Songwriters Hall let's Rock Hall off the hook by sucking worse

The Baseball Hall of Fame is the creme de la creme of all Halls. There will be debates and controversy, and legitimate gripes about who gets in and who should be in, but at least Cooperstown has standards (imaginary benchmarks like 500 HR, 3,000 hits, 300 wins, etc.). And scruples (no Roiders, no Cheaters).

But the others mostly suck. The Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Ill., lets in just about everyone, and its lack of focus - NBA, men's and women's college, Olympic, grade school JV, YMCA rec league players and coaches from every level all seem to get in - makes it irrelevant. For what it's worth, Bill Simmons laid out a dream NBA HoF in his 2009 "The Book of Basketball." 

The Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio, seems to have slightly better standards, but stats are so hard to measure in football. The different eras, with vastly different styles of play, discrepancies in sizes and speeds of players, segregation in play early on and, most recently, protection rules and Dark Helmet-esque domes for quarterbacks, make it impossible to judge everyone on an even keel.

It's true: Jackie Moon is in the hoops hall.

Hockey isn't a sport, so no need to discuss or even find out anything about that Hall.

As this blog has testified to since 2011, the Rock Hall is pretty much in the basement of all Halls of Fame. So no need to say anymore there.

However, we've found an all new low: The Songwriters Hall of Fame.

This piece of rhino dung seems to let in just about every SoB who ever picked up a pen.

Garth Brooks? Phil Collins? Jon Bon Jovi?

And now Bob Seger, a 2004 Rock Hall inductee who will go in the Songwriters Hall with the 2012 class along with Gordon Lightfoot, Harvey Schmidt and Tom Jones (legit), Don Schlitz and Jim Steinman (totally legit).

Bob actually made Tom's career.

Personally, I could care less about this jackwad Hall and their complete lack of standards. But putting Seger in gives complete legitimacy to his '04 induction to the Rock Hall, which should never happen.

"Against The Wind" and "Night Moves" are fine FM radio staples; "Old Time Rock & Roll" will be played at weddings forever; "Hollywood Nights" is kind of a sick track (by the way, you ever see that 1980 flick "The Hollywood Knights" with Tony Danza, Michelle Pfeiffer and Robert Wuhl as Newbomb Turk? It's a late-night HBO classic. You know what I'm saying).

But Seger should not be in the Rock Hall, and he should not be in the Songwriters Hall. After all, the guy cites Don Henley and Glenn Frey as songwriting teachers.

I think The Briefs said it best: