The big brouhaha on this year's Hall of Fame ballot is whether Mark McGwire gets in or not. CBS Sportsline has takes on both sides of the issue, yea and nay. The big knock on McGwire? He has the audacity to be on the ballot for the first time right in the middle of a steroid hysteria. Ok, fine, he crapped the bed during the Congressional hearings. You go in front of Congress during a full blown witchhunt with Jose Canseco insisting to anyone who will listen that you turned him into a newt and a team of lawyers jabbing you in the ribs if you even think about answering any question and see how calm and collected you are. The man has a ring, 583 home runs, is a 12 time All Star, 3 time Silver Slugger and a Gold Glove winner. Even his detractors have to admit that he was a big part of the game's recovery from the '94-'95 strike.
I personally think he should get in eventually, but I'd like to see quite a few others get in first. If there's any silver lining to the paranoid pharmeceutical phreakout happening in the sport right now, hopefully it is that more 70's and 80's players will finally get their fair due. Of course, they might have used greenies at some point (oh noes!) so the drug panic might zap them as well. Realistically there's not much chance of anyone snubbed in the past actually getting voted in anytime soon unless there is a sea change in the thinking of the current voters. Too much elitist snobbery among the voters for that to happen. At least this year we have two locks in Gwynn and Ripken and won't have to sweat that no one will get voted in this time around. It would be nice if one or two more got swept in on their coattails, but I'm not holding my breath. At least we'll get the Frick award winner and maybe a veteran's committee selection or two as well.
Over the next couple of weeks, I'll post any ballots made public that I can find and bump the post as needed. It would be refreshing if one was written by one of the
"Ripken was no Phil Rizzuto and Gwynn was just too fat. How could I possibly vote for them with a clear conscience?"I'd definitely link to that and also the followup article describing the resulting lynch mob.
The Ballots:
Bill Madden
The article illustrated with cards gets the top spot.
John Heyman
The Good: Nine players on his ballot. Hooray! The Bad: No Bert Blyleven. Yaargh!
Scott Miller
Note to Scotty: Since you would have loved to have voted for Fernandez and Caminiti, guess what? You had three choices left on your ballot! You could have done so and thrown on Andre Dawson for good measure!
Ken Rosenthal
Solid ballot, one of the few I can't make fun of.
Tom Verducci
The 4 players most likely to get in plus almost 2 pages of McGwire Congressional Testimony hand wringing.
Joe Posnanski
Murphy and Buck O'Neil love, no Rice or Hawk.
Mark Bradley
Big Mac gets a vote, not sure who else does. I'll try to find a better link.
Bob Smizik
Another vote for Mac and not much else.
Mike Nadel
No Blyleven plus Rex Grossman is the jock of the year. Wait, what??
Dan Shaughnessy
Rice, yes. Dawson, no. Homer.
Joe Gross
Harold Baines gets some love. Another ballot with 9 checkmarks.
Peter Kerasotis
Over-reverential first-timer with a sparse ballot.
Ann Killion
The 4-vote ballots aren't bugging me as much as the fact that on every one the non-lock votes are completely different from all the other 4-voters.
Mike Lopresti
Respect for closers, but why is Rice handcuffed to Parker?
Andy Call
A no vote for Mark, but non-disclosure on his other selections. If any blank ballots show up, this is the guy. In related news, Jim Souhan voted for Denny Hocking?
Don Bostrom
Hot and heavy for a unanimous election, so I'll go out on a limb and assume he voted for Tony and Cal.
Steve Kelley
Another anti-McGwire voter too chicken to say who did make the ballot.
Pedro Gomez
Goose & Rice yea, Bert & Mac nay. #5 on the all time strike out list isn't good enough, but Jack Morris might make his ballot. Guuh.
Mike Downey
Oh Mike, you're so coy. At least Hawk gets another vote even if the other votes are obfuscated.
Bill Ballou
Minimalist Hall voter, but he at least has the stones to post an actual scan of his ballot for all to see. And point and laugh at. Ha Ha!
Jerry Green
Nine votes on your ballot means you are GUILTY!!!!! of being AWESOME!!!!!
Drew Olson
I can always respect a procrastinator.
Jack McCaffrey
Busts on self-important moralizing voters: Yaaaay! Submits a FULL 10 player ballot: JOOOOY! Leaves off Goose Gossage to write in... Pete Rose?!? AAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11
Lynn Henning
When a Detroit sportswriter refuses to vote for Jack Morris and Alan Trammell, you can forget them getting elected this year.
Dan Coughlin
No on McGwire. If he votes for everyone else in the article it would be a good ballot.
No unanimous election due to this asshat in Chicago.
MLB.com lists out all their votes, it looks good for Ripken, Tony and Goose. Hawk's got a chance while Rice and Bert are still getting shafted.
David O'Brien of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution has a ballot, but is not allowed to vote due to the AJC's asinine policies.
Gregg Patton voted for Big Mac, but Knoxville News Sentinel is a subscription site so no article for you.
Cleveland Plain Dealer gives their voters' up or down on Mac votes.
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