; he was a complete and well-rounded hitter, and one of the best the game has ever seen. How he could be denied entry to the Hall in his first year of eligibility is unfathomable.

The lone reason Piazza was denied a trip to Cooperstown each of the last three years is suspicion that Piazza used steroids. Not proof, not an embarrassing testimony in front of members of Congress, just suspicion. After his first year on the ballot without getting in, Piazza was forthright in his memoir about the substances he took as a player, all of which were legal at the time he played but have since been banned. Even then there were suspicions but no proof that Piazza used banned substances that he wouldn’t admit to using. Sadly, that suspicion was enough for some voters to keep Piazza out of a spot in the Hall of Fame that he undoubtedly deserved based on little more than acne flare-ups and his impressive power.

For the writers that voted for Piazza this year but did not in each of the past three years, the delay in his admittance must feel appropriate, but at the end it’s wrong. There was no concrete proof that Piazza did anything that should have kept him out of the Hall of Fame beyond his first year of eligibility. It’s nice that his career accomplishments have finally been recognized with his belated entry into the Hall of Fame, but the fact that he was not a first ballot Hall of Famer is still wrong.