Longtime fans still remember the outrage that greeted the announcement of the Lakers’ Shaquille O’Neal as the National Basketball Association’s Most Valuable Player at the turn of the century. No, it wasn’t because he didn’t deserve the honor. To the contrary, it was precisely because he did; he garnered 120 out of a possible 121 votes cast by a panel of writers and broadcasters for the award. The lone dissenter? Fred Hickman, then with CNN, who went with the Sixers’ Allen Iverson. “It was crazy,” the one-time Sports Emmy winner recalled of the backlash. “I got death threats.”
Interestingly, even more vitriol seems to be coming the way of the single member of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America who left Derek Jeter off the Hall of Fame ballot. With social media making public feedback instantaneous (and, needless to say, sharp and biting), virtually no time was wasted pillorying the — insert insulting adjective here, with or without a curse word or two — who thought the Yankee legend didn’t deserve to be enshrined in Cooperstown. And considering the extent of the acrimony, it’s probably fortunate for the “offender” to have been cloaked in anonymity.
Admittedly, the subjective nature of the entire process makes criticism unfair and, more importantly, immaterial; judgment calls are done based on personal criteria where biases are acknowledged. On the other hand, there can be no discounting Jeter’s contributions to the sport viewed from any which way. For all his negatives based on advanced metrics, he was a winner who played clean, and cleanly, in an era marked by the proliferation and use of performance-enhancing drugs. Above all else, he was a winner who continually gave baseball, rocked by steroid scandal after steroid scandal, much-needed shots of credibility.
No doubt, the denial of a place in history as just the second player to be welcomed to the Hall via a unanimous vote has to hurt Jeter. And, by all accounts, the competitive fire that enabled him to exceed himself during his playing days is the same one fueling his long memory. Not normally predisposed to letting slights slide, he will be remembering this one for a long, long time. Ask O’Neal, who still hasn’t forgiven Hickman for being denied perfection following an undeniably dominant season that culminated in the first of three straight championships.
Who’s to say what made the voter snub Jeter? In assessing options, some claim principle. Others turn to figures. Still others parse the meaning and intent of the award. In any case, nothing can change the outcome: Yankee Number 2 got in on Year 1 via 396 out of 397 ballots. And, moving forward, that he’s with the Big Boys now should be all that matters.
Anthony L. Cuaycong has been writing Courtside since BusinessWorld introduced a Sports section in 1994. He is a consultant on strategic planning, operations and Human Resources management, corporate communications, and business development.
