Greg Maddux is possibly the best
right handed non-power pitcher I’ve ever seen pitch. He could paint corners and freeze batters
better than anyone I’ve ever seen. The
command of all his pitches was something I’ve never seen before and haven’t
seen since. It’s a shame he wasn’t unanimous
choice (97.2%) because if anyone was a sure-thing Hall of Famer, it was
him. He won 355 games and owned a career
3.16 ERA. There was a stretch in the mid
90’s to early 00’s that he was just unbelievable. From 1992-2002, a span of 11 years, he posted
a 2.47 ERA and won 198 games while striking out 1,903 batters and only walking
420. That’s a K/BB rate of 4.53 and a
BB/9 of 1.5. Simply amazing.
Tom Glavine won 305 games over 22
seasons and while not as great as Maddux was a crafty lefty that always seemed
to escape jams in his career. He struck
out 2,607 batters and had 25 career shut-outs.
He was great in the postseason, posting a 3.30 ERA and 2.16 in the World
Series. A 10 time All Star and 2 time Cy
Young Award winner, he was one of the best left handed pitchers I’ve ever seen.
The Big Hurt, Frank Thomas, was a
menacing figure. The guy was 6 foot 5
and weighed 240 pounds. He was a beast
and could hit with the best of them. I’d
say top 5 first baseman of all time. He
was a five-time All Star and banged out 521 career homers and one back to back
MVP awards in 1993 and 1994. The guy
also had an incredible eye, walking 1,667 times in his career, topping 100 10
times, 8 times in a row from 1991-1998.
His career slash line of .301/.419/.555/.974 is ridiculous.
Now to my gripes about who didn’t
get in and the broken system of voting.
First, how in the hell did Craig
Biggio not make it in? It’s a damn shame
that one of the best 2nd baseman of all time fell just 2 votes short
of the 75% criteria. With over 3,000
hits, 668 doubles, 291 homers, 1,844 runs, 1,175 RBI and a career slash line of
.281/.363/.433/.796, it’s a crime he wasn’t voted in this year. Not only that, but the man played catcher, 2nd
base and center field, all three of the toughest positions on the diamond. I really can’t fathom how they left him out
of the Hall and hope they get it right next year.
The others that I thought should
have been voted in were Bonds, Clemens, Bagwell and Piazza. All are under that PED suspicion and taint
but it’s time to vote those guys in. Let’s
face it, PED’s were part of that era and we can’t ignore it anymore. Can we just assume everyone was using and
vote the best of the best in? It’s
time. I’m not going to say anymore about
it, let’s just move on. If baseball wasn’t
policing it back then, why are policing the players now?
I guess that’s my biggest problem
with the Hall of Fame. Let’s acknowledge
what happened and why it happened and move on.
My thing, if everyone was using, these guys were still the best out of
all the ones that were using, right? So
don’t they deserve to be in there? No
asterisk or mention of anything, maybe a simple sentence that says, played
during the Steroid Era or something like that but we need to get the best
players in this museum.
Now to the broken voting
system. While there are no “correct”
ballots and everyone is free to vote on whomever they would like, it’s the
process needs to be straightened out before the whole thing becomes a laughing
stock.
Here are my suggestions to make
the process better:
Make the results public.
Every ballot should be put up on
the BBWAA web site. These voters are
journalists and these journalists get to ask players, managers and executives
all the hard questions. They expect them
to go on record every day so it’s unconscionable for them to conduct a secret
ballot. It simply isn’t fair. Maybe some public scrutiny will force voters
to consider their choices more carefully.
Who is voting?
In order for a writer to vote,
the rules state that they must be an active member of the BBWAA for 10
consecutive years. Once a writer gets a
Hall of Fame vote, they are eligible to continue voting even when they are no
longer an active member of the BBWAA, provided they become a lifetime honorary
member.
So essentially, BBWAA membership
is a convenient way to obtain a press pass that works at every stadium. Media organizations simply elect a list of
people, pay their dues and their BBWAA cards arrive in the mail.
You are supposed to be a beat
writer, backup beat writer or a columnist of the BBWAA. However, the guidelines aren’t enforced and there
are plenty of BBWAA members who have a card just for the convenience and cover
only a handful of games each season.
Others go years without even stepping foot in a ballpark or writing a
single sentence about baseball.
The BBWAA should work harder to
make sure members are actually covering baseball.
Increase the pool.
It’s not the old days. Newspapers and magazines aren’t the only ones
who talk about baseball. Luckily the
BBWAA has recently granted membership to writers from websites and bloggers but
hy stop there?
How about we give voting privileges
to broadcasters and baseball historians. Guys like Vin Scully, Bob Costas, Bill
James, etc. I’d mostly like broadcasters
to get a vote because they see these guys every day of the season. Let’s make it happen.
Those simple 3 changes would help
dramatically and this year’s outcry over the system seems to be pretty
big. Hopefully the BBWAA will hear the critism
and make the much needed changes.
If I had a vote this year, the
following would have been my ballot (you get 10 choices):
Roger Clemens
Barry Bonds
Craig Biggio
Mike Piazza
Frank Thomas
Jeff Bagwell
Tim Raines
Tom Glavine
Edgar Martinez
