Mark Madden: Baseball Hall of Fame voters indulge agendas

One voter left former New York Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter off his Hall of Fame ballot. It kept Jeter from being the second unanimous choice in the institution’s history.

New York is ablaze with outrage. New York should be grateful. The manufactured outrage gives the city a platform to burnish its already intolerable self-importance.

If Jeter had played in Pittsburgh, no one would care. Had he maintained the same level of performance as a Pirate, he wouldn’t be a unanimous pick or even come close. Jeter benefited from New York’s prestige and five store-bought world championships.

He got into the Hall of Fame. That’s what matters.

I’ve seen whoever didn’t vote for Jeter called a “coward.” There are no cowards in benign circumstances like voting for a hall of fame. Cowards abandon comrades on the field of battle. Cowards don’t support their children. This is merely baseball.

If the voter who didn’t check Jeter’s box steps forward, fine. But he/she isn’t required to.

Whoever didn’t vote for Jeter likely declined to do so because he/she didn’t feel Jeter deserved to be picked unanimously, not because Jeter didn’t belong in Cooperstown.

That’s not an unreasonable viewpoint.

Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb and Ted Williams didn’t go in unanimously. Jeter isn’t nearly in the class of those players. He’s probably not in the top 25 position players of all time. Why should he go in unanimously? Why on earth did Mariano Rivera, a mere relief pitcher?

New York, that’s why. It’s surprising that didn’t work again.

Whoever didn’t vote for Jeter indulged an agenda. Voting for the Baseball Hall of Fame is all about indulging agendas. As witnessed by Barry Bonds falling short again.

If voters can ignore steroid users because they believe “cheaters” shouldn’t be in the Hall of Fame, it’s OK to not vote for Jeter if you believe he shouldn’t be unanimous. It’s the same reasoning, however outside the box.

But, objectively speaking, it’s wrong to do either. Voters should look at the numbers and accomplishments and choose based on that.

The Hall of Fame has a morality clause that mentions “integrity, sportsmanship and character.” But what makes the voters qualified to apply it?

Many are pointedly not, because they ignored obvious steroid use in the ‘90s because the resultant power surge — and specifically the 1998 home-run race between Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa — was saving baseball from apathy created by the 1994 season being canceled thanks to a labor dispute.

The same writers who ignored PEDs then keep obvious choices like Bonds and Roger Clemens out of the Hall now. It’s contradictory and hypocritical.

Anyway, do you know for sure who did and didn’t use steroids? Are zero steroid users in Cooperstown?

Larry Walker just got elected to the Hall of Fame. He couldn’t carry Bonds’ jockstrap in a hockey equipment bag. (Walker is Canadian, so he likely has one.)

I’ve often contemplated founding my own baseball hall of fame. My first class of inductees would be:

• Bonds, the all-time (762) and single-season (73) home-run leader.

• Clemens, who won 354 games and an all-time most seven Cy Young Awards.

• Shoeless Joe Jackson. He’s got the third-highest lifetime average at .356.

• Roger Maris holds the American League’s all-time single-season home run record with 61 in 1961.

• McGwire, who hit 584 home runs.

• Rafael Palmeiro, who had 3,020 hits and 569 career home runs.

• Sosa, the only man to top 60 homers in a season three times. He hit 609 in his career.

• Pete Rose, the all-time hit leader with 4,256.

My hall of fame kicks Cooperstown’s backside.