Big Mac makes my Hall ballot
Posted: Tuesday, December 11, 2007 10:56 PM
My ballot arrived in the mail today for the National Baseball Hall of Fame Class of 2008. And it’s bereft of newly eligible candidates who are certified first-ballot members.
The best of the newcomers are Tim Raines and David Justice, and neither one is going to get my vote. Raines is close, and I may change my mind in the future, but I don’t vote for candidates in their first year unless they’re the best of the best. The other first-timers aren’t even close: Brady Anderson, Rod Beck, Shawon Dunston, Chuck Finley, Travis Fryman, Chuck Knoblauch, Rob Nenn, Jose Rijo and Todd Stottlemyre.
Last year, as you’ll remember, was Mark McGwire’s first time on the ballot, and he got just 128 of 545 votes cast – 281 short of what he needed to get in. (To be elected, a player must be named on 75 percent of the ballots.)
Only Cal Ripken Jr. and Tony Gwynn got in. Goose Gossage fell 21 votes short, while Jim Rice was 63 votes away. I voted for both Rice and Gossage, along with Gwynn, Ripken, Tommy John and Bert Blyleven.
Given the lack of an obvious choice and the reluctance of voters to send in an empty ballot, I’m confident that this year, Gossage will finally be recognized for what he was – the greatest relief pitcher of his day. I also hope that Jim Rice will make it in this, his 14th year of eligibility. Both will be on my ballot.
I doubt that Gossage needs any introduction.
But apparently not enough voters remember just how great a player Rice was for Boston during a 16-year career that ended in 1989. He’s one of those guys for whom the numbers do not begin to tell the story. He finished with just 382 home runs and 1,451 RBIs, but for most of his career, he was the last batter any pitcher wanted to see with the game on the line. Like Albert Pujols and David Ortiz today is what he was for a decade and more.
Rice won one MVP and in five other years was among the top five. That’s one of the reasons (The number of years he was a dominant player is the other) I vote for him and not for Don Mattingly, who won one MVP and was a top-five candidate just one other time. But the bottom line here is Rice deserves to be in.
Others will use similar arguments to get Andre Dawson in, and he may make it this year. But I’m not voting for him.
I get a lot of heat from a couple of friends who know what they’re talking about when I say I will continue to vote for Tommy John and Bert Blyleven, neither of whom has 300 wins and both of whom were compilers to a degree. But I don’t think 300 wins is the only measure of pitching greatness, and both John and Blyleven were superior pitchers who won year after year and finished with ERAs well within Hall of Fame range. (Jack Morris’ ERA is a bloated 3.90, which is why I don’t vote for him.) John finished with 288 wins and Blyleven with 287. If Don Sutton can get in after a career made up of scuffballs and cut balls, John and Blyleven get my vote.
So that’s my ballot – Gossage, John, Blyleven and Rice.
Oh, and one more: McGwire.
Yeah, yeah, I know all about the ‘roids, but when he was allegedly using them, they weren’t illegal. And, while I don’t think 500 home runs is automatic, McGwire’s 583 are more than enough. He was the premier home-run hitter of his day playing against other players who were as juiced as he was. He would have been the premier slugger without the drugs, too. I’m not holding him responsible for something baseball never told him not to do.
He won’t get in, but he’s on my ballot.
