Baseball Hall of Fame ballot released

Do you have a graph or a pie chart that proves this?

 

I know of a well-known and well-respected baseball writer who has never voted for a player who was on the ballot for the first time and has said he never will. He said he almost voted for Seaver on the first ballot because he was worried he was going to be the only one, but still didn't.

Bill Conlin didn't vote for Nolan Ryan.

A few years ago, a writer voted for Jim Deshaies after there was a website lobbying to get him a vote. The writer, from somewhere in Texas, said it was an error.

 

I'll just dig him up so you can see his pinky finger

 

I'm going to be needing a tree graph.

 

Another name out of the blue: Jim Deshaies.

As for Bill Conlin not voting for Nolan ... what?!

 

Bagwell and Juan Gone are the only ones with a chance to make it on the first ballot next year, so we'll probably be having the same argument next year.

 

(Ignoring the pissing match ...)

Because how are you supposed to start, in 2009, to hold the Hall of Fame to a standard it's never been held to before? Even if you only allowed players who were no-doubt-about-it HOFers (Johnson, Maddux, Griffey, etc.) from now on, they'd still be sharing the Gallery with the likes of Travis Jackson and Rabbit Maranville. Unless, of course, we kicked the "bad" choices out, post-enshrinement.

You want the Hall of Fame to be something it's not. And that ship has long since sailed.

 

There is no possible way you can look at Randy Johnson's qualifications and argue that he is not a Hall of Famer. None. I like Zeke's phrase above. Any voter who leaves Johnson off is either "mocking the process or he's too stupid to participate in the process." Seriously, take a real look at his career and tell me how you can possibly make an argument that he doesn't belong in the Hall of Fame.

The vote for Segui is a joke. He's not qualified and he used HGH. It's some voter fucking around.

 

He wrote a column calling Ryan something to the effect of "the most overrated player of his generation"

 

How does Heyman vote for Morris, then admit his overall numbers aren't as good as Blyleven's?

If the numbers aren't the deciding factor, what is? I hope it's not Morris' Game 7 WS win, but wouldn't be surprised if that was the case.

 

There are only a few guys who fall into the "there's no way you can justify not voting for them" category.

Nobody on this year's ballot or next year's ballot falls into that category. Randy Johnson will be in that category. So will Maddux. With steroid allegations, there are only a few left.

 

Not saying it's the case, but a lot of folks still rhapsodize about Game 7 of the '91 World Series. Hell, I do. It was a beautiful piece of baseball history.

Is it a deciding factor for the Hall of Fame? I don't know. But I could see a voter using that as a final tipping point on the barometer.