Baseball Today – Hall of Fame Voting

Baseball's Hall of Fame

A Change is Needed

To me the Baseball Hall of Fame voting is a farce. It’s more of a popularity contest than anything else. Ron Santo is the latest travesty. It took 32 years, but the Chicago Cubs third baseman was elected posthumously, that means after he was dead and couldn’t enjoy it, to the Baseball Hall of Fame by the

Golden Eracommittee. Santo never came close to election during his 15 times on the Baseball Writers‘

Cubs Third Baseman Ron Santo

Association of America (BBWAA) ballot, peaking at 43 percent — far short of the needed 75 percent in his last year of eligibility in 1998.There was always strong fan support for Santo’s selection. So if after 32 years he is now worthy of induction, why wasn’t he before? And to wait until after he passes is just cruel.

Bert Blylevenis another example of the flaws associated with the way players are selected to the Hall of Fame. It took 14 years before he was finally recognized for a career that deserves to be hall worthy. What changed? When you get in after that length of time, is it more of a sympathy or guilty vote?

Some voters said last year that they did not vote for Jeff Bagwell because they

Jeff Bagwell, Astros' First Baseman

believed he probably used steroids. If it didn’t sink in the first time, read the previous sentence again. It would be better to take the human aspect out of the voting. This would eliminate the prejudices that exist. You can’t convince me that the way a writer feels (either positively or negatively) about a player doesn’t impact the way he votes. And to not vote for a player (i.e. Bagwell) who deserves to be in the hall because you think maybe he used steroids is absurd.

Implement Standardized Selection Criteria

I would like to see a set of criteria established that would define whether or not a player is eligible to be selected to the Hall of Fame. This way a player knows exactly whether or not he is eligible for selection. A set of ranges could be established for each statistical category. If a player’s numbers fall within that range he would receive points for that category. Selection would be determined by a player accumulating a predetermined number of points. Categories could be weighted according to level of importance. This way a player would know when he retires whether or not he has qualified for the hall. If he has, he would be inducted in his first year of eligibility. This would take all of the emotion out of the voting and eliminate the torture some players have to endure through 15+ years of voting. This type of system would also promote consistency on of the performance of players elected. Below is a prototype of the how a points system might look. It is for discussion purposes and in no way represents a final product.

In this prototype there are nine categories. A player should excel in at least 4 of the 9. If you excel in a category you get a minimum of 3 points. Four categories with a 3 would give the player 12 points. Then you could make the rule that a player should score the minimum of one in two of the remaining five categories.  I have also included a 3 point bonus if a player is voted the MVP award at least once during his career. So with this mock system a player would need to accumulate a minimum of 14 points to get selected to the hall. Would

Who Would be Eligible?

After I built my mock system, I looked at Jeff Bagwell and Barry Larkin’s career numbers to see if they would have been selected based on their career

Reds Shortstop Barry Larkin

performance rather than on the whim a pompous baseball writer. Here are the results:

Jeff Bagwell:

BA– .297 (3), RBI– 1529 (3), Runs– 1517(2), 2B– 488 (2), 3B– 32 (0), SB– 202 (1), HR– 449 (2), OBP– .408 (1), Fielding %- .993 (3)- Total 17 + MVP Bonus (3) = 20

Barry Larkin:

BA- .295 (3), RBI- 960 (0), Runs- 1329 (2), 2B- 441 (2), 3B- 76 (0), SB- 379 (2), HR- 198 (0), OBP- .371 (0), Fielding %- .975 (2) – Total 11 + MVP Bonus (3) = 14

As you can see Bagwell beats Larkin in 7 of the 9 categories, but with the MVP bonus Larking just makes it. Based on the current system and writer prejudgments, Jeff Bagwell will probably not be elected into the baseball Hall of Fame.

Okay, so for it to be fair I ran Ron Santo’s career numbers through my mock point system and here are the results:

BA- .277 (1), RBI- 1331 (2), Runs- 1138 (1), 2B- 365 (1), 3B- 67 (0), SB- 35 (0), HR- 342 (2), OBP- .362 (0), Fielding %- .954 (1) – Total 11 + MVP Bonus (0) = 8

As you can see, he doesn’t have enough points to qualify. Now in a real points system created by people a lot smarter than me, the categories might be different and the weighting probably would be different. But if this system had been in place when Santo retired he would have known that his career numbers weren’t good enough to get in. He wouldn’t have had to go through 30 years of disappointment. You could still have special review committee made up of current hall of famers to look at individual cases where maybe just numbers weren’t the only contributing factor. Maybe a player earning between 10-13 points could be eligible for additional consideration. However, it would be a one-time review, so that a decision was made and that was the end of the discussion.e

Next Years Vote Has Already Been Decided

Now with the 2013 class coming along with Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens and Mike Piazza writer prejudices will be rampant. Now I’ve never been a big fan of either Bonds or Clemens as people, but they were both very good at what they did, play baseball.  And the others lumped into the category of “evil steroid user” were also very good baseball players. The skill it takes to become a professional baseball player is one you are born with. And with training and practice you can hone those skills. I could take steroids from now on and never

Rafael Palmeiro

be able to hit a 98 mph fastball or an 88 mph slider. If steroids make you a better baseball player then MLB teams should start drafting body builders. How many of Rafael Palmeiro’s 3,020 hits or 569 home runs do you take away because he used some substance? Do you honestly believe that steroids not natural ability allowed him to attain these numbers?

Now is where I make it clear that in no way do I condone the use of steroids. The damage they can do to your body and the incredibly horrible example it sends the kids is terrible. I’m glad baseball is finally doing something about it. To me, it’s more of a health issue rather than a performance issue.

These Idiots Even Dissed Joe D

If you still aren’t convinced that using baseball writers as voters is a bad idea, consider that they made Joe DiMaggio wait until his third year of eligibility, Harmon Killebrew and Mel Ott fourth year, and Eddie Mathews and Rogers Hornsby  waited until their fifth year. The list is  long, but those are a few examples of the incompetence of the baseball writers over the years.

Joe Dimaggio's Classic Swing

If you have a better idea, please let me know.