Christmas comes but once a year.
Same for my Baseball Writers’ Association of America Hall of Fame ballot.
Time to fill it out and mail it in. I always wait until Christmas week to finish off my ballot and send it back to the BBWAA, my little Christmas card. All ballots must be postmarked by December 31. Election results will be announced January 26 at 6 pm.
I’ve been contemplating the candidates, oh, for about the last 32 years. We are in the era where I have seen all these players play live and in person many times, including the postseason and the World Series. I know, WAR is the be all, end all, but watching these players play in the biggest of games figures into my vote as well.
Experience counts. The eye test matters. If you don’t like that perspective, too bad.
It’s a privilege to be able to vote and I do not take it lightly.
Being given a vote signifies you have covered thousands of baseball games. You have put in the time and effort. You have put in the work. My votes are usually pretty solid, the players I choose often find their way into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, although I am disappointed at times when some candidates I deem worthy don’t make the cut.
I still can’t believe Fred McGriff never got elected by the writers. I will smile the day McGriff goes in via a committee of Hall of Famers.
I never get upset at the BBWAA Class of Hall of Famers, though. No matter who makes it, that means they received 75 percent of the writers’ votes. That is a Hall of Fame accomplishment in itself to have that many baseball writers agree on anything.
That is also the beauty of the vote. We have 10 years to get it right. Sometimes we don’t get it right but at least there is 10 years of weighing the situation and the impact, positive or negative, the players had on the game and on generations of fans.
Let’s get right to it.
Once again I did not vote for Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens. The reason? It’s my vote and that’s what I decided to do. Writers are always being criticized for not doing enough to raise the alarm on the Steroid Era when it was happening.
That’s a fair criticism.
But that also is part of the reason why I will not vote for Bonds/Clemens. Both men have been smack in the middle of the PED puzzle since the Mitchell Report and when skinny Barry suddenly became Big Barry. Heads grow sometimes. It happens. Especially after watching the Great Home Run Chase and seeing the adulation that was given Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa.
Here is another thought that no one ever mentions but it hit me again with the recent Robinson Cano PED suspension # 2 and how steroids are still in the game.
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1 comment:
Interesting by Kernan
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