Chris Russo thinks the latest selections have ruined Hall of Fame

The Hall of Fame announcement should be a moment of joy for all baseball fans. Even if a candidate who you didn’t support gets in, the video of them getting the call is enough to bring a smile to even the most cold-blooded person.

Don’t count veteran sports talk radio host Chris Russo among that group. Less than 24 hours after Jeff Bagwell, Tim Raines and Ivan Rodriguez got the call, Russo eviscerated the decision, calling it a “disaster.” “The Mad Dog,” as he’s known, didn’t stop there. A word of warning: What follows is a whole lot of yelling.

Did you make it through 15 seconds of Russo’s tirade? If so, congrats. We here at The Stew give you permission to treat yourself to a small gift today. You deserve it.

Based on that audio, Russo seems pretty angry about the decision. It’s tough to know how angry, though, as that’s his general tone and temperament with most topics. Even when he’s happy, he’s screaming at you.

If you didn’t make it through the whole clip, we’ll do our best to break it down for you. But we strongly, strongly urge you to at least skip to the end to hear Russo’s last sentence (more on that in a minute).

Russo starts out by vehemently opposing players who have “any tint of steroid use in [their] past.” He then goes on to reference the Mitchell Report, Jose Canseco, “Game of Shadows” and Brian McNamee. He does eventually mention Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens by name, saying he’s against people who use the “but they were already Hall of Famers before their alleged use” argument.

That’s all fine and good, but neither Bonds nor Clemens got into the Hall on Wednesday. So, based on Russo’s rant, we can assume he’s upset about Bagwell and Rodriguez getting inducted. Both were followed by whispers about PEDs over the past couple years. Rodriguez was named in Canseco’s book. Rumors about Bagwell didn’t materialize until he was eligible for the Hall, strangely.

We have to assume those are the two players Russo is angry about because he never actually mentions them by name. He says “Canseco,” which is probably his way of alluding to Pudge. With Bagwell, we’re guessing “any tint of steroid usage” covers him? We honestly don’t know.

For someone so passionate and outspoken about this issue, it seems pretty gutless for Russo to not mention those players by name in his rant. Let everyone know exactly who you are talking about, Mad Dog. Don’t just tenuously connect those players to steroids. If you’re going to disagree so strongly, tackle the issue head-on.

After that, he blames the “baseball establishment” for confusing “everybody” by making them figure out the following:

• Who is a Hall of Famer?

• Who is not a Hall of Famer?

• Did he do steroids?

• How do I analyze this number?

• What do I do with that guy?

• How about testing?

• What do I do prior to 2003?

All of the things Russo mentions above have been taken into consideration by voters for years now. In fact, the first two issues have been discussed by voters since the Hall became a thing. Russo might be the only one still confused by this.

Then, in a moment that seems far too good to be true, Russo basically tells the Hall of Fame induction ceremony to get off his lawn. Here are his exact words:

You could not have scripted that better. It’s perfect.

At this point, Russo makes the only legitimate argument of his tirade. He points out that Larry Brooks, a writer at The Post, has not covered the game “in eons,” and should no longer have a vote. That’s a fair point, though Brooks still does cover the sport during the NHL offseason, according to his colleague Ken Davidoff.

In cases where a writer no longer covers baseball, the Baseball Writers’ Association of America has already taken steps to eliminate that issue. In 2015, the organization announced that it would purge voters who have not covered the sport in 10 years.

Finally, we reach the best part. Russo, who now seems to be screaming so loud he may pop a blood vessel, yells out. “THAT IS AN UNBELIEVABLE … THAT IS RIDICULOUS! THINK ABOUT THAT FOR A MINUTE!!” (emphasis all ours).

Writing that in all caps doesn’t fully do that statement the justice it deserves. We urge you to go back and skip to the end of the audio so you can experience it in its fully glory. Russo’s voice rises so much during that final sentence that the word “minute” is incredibly shrill. It would be completely unlistenable if it weren’t so hilarious.

Now that we think about it, that’s the perfect way to sum up Russo’s entire rant.

More MLB coverage from Yahoo Sports:

– – – – – – –

Chris Cwik is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at christophercwik@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Chris_Cwik