Who Makes It Into The MLB Hall of Fame?

[Greg Ambrosius]

News Flash: Approval rating of BBWAA falls just below that of Congress!! Film at 11.

[Greg Ambrosius]

What's the use of a Hall of Fame if nobody's worthy of getting in? 3,000+ hits for a second baseman? Not good enough. Best hitting C? Nope.

Let's create a fantasy baseball Hall of Fame and have FANS elect players. Just plain career 5x5 numbers. Let's start with Babe Ruth and go.

[NorCalAtlFan]

easy.

at least this shows people have a heightened interest in baseball, which is always good:)

[Greg Ambrosius]

Again the voting process and/or voters really needs to be reviewed ..... consider that amongst all the babble about sterioids there were many who did not vote at all - Craig Biggio was just 39 votes short begging the question of how many who are honored to be given a ballot failed to turn one in or turned in one with no players checked.

5 voters turned in blank ballots.

Talk about apathy. Maybe some of these writers really are our Congressmen.

[NorCalAtlFan]

i don't think bud selig supporters should have an opinion on the matter.......................

[Navel Lint]

News Flash: Approval rating of BBWAA falls just below that of Congress!! Film at 11.

I'd be willing to bet that most of the writers are proud of themselves. Giving high-fives and back-slaps over the great job they think they did in "protecting" the HOF. Mind you, these are many of the very same writers that 10 years ago lauded the achievements of the players they now vilify.

Today's vote is a clear turning point. Bonds, Clemens, Sosa, McGwire will NEVER get in. Neither will Arod or Pettite in the future. And while I think fans would always like to see someone go in each year and the writers might get some minor heat for not putting anyone through, the next couple of ballots will give the writers and the HOF itself plenty of cover to avoid calls for any changes to the voting procedures.

In just the next three years (2014-16), I can see as many as 11 players getting elected into the HOF.
C Biggio
G Maddux
T Glavine
F Thomas
J Kent
M Mussina
R Johnson
P Martinez
J Smoltz
K Griffey Jr
T Hoffman

Electing that many players from one era will allow the writers to easily stay away from the "steroid" guys and the so-called "steroid era".


The one thing that continues to bug me is the "first ballot" protection voting. Craig Biggio IS a HOF caliber player and I'm sure he will go in next year. Yet there were plenty of voters out there today that just don't think he is in the same league as Joe DiMaggio or Jimmy Foxx or Rogers Hornsby or Ted Williams or Eddie Mathews or Juan Marichal or Billy Williams or Etc.........and while they might think that and you reading this might think it as well, the HOF plaque doesn't mention if you are a first or second ballot guy. Oh; btw. Of the seven HOF players I just mentioed above, only one went in on the first ballot. I'll leave you to figure out which one it was.

[Fourslot40]

I have a real problem with blank ballots. It's disrespectful to the sport and the process. Many players have worked hard and made sacrifices to earn the right to be on that ballot. Aaron Sele got a vote.

[Captain Hook]

For those of you who care to add your name to those requesting a change in the HOF voting:

https://www.change.org/petitions/change ... ng-process

[Schwks]

I am a lifelong Mets fan. Piazza was never my favorite player, but damn he carried that team on his back. He actually made being a Mets fan fun for a couple of years because you never felt like they were out of the game if he had an AB left.

I was listening to Mike Francessa on WFAN, the premier, drive time, talk show host on NY sports radio this afternoon. For the first time ever, I heard a discussion involving Piazza in connection with steroids. Where is this coming from? Can someone please enlighten me...what evidence if any connects Pizza to steroids...I never even heard the rumor before.

[NorCalAtlFan]

the Piazza "noise" about steroids has been around for quite a while. can't recall when i first started hearing it, but it was there.

[Greg Ambrosius]

I am a lifelong Mets fan. Piazza was never my favorite player, but damn he carried that team on his back. He actually made being a Mets fan fun for a couple of years because you never felt like they were out of the game if he had an AB left.

I was listening to Mike Francessa on WFAN, the premier, drive time, talk show host on NY sports radio this afternoon. For the first time ever, I heard a discussion involving Piazza in connection with steroids. Where is this coming from? Can someone please enlighten me...what evidence if any connects Pizza to steroids...I never even heard the rumor before.

This is a very interesting point. Kirk Radomski was the former batboy and clubhouse employee for the New York Mets who was the most critical witness in the Mitchell Report. He supplied the majority of big-time names to Mitchell. However, he never once mentioned Piazza and Piazza was never named on any official reports. Much of this is heresay that is almost "had to be" on something talk. I mean, seriously, are there any reports of Piazza on steroids other than people just think he was?

His numbers for a catcher are indisputable. So what gave the writers the authority to say "yeah, he must have been, too?" It's crazy that they are really throwing everyone from this era under the bus. Because if there was no suspicion of Piazza -- again, without ANY evidence -- wouldn't his numbers and prominence in the game make him a first ballot Hall of Famer? It would be a slam dunk, right?

[NorCalAtlFan]

wasn't he mentioned in jeff pearlman's book? that might have been where i heard it. if i recall, the section that dealt with piazza quoted players named and unnamed, that called piazza out for his juicing.

[Greg Ambrosius]

ESPN.com's Jayson Stark is spot on with this analysis of the Baseball Hall of Fame and its voters:

http://espn.go.com/mlb/hof13/story/_/id ... ll-fame-be

[Greg Ambrosius]

wasn't he mentioned in jeff pearlman's book? that might have been where i heard it. if i recall, the section that dealt with piazza quoted players named and unnamed, that called piazza out for his juicing.

I like one writer not voting for him because he was a 62nd round pick. Oh, so then he must have juiced to get better, right? Crazy.

No evidence from what I can tell for Piazza, just speculation. And enough speculation to keep him out of Cooperstown.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/10/sport ... .html?_r=0

[NorCalAtlFan]

well, 62nd rounders out of college usually don't amount to much...................

there is no evidence about a lot of players.

in pearlman's book, piazza said off the record of course, that he did in fact use PED's.

[Greg Ambrosius]

If the BBWAA is willing to erase all of these personal accomplishments because of steroids, why aren't we erasing the team accomplishments by these same players? Why are we keeping Clemens out of the Hall of Fame but keeping the Yankees' titles as treasures? And don't even tell me that they'll honor Bud Selig in the Hall of Fame someday when he looked the other way during this era!!

I mean, it's crazy act like this era didn't happen. It's also crazy to think that just a few superstars participated in the juicing era. Heck, Jose Canseco's estimate of the number of players who juiced might be low. If you saw everyone else doing and making millions in return, you'd follow suit too, right? So how do we know that the World Series champions from those eras weren't just the most juiced teams of each season, not necessarily the best teams?

I know, I know, give it up. But it seems odd that the writers are trying to cleanse baseball 15 years after they glorified these same players and looked the other way on all of this. It's a museum, filled with good and bad from the history of the game. To eliminate 20 years of history seems odd.

[NorCalAtlFan]

"I know, I know, give it up. But it seems odd that the writers are trying to cleanse baseball 15 years after they glorified these same players and looked the other way on all of this."

that is my gripe. verducci, stark, etc. all jackholes writing articles to fit their narrative now. it didn't take a genius to see that steroid/ped use was prominent for years. and no one(save the guy who outed mac on andro) ever said a word on it. instead they glorified the game and it resulted in a false mythology of many of the players.

[RobG]

My biggest issue with the HOF vote is that it is a continued mean spirited battle between certain baseball writers and bloggers/SABR thinking writers. I don't know if Twitter is to blame, but it hit a fever pitch during the AL MVP voting and now is showing itself again with the HOF vote.

I feel that there is a group of writers that have an agenda and will bully their new "progressive" opinions no matter who they hurt or how snarky they may sound, instead of helping columnist to understand and embrace their thinking. Since most of us on this message board are obviously stat minded fans, I think we can agree with many of the SABR bloggers/writers, but I think their approach and tact has made some BBWA writers to vote the opposite or vote against them in anger.

Bottom line, all writers should continue to improve ways to support their arguments and the new ways to look at analytical stats do that (J. Heyman, K. Rosenthal, R. Parker, etc.), on the other hand, some of the top SABR writers need to drop the nonstop snarky attitudes as its childish and unprofessional (J. SHEEHAN, J. Stark, K. Law, J. Jaffe, and their disciples). Lets change the discourse and follow some of the examples set by not only great writers, but people that want to have meaningful discourses on subjects such as the hall of fame seem to encompass both sides. (J. Stark, J. Kerri, J. Posnanski).

All in all, the media needs to end these attacks and end the subsequent grudges that follow because they are hurting the baseball fan, its gotten silly and childish and it played out in this HOF vote.

[DOUGHBOYS]

Lance Armstrong admits doping?

Ban him from the Bicyclers Hall of Fame. That'll show him!!