Hall of Fame Voting: A Closer Look
January 8, 2008 by Geoff Young
Filed under Hall of Fame
Okay, here’s the full vote. My thoughts below the table…
| Player | Votes | Pct |
|---|---|---|
| Courtesy MLB.com. | ||
| Rich Gossage | 466 | 85.8% |
| Jim Rice | 392 | 72.2% |
| Andre Dawson | 358 | 65.9% |
| Bert Blyleven | 336 | 61.9% |
| Lee Smith | 235 | 43.3% |
| Jack Morris | 233 | 42.9% |
| Tommy John | 158 | 29.1% |
| Tim Raines | 132 | 24.3% |
| Mark McGwire | 128 | 23.6% |
| Alan Trammell | 99 | 18.2% |
| Dave Concepcion | 88 | 16.2% |
| Don Mattingly | 86 | 15.8% |
| Dave Parker | 82 | 15.1% |
| Dale Murphy | 75 | 13.8% |
| Harold Baines | 28 | 5.2% |
| Rod Beck | 2 | 0.4% |
| Travis Fryman | 2 | 0.4% |
| Robb Nen | 2 | 0.4% |
| Shawon Dunston | 1 | 0.2% |
| Chuck Finley | 1 | 0.2% |
| David Justice | 1 | 0.2% |
| Chuck Knoblauch | 1 | 0.2% |
| Todd Stottlemyre | 1 | 0.2% |
| Jose Rijo | 0 | 0% |
| Brady Anderson | 0 | 0% |
As promised, my take:
- The voters finally stopped screwing Goose Gossage. This business about Bruce Sutter paving the way for him is absolute garbage. Gossage came first and was a better pitcher.
- They completely dropped the ball on Tim Raines. There is no way in Hades that Jim Rice was a better player than Raines. Why folks in charge of this sort of thing fail to recognize this is beyond me.
- Speaking of outfielders, if Andre Dawson is a legitimate borderline candidate, then Dave Parker deserves much more serious consideration than he’s getting.
- Jack Morris was not a better player than Alan Trammell. Sorry, he just wasn’t.
- How many years will it take Lee Smith to overcome the idiocy that kept Gossage out for so long?
Sigh. I’ve probably missed some others, but I hate to work myself up over this stuff. I just would like to see the folks in charge of these things do a better job of it. Is that so much to ask? Apparently it is.
Goose should have been in on the first ballot. I hate this crap where they make guys wait for years and years. I read that Goose’s mother died last year and never got to see him get in. Nice job, a-holes.
And is there any doubt that some writers won’t vote for Rickey because they don’t want him to get 100%? That garbage bothers me a lot more than who gets in and who doesn’t.
It’s not going to happen but it would be nice if Rickey and Raines went in together next year. Either way I’m already looking forward to Rickey’s induction speech.
I imagine Rickey is looking forward to it, too.
It’s best not to get to emotional about it. I think now there is going to be a writers backlash against the bloggers and stat-guys so that players like Blyleven and Raines will never get in while Jim Rice, Jack Morris and Andre Dawson (feared batters, or just winners with intangibles) will get in so the idiot writers can flex their muscles. In the words of Nelson Muntz “Ha-ha, your medium is dying.:
My first thought is to be offended by a potential backlash, but on further reflection, I’m not sure that it would make things any worse than they are now.
Okay, I agree with four out of five of your points, which is pretty good! Lee Smith. No! Gossage wasn’t elected for his saves total. He was because he was a dominant reliever. Lee Smith, Jeff Reardon and a bunch of other consistently good, but not great, relievers are fall in the same class, and it’s not the Rich Gossage class, who was far better than all of them.
Oh yeah, Gossage was a much better pitcher than Lee Smith. But I think Smith probably belongs and at the very least is more deserving than Bruce Sutter. That was my main point, which on re-reading, I see I could have made more clearly.
I have a serious problem with how righteous Hall of Fame voters are. McGwire did something wrong, but who among us hasn’t? He broke no ‘baseball rules’. Therefore, he should not be judged by anything other than his career. And, frankly, he is one of the absolute most feared hitters who ever played the game. Jim Rice? A very good hitter no doubt. But Mark McGwire was feared long before he hit 70 and somebody saw a bottle of Andro. Also, tell me how these guys still havent gotten in…Blyleven, Dawson, Morris, and Trammell? There is no way that any of these guys are not Hall of Fame material. Raines should be in as well….and Dale Murphy? He used to get more support. Borderline or no, the steroids era completely overshadows Murphy. What a sad story.
Brett, I agree with you on Blyleven, Trammell, and Raines. I’m less certain of Dawson and Morris. The Murphy situation is difficult. If he’d done anything toward the end of his career, he’d be a mortal lock. He’s one of those guys that when you were watching him play, there was no doubt you were watching a future HOFer. And then his career just kind of ended. A real shame.