2019 Baseball Hall of Fame Ballot

You'll be stunned at the two pitchers who think Harold Baines is a Hall of Famer

Jon Heyman: Harold Baines Hall of Fame criticism is over-the-top, immature

 

Now do Al Oliver and Edgar Martinez

 

Maybe read the roster of every team in 1980 start to finish. Then pause. Ask “how many of them were all stars in 1999?” Walks off stage.

 

I realize numbers dominate baseball discussion now - "the gut" has been banished to the farthest reaches of the planet wisdom replaced by nerds from the Ivy League. And I'm okay with that. I'm okay with managers being hired to be "buddies", who lack "the necessities" as Al Campanis said, but still get dugout jobs because they "vibe" with the thirty-two year old GM who doesn't want to be intimidated by a guy who has been filling out lineup cards since they were in diapers.
That said - I'm cool with Harold Baines HoFer - it's not like he was a jerk, he played well for a long time. Hope this bodes well for Edgar Martinez.

 

Or he reads the entire MLB rule book. This needs to happen. I will pay for his water and cups.

 

The vote isn’t taken seriously if they are putting in Baines. That should bother people who do take it seriously.

 

"I've got a lot of problems with you people! I've been quiet for 30 years and now you're all going to sit there and listen to Harold Baines talk!"

 

Has the Veterans Committee ever been larger than its current composition? Why not have all living Hall of Famers (who are still cognitively operative) vote on induction? That way a cabal like LaRussa, Reinsdorf and Gillick can't unduly influence an outcome.

 

David Lennon with a doozy vote -- Bonds, Clemens and Rivera. He also dropped Edgar, Mussina and Schilling from last year

 

Will have to look at bill James on the hall when I get home, but I want to say there was a group of about 30 to 40 in the early days of the hall to review pre-1900 players. I also could be completely misremembering since the various vet committees went through various permeations.