EXCLUSIVE! MUST CREDIT ALOTT5MA!
RIPKEN, GWYNN AND GOSSAGE TO JOIN BASEBALL IMMORTALS IN COOPERSTOWN: Once again, I have wasted a good hour, trying to determine who will make the cut when the Baseball Hall of Fame announces its next class tomorrow. My research consisted of perusing columns and stories from the past week written by 35 of the 550 members of the Baseball Writers Association of America who are eligible to vote for the Hall. Granted it is a somewhat biased sample, since 9 of those writers work for the Chicago Tribune and 12 work for ESPN.com, but the other 14 are a pretty geographically diverse group.As you can see from the results below, Rich "Goose" Gossage will join mortal locks Cal Ripken Jr. and Tony Gwynn to comprise the class of 2007. Falling just short of the 75% threshold for inclusion will be sluggers Andre Dawson and Jim Rice. And in a damning indictment of the steroid era, Mark McGwire will not even come close to making it.
There has been a lot of speculation that Ripken may become the first unanimous choice in the history of the Hall, but thanks at least to Chicago Daily Southtown writer Paul Ladewski's "protest vote," Cal will not get 100% of the vote. Ripken--and Gwynn for that matter--may however break Tom Seaver's record 1992 vote percentage of 98.8 percent.
Here are the complete results of my poll:
- Cal Ripken........35 (100%)
- Tony Gwynn........35 (100%)
- Goose Gossage........30 (87%)
- Andre Dawson........25 (71%)
- Jim Rice...................24 (69%)
- Bert Blyleven..........16 (46%)
- Jack Morris...............16 (46%)
- Lee Smith................12 (34%)
- Mark McGwire........8 (23%)
- Harold Baines........7 (20%)
- Tommy John.............5 (14%)
- Dave Concepcion........5 (14%)
- Dave Parker........4 (11%)
- Steve Garvey*............4 (11%)
- Alan Trammel...........3 (9%)
- Don Mattingly...........2 (6%)
- Dale Murphy..............2 (6%)
- Albert Belle................1 (3%)
*Last year of eligibility.
I inadvertently left Harold Baines off yesterday. Interestingly, five of his seven votes came from the Chicago Tribune voters, which doesn't bode well for his overall chances. Remember Baines , with 2,866 hits (39th overall) and 1,628 RBI (23rd overall), is poised to become the all-time leader in those categories who is eligible for but not in the Hall.
No comments:
Post a Comment