MLB Hall of Fame

If you are a fan of baseball then by now you should be aware that Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine, and Frank Thomas have all been elected to the MLB Hall of Fame. There is no real argument from anyone that those three deserve to be enshrined. The system they use to determine who gets in and who doesn’t is really a simple process. A number of reporters who are a part of the Baseball Writers Association of America are sent ballots and they vote on eligible retired players. If 75% of the people feel like they are Hall of Fame worthy, then they get in. If less than 75% feel that way then they do not. That sounds simple enough. The problem is in all the other rules. Deciding who gets to vote is another issue that I may take up later but for now I want to focus on the process. First of all a player has to have 10 or more years of experience and been retired for 5 years. At that time they come on the ballot. Each voter can only vote for 10 players in any one year. I don’t think there has ever been a year where 10 players retired at the same time and were are all HOF worthy. The problem is if the player doesn’t make the 75% cutoff, then they stay on the ballot for 15 years or until they drop below 5% of the total vote. Therefore, the ballot can get crammed. This has especially been an issue as more and more “steroid era” players are coming up for election. Why? Because some voters don’t think anyone in the steroid era should be eligible or at a minimum feel like anyone accused should be kept out. Since there are others who vote on them regardless, there are many who would otherwise be in that are hovering in that 5% - 75% range. That means as more of these HOF worthy players come up for election it makes it harder to vote for only 10. The most shameful part about this year’s voting involves Craig Biggio. He missed the 75% cutoff by 2 votes. He deserves to be in. I say that’s the most shameful thing but perhaps it is that Greg Maddux was actually left off of some peoples ballots. Are you kidding me? I will attempt to address these two issues in later posts. For now I’ll just leave you with this little nugget. I have watched all three of these inductees play in person. I saw Maddux and Glavine multiple times while they were with the Braves and Thomas when he was at Auburn and they came to Clemson to play while I was a student there. Yes, he was big and strong then too.