Today we heard the announcement that three of what most people consider to be amongst the greatest to ever play at their position in baseball, would be inducted into the Hall of Fame. They are deserving of this honor having been amongst the elite for their entire careers. Tom Glavine and Greg Maddux of the Atlanta Braves, and Frank "Big Hurt" Thomas of the Chicago White Sox (mainly) and a short stint with the Toronto Blue Jays.
I am watching now as some of my favorite players as an early adult (see the 90's) are now becoming eligible for the Hall of Fame. I grew up in the early cable years with only TBS and WGN to watch in the summer. Thus my love for my Chicago Cubs as well as the Atlanta Braves. I grew up with Sandberg, Dawson and Maddux before he was a Brave. Mark Grace, Rafael Palmiero briefly and Lee Smith. Bill Buckner, Jody Davis, Keith Hernandez and more. The Braves had Dale Murphy, Bruce Benedict, Bob Horner and some guy named Niekro. He was ok. :-)
Watching Maddux, Glavine and Smoltz was simply amazing. I was crushed when Maddux went to the Braves as a Cub fan but not terribly upset as I grew up liking the Braves anyway. The only thing better than seeing these two go in would have been for Smoltz to have decided against his ill fated 6 month comeback attempt that kept him from going in to the Hall of Fame with his teammates. This all being said I was happy with the inductees today, even if I am still pissy about Maddux not being unanimous (seriously...he won 355 games). Here comes the meat and potatoes of this blog.
Some asshat, with a Hall of Fame vote, cast their vote for Jacques Jones. Another for Armando Benitez (best known for his brawl against the Yankees, rather than his pitching), and one for Hideo Nomo. Nevermind that 16 baseball writers decided Greg Maddux, who won the World Series with the Braves in 1994 and who could arguable be the greatest pitcher of our generation, was not worthy of their vote. They used them on J.T. Snow....and Jacques Jones. NOT Craig Biggio. Who missed by TWO VOTES!!! One of the top 5 second basemen of all time. ALL TIME. I had to look up Jacques Jones tonight. No joke.
Dan Lebatard of the Miami Herald and ESPN (heavy emphasis on tard) GAVE his vote to Deadspin.com. Gave it away. Likely he will not have this vote next year and frankly thats a good thing as he himself admitted he was voting for all the steroid posterboys. At least Deadspin visitors got it right when they put the vote up in the form of a poll and voted Biggio. My point is that as is the same with most sports media today, the system for casting HoF ballots is inherently flawed. I'm not getting in to the steroid debate tonight. It's just time the Baseball Writers Association of America took a back seat to former players and managers, current players and managers, and the fans.
Yes the grumpy old men should still have a say. It shouldn't be as large as what it is now though. There are plenty of great baseball writers. Peter Gammons, Buster Olney, Jayson Stark, Tim Kurkjian and many others. There were 581 votes returned in 2010. FIVE HUNDRED AND EIGHTY ONE!! All members of the BBWAA. It's just ridiculous. Making it even more so is the fact that all of these cranky old men can only vote on 10 players maximum. According to ESPN all night tonight, one writer counted no less than 17 HoF worthy players that he wanted to vote for but could not. This means guys like Lebatard (heavy emphasis on tard) who are voting for all the guys on steroids like McGuire, Bonds, Clemens et al are not voting for Jack Morris, Alan Trammel, Craig Biggio (REALLY???), Lee Smith and others and it's going to get worse. Every year someone new, and in all probability very worthy is going to come up for a vote and because only ten can be voted on the ballot is going to become a log jam.
Want to guess who is coming up next year alone? John Smoltz, Pedro Martinez and Randy Johnson. World Series champions and again some of the best of our generation. Biggio will be up again and should make it especially after this years firestorm but my point is that there are 4 players gone off the ballot that **should** be in leaving only six players for the idiots in the BBWAA to vote on. Jack Morris didn't make it as this was his 15th year on the ballot but there are still guys like Tim Raines, Alan Trammell and Lou Whitaker to be voted on, still guys like Lee Smith, Mike Piazza, and all the roid freaks like Bonds and Clemens.
The system is broken beyond belief. Here's hoping that next year brings a change to the 10 vote maximum at the very least. While I think it's highly unlikely, I think that the BBWAA should take a back seat to retired players and managers, current players and managers with some level of tenure in the league, say ten years maybe, and finally the fans. Look not everyone is a Hall of Famer. I get it. Jacques Jones is not either however and if you voted for him you don't need to have a vote.
