Knuckle Curve » mark_mcgwire

Hall of Fame Voting: A Closer Look

Geoff Young — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 19:31:51 +0000

Okay, here’s the full vote. My thoughts below the table…

2008 Hall of Fame Vote
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.

Post from: Knuckle Curve

Sosa Hits #600

Geoff Young — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 13:23:28 +0000

He isn’t the player he once was, and he’ll always be remembered as a key figure during baseball’s steroid era, but the Rangers’ Sammy Sosa pounded his 600th career home run on Wednesday against the Chicago Cubs, the team that made him famous. The blast came at the expense of Jason Marquis in the fifth inning of the Rangers’ 7-3 victory and puts Sosa in rare company. Only four other men — Hank Aaron, Barry Bonds, Babe Ruth, and Willie Mays — have hit more homers in MLB history.

Sosa is only a marginally effective player these days — .242/.297/.458 is nothing special (I was going to say, especially in that ballpark, but the truth is, he’s doing much better on the road this year than at home) — but that’s more than he was for the Orioles in 2005 and certainly not what I expected from a 38-year-old who had sat out an entire season.

It’s a bittersweet thing to see Sosa reach this milestone. Many of us, myself included, have fond memories of watching him and Mark McGwire chase Roger Maris’ hallowed mark of 61 home runs back in ‘98. But in light of subsequent events that have cast a long shadow over baseball, it’s a little tough to celebrate what should be a remarkable achievement. That’s a real shame for all of us.

Post from: Knuckle Curve

Baseball Predictions for 2007, Revisited

Geoff Young — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 13:42:30 +0000

I know it’s early, but in the interest of accountability, I thought we should check in on our earlier predictions for the 2007 baseball season. Amazingly, a few of these have already happened.

Okay, would you believe one of these has happened? Yep, Mark McGwire wasn’t voted into the Hall of Fame. I’ll give myself partial credit for calling the Lou Piniella tirade. It didn’t go down quite the way I said it would, but the season is young — give him time.

Also, I have no way of verifying whether Daisuke Matsuzaka has become addicted to My Name Is Earl. But I’m happy to report that my last prediction is dead on — baseball remains the greatest sport on earth.

Post from: Knuckle Curve

That’s Funny, He Doesn’t Smell Like a Rose

Geoff Young — Thu, 15 Mar 2007 14:47:42 +0000

So, Pete Rose is changing his story. Again. Used to be he didn’t bet at all. Then he bet, but only on his team and only “four or five times a week.” Now it seems he bet on his team every night.

Incredible.

That word, incidentally, means lacking credibility. Rose is absolutely, without a doubt, incredible.

I particularly like the way he worked Mark McGwire and steroids into the discussion. What, no love for O.J. Simpson?

I’ve long thought that letting Rose into the Hall of Fame would be a mistake. Now I wonder if maybe that’s what it will take to make him shut up and go away. It’s an interesting dilemma.

How do we make this guy leave us alone?

Post from: Knuckle Curve