My take on the Hall of Fame balloting

 

The Hall of Fame balloting broken down Zealot-styleā€¦

New Hall of Famer Andre Dawsonā€™s most compelling statistic:

Heā€™s one of three major league players who has 400 homeruns and 300 stolen bases.  The other two?  Willie Mays and Barry Bonds.

Andre Dawsonā€™s least compelling statistic (and the one you hear cited by his detractors ad nauseum):

His lifetime .323 OBP.  Enough said.

The 2010 HOF candidate most deserving to get into the Hall of Fame but didnā€™t:

My opinion?? Bert Blyleven.  Iā€™ve been on his bandwagon for a few years now.  Come on, vote him in already!  He has two more years of eligibility left.  The good news is that since 1999, when he got 14.1% of the vote, his percentage has gone up every year with the exception of 2007.  I predict that weā€™ll see Bert in the Hall next summer.

The reason Roberto Alomar didnā€™t get in his first year:

Three-fold.  1) the spitting incident didnā€™t help especially among the old guard of the BBWAA  2) the fact that some donā€™t want to vote anyone but the cream of the crop in their first of eligibility especially with reason #1 hanging around their necks and 3) Iā€™ve heard this factoid bandied aboutā€¦ that Alomar was pretty much done by the time he was 35 or 36.  Yes, I knowā€¦ he started out (full time) in the bigs when he was 20 and subsequently put in a good 17 years of service in the majors but that kind of thing sticks with writers, I guess.

Craziest Hall of Fame vote:

  Pat Hentgen 1 vote.  To be fair, Hentgen won a Cy Young and won one World Series game but with 131 wins and a 4.32 ERA that can take you only so far.

The ā€œItā€™s not crazy if there are two of usā€ award:

Eric Karros 2 votes. 

and finally,

The 2010 candidate I thought was dissed this year: 

Harold Baines.  Should he have gotten in?  I donā€™t know.  But I was surprised that he barely hung on for next yearā€™s ballot.  Yes, Iā€™m a Cub fan but Baines deserved more.  An interesting stat:  Baines had more career hits and more career rbis than any other HOF candidate.