WELCOME TO IMMORTALITY, WHICH REMAINS A SCHLEP FROM THE MAJOR HIGHWAYS: Congratulation to Barry Larkin, elected today to the National Baseball Hall of Fame with 86.4% of the vote. (Our vote tally is here.) He will be inducted along with the late Ron Santo this July.
Jack Morris (66.7%), Jeff Bagwell (56%), Tim Raines (48.7%), and Alan Trammell (36.8%) each gained more than 10% this time around; Mark McGwire remains stable (19.5%); Bernie Williams (9.6%) remains under consideration for another year, while two-time AL MVP Juan Gonzalez (4.0%) falls off the ballot after his second year of eligibility.
Six people thought Vinny Castilla should be in the HOF? Somebody voted for Eric Young? Come on, people, at least pretend you're taking it seriously.
ReplyDeleteSI.com ran a story last week about "courtesy voting" for the Hall of Fame. Ridiculous, but at least allows me to avoid the conclusion that baseball trusts its highest honor to people who actually think Eric Young is a Hall of Famer.
ReplyDeleteWell, hopefully Jack Morris will be satisfied with beating Gil Hodges' record for highest % of the BBWAA vote for someone who never gets into the Hall. Or, more importantly, hopefully the Veteran's Committee will.
ReplyDeleteI don't think he makes it next year with the big new class, although since the only pitchers in it are Clemens & Schilling, neither of whom will rush in, I guess it's possible. 2014 is his last chance, and that year Maddux, Glavine and Mussina all show up.
There is a chance he gets swept in next year in a groundswell of anti-steroid fervor. With Bonds, Clemens, Sosa and Piazza entering the ballot next year, voters may decide to send a message by voting for an old-school guy like Morris to join Biggio on the stage. There is no chance he makes it the following year.
ReplyDeleteThat's a hopeful rise for Raines, but those numbers for him and Bagwell are still baffling as hell to me. (Then again, I'm still baffled that Baines dropped off the ballot, so whadda I know.)
ReplyDelete/Honestly, I also thought McGwire and Palmeiro would drop below 10%.
The five votes for Tim Salmon are maybe the most mystifying to me. We're talking someone who never even made an All-Star game.
ReplyDeleteSalmon was a pretty good player in all 30 or 40 games during his career when he was 100% healthy.
ReplyDeletewouldn't the apples-to-apples comparison be Dale Murphy? Better fielder than Sosa, certainly, and if he roided up he'd have had thousands of home runs (guesstimate).
ReplyDeleteAlso, was Piazza ever linked to roids by anything other than his (allegedly) epic bacne?
Other than Kirk Gibson and Garry Maddox, perhaps best player to never make an ASG. Or Strasburg.
ReplyDeleteCertainly the best player named for fish (outpacing, um, Harvey Haddix?).
ReplyDelete