Congratulations to pitcher Bruce Sutter on becoming the first reliever-and-nothing-else elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Commiserations are in order for Jim Rice, Goose Gossage, Andre Dawson and Bert Blyleven, all of whom missed out.
There wasn’t nearly enough Solpadine in the car today for me to endure Kevin Kennedy and Rob Dibble’s thoughts on the subject, as heard on XM’s Home Plate channel. Suffice to say, Kennedy thinks that Rice, Gossage and Dale Murphy are all deserving. Dibs would like to see more relievers recognized (there’s a shocker).
Neither had any sort of scheme in place for lowering the minimum number of votes required to gain election, nor any sort of renovation plans in mind for the National Baseball Hall Of Fame And Museum if the facility is expected to induct a dozen new members every year. But perhaps they were saving that for tomorrow’s show.
Not that I align myself with whoever’s talking baseball on XM (I may never know them all), but is clear that this system is imperfect–The fine print reveals Greg Jefferies(!) got 2 votes. As did Doug Jones! And Walt Weiss!
Surely there must be a better way for some local beat writer to send a post-retirement “hello” to a journeyman.
Doug Jones?
My final gathering of 94 ballots before the HOF’s Petrovenomski made his dull-assed announcement resulted in…(showing yet again…the platformless old-codgers are still anti-Goose)
72.3%- Gossage
72.3%- Sutter
61.7%- Dawson
56.3%- Rice
50.0%- Blyleven
43.6%- Lee Smith
41.4%- Morris
22.3%- T.John
17.0%- Trammell
13.8%- Garvey
10.6%- Belle
8.5%- Murphy
6.3%- Mattingly
5.3%- Parker
4.2%- Hershiser
3.1%- Concepcion
1.0%- W.Clark
1.0%- McGee
3.1%- P. Rose (write-ins)
Tommy John’s in the surgery Hall of Fame, which is more than enough.
where was the love for Joey Belle? 381 HRs (and 1 teacher beaning) only get you 40 votes?
I’m surprised Kevin Kennedy isn’t outraged by the unfortunate omission of Al Oliver from the Hall of Fame. Where’s the justice? Let’s hope the immortal John Olerud isn’t barred from entering the hall along with sure fire Hall of Famers, Will Clark and Mark Grace. I want to see the phrase ‘slump buster’ enshrined in hall.