Over on the right, we’ve added a poll that allows visitors to cast your own votes for this year’s Hall of Fame. The ballot there lists the players in the same order that the official BBWAA ballot lists them. Those players that received enough votes last year to qualify to be on the ballot again this year are listed first, in the order of their vote totals. Then those players who are on the ballot for the first time are listed in alphabetical order.
A year ago, I ranted a bit about the Hall of Fame voting (and the BBWAA voters). I won’t do that again this year, but if you care about my views on the subject, by all means click here and to go back and read what I wrote a year ago. My feelings on the subject haven’t changed.
Suffice to say that I would not withhold my vote from a player on the basis of his known or suspected use of Performance Enhancing Drugs. I don’t feel morally superior to those players, given the lax views of MLB itself concerning PEDs while those guys were playing ball and I certainly don’t feel that members of the BBWAA are in any position to assume the role of guardians of morality for baseball. Yes, this means Mark McGwire and Rafael Palmeiro both get my vote.
I’m a “Big Hall” guy, as anyone who read my post last week knows. That means I want Jack Morris in the HoF.
I also believe Barry Larkin and Alan Trammell belong. They may have been the best shortstops of their era, if not of all time.
To my mind, there is no excuse for anyone not to support Jeff Bagwell and I feel just about as strongly about Tim Raines. While I did not support Edgar Martinez a year ago, I’m voting for Martinez this year. If we’re going to have the DH in baseball, it’s wrong to consider those who make a living at that position ineligible for the HoF.
Dale Murphy gets my vote again, too. I understand that I’m in the minority on this vote, but I’ve always felt Murphy has been under-appreciated.
That leaves me one remaining vote to cast and I’m checking the box next to Brad Radke. No, I don’t honestly believe his career was HoF-worthy, but I believe it was better than most people (outside of Twinsville, anyway) give him credit for. I think he deserves a better fate than to be eliminated from future consideration after just one year on the ballot.
I realize that Bernie Williams is quite likely to be the only newly eligible player on the ballot to get the requisite 5% of the vote to remain on the ballot next year. I just can’t vote for him for much the same reason you won’t fine Don Mattingly’s name checked on my ballot. Yes, it has everything to do with the team they played for and the fact that they’ll both get more votes than they deserve simply because of where they played their home games. They don’t need mine, too.
What say you? We’ll leave the poll up over in the right-hand column until the BBWAA gets around to making the official announcement of who, if anyone, gets the necessary 75% support to garner election to the Hall this year. (I’m betting it will be Barry Larkin all by his lonesome.)
And with that, have a wonderful Christmas everyone!
– JC
I gotta disagree with you about the ‘roiders going into the HOF, JC. It will be a sad day when the voters allow the cheaters in. No way, no how. I voted for Morris and Bagwell but after looking at Bagwell’s stats – he falls well short for HOF consideration.
Barry Larkin was a nice player but he too would never get my vote. He was Greg Gagne with a little more power. So that leaves Jack Morris as the only inductee for 2012.
You don’t think cheaters are already in the Hall of Fame? When you find a way to get rid of the amphetamine users, let me know. MLB and the media intentionally ignored the PED use for years and NOW we’re supposed to get all high and mighty about it? I think that’s crap.
I dont really think “Greenies” really helped a player’s performance and if you had a script to use them they were legal. My problem is with McGuire and Canseco (Bonds, Palmero, Pudge, Sosa, Clemens, Pettite, A Riod, and the rest of the cheaters) sticking a needle full of ‘roids into their a$$es in a bathroom stall at the park. It would be a slap in the face to honorable HOF’er like Killebrew, Aaron, Mathews, Puckett, Musial, and the rest of the HOF’ers who didnt cheat.
It’s naive to think amphetamines didn’t help a player’s performance. Did they build up muscle like roids or HGH? No. But they allowed players to endure a long season (and long nights) while maintaining a level of concentration that subsequently resulted in better performance. Just because they didn’t have as much of an effect specifically on home run numbers doesn’t mean they didn’t aid performance in other areas. I’d be willing to bet most of the “honorable” HOFers you cited took some sort of drug that helped their performance. And whether the drugs are administered in pill form or via a needle in the ass is completely irrelevant.
I also don’t see how it denigrates the HOF to add McGwire any more than it did to elect Gaylord Perry and Whitey Ford. Point is, players have been cheating in one way or another to gain an advantage for as long as baseball has been played. In the case of PEDs, neither Baseball nor the holier-than-thou writers who are being so sanctimonious about the issue now wanted to even acknowledge the cheating when they were all making good livings because of it. It’s the height of hypocrisy for any of them to now serve as judge and jury for these players.
I’m thinking the BBWAA agree with my take over yours. I dont see Mark McGuire (the poster boy of the ‘roids era) ever getting into the HOF. Players with no respect for the game are getting their just desserts. They were treated with kid gloves when in fact they deserved and iron fist.
Yes, the writers do feel that way. The same hypocritical writers that treated all of the PED users with kid gloves now want to be the morality police. That disgusts me more than the guys who did the PEDs.
I’m guessing this subject will be debated for the next 100 years. New HOF standards will be established. The time is coming when 100 wins by a starting pitcher will be an automatic induction into the HOF as 300 wins is today. That will come in the next 20 years. Will ‘roiders be allowed too? Probably. In time the Baseball HOF will be very similar to the Football HOF.