Le Batard, Deadspin, the HOF vote

Actually there is a screening committee that subjectively puts players on the ballot. There are guys who play 10 years and do not make it.

 

Correct. About two dozen 10-year players who retired in 2008 did NOT appear on this year's ballot. That includes:

Joe Borowski
Jose Cruz Jr.
Damion Easley
Shawn Estes
Chris Gomez
Scott Hatteberg
Jon Lieber
Esteban Loaiza
Kent Mercker
Trot Nixon
Rudy Seanez
Shannon Stewart
Tanyon Sturtze
Mark Sweeney
Steve Trachsel
Dmitri Young

et al.

 

That's the first time I've ever been wrong. Damn. It was bound to happen at some point.

 

They also need to make the votes public. I find it odd that a profession that expects the people they cover to be open and answer questions doesn't believe they should be held to the same standard.

 

Scott Hatteberg should have made the Hall. A revolutionary.

 

Easley and Gomez both went to Lakewood High.

 

Who won the pool?

 

Ah, I see. You have no point.

WTF? People sweat out elections whether they're running for Homecoming King, Dog Catcher or the Hall of Fame. These guys spend their lives performing in front of 40,000 people and TV cameras. They can handle the "torture" of an election. Would it have been better if Santo had been eligible once, then eliminated from consideration when he didn't make the cut?

 

Considering he was never voted in by the writers, yes, I think it would have been better if they had one vote on him instead of stringing him along. Here is a quote from an SI piece in 2012 (http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/writers/cliff_corcoran/07/20/ron-santo-hall-of-fame/).

It would take a simple change in philosophy.

Is a player a Hall of Famer? Yes or no. Not "Is he a first-ballot HOFer?", "Is he a tenth-ballot HOFer?"

Is he a goddamn Hall of Famer!?

If he's is, stop diddling and vote him in. Same goes for the veteran's committee, which had opportunities to vote Santo in prior to his death, but didn't.

 

I really really truly honestly believe that there is a very small percentage of people who intentionally withhold votes from people they think are HOFers (unless they run out of spots, but that's another story).

When guys have low totals and move up, it's because the voting pool changes and people change their minds. There's a lot of new information out there and people are supposed to be open minded to it, right?

I think you want to encourage people to continue to study and deliberate about every player as long as he is on the ballot.

 

Chris Gomez not making the ballot is a travesty. He's the only player to win the Tigers rookie of the year award twice.

 

Went to Cooperstown in 2012. My dad is in his 60s and saw Santo in his prime and he really liked the late 60s Cubs, which were a sort of temporary replacement for him when the Braves left Milwaukee.

But when he saw that Santo was one of the inductees he had a two-sentence response.

"Christ. What bullshit."

Santo was by no means some sort of lead-pipe cinch that got fucked.