March 09, 2006
Hall of Fame Voting
Dan Lewis pens an open letter to Peter Schmuck on the subject of Hall of Fame Voting (spelling corrected).
The BBWAA should, in its effort to democratize the election process, choose regular fans as delegates. Allow people like myself to apply for the job of Hall of Fame voter. Give us the opportunity to demonstrate to you our resume of fandom, our knowledge of the game, etc. We watch game after game, crunch stat after stat, and root for (and against) players and teams year-round. We know the game backward and forward. We are perfectly capable of making informed decisions. And you are perfectly capable of identifying us.
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Even better would be to dump the oldtimers committee, rooted in sentiment, illogic, and some kind of P.C. agenda, as it is.
"P.C. agenda"? What the hell does that mean?
Anyway, the simplest way to solve the problem with HOF voters is to make the process transparent. Make the ballots public, and we'll see a lot more reasonable and logical votes.
-Matt, still fuming over the exclusion of Buck O'Neil
1, Excellent to address this issue now instead of after
another blighted award session; 2. In my studies, there
is no effort to democratize the procedure--it's the opposite---even with evidence that the structure has already crumbled, the bbwaa, the hof, etc. are digging
in their heels, showing a frightening & desperate attempt
to hold on to a process that's a fraud & a sham. They
love it. 3. The thing is totally unsupervised, & they also
love that. Somebody please keep this going--we've at
the very least got to get every ballot made public. 4. Peter Schmuck is NOT ALLOWED to vote on baseball
awards. The Baltimore Sun (along with others) does
not allow its employees to vote on baseball awards.
Also, why the need to "democratize" HOF voting? Isn't the All-Star Game voting reason enough to veto that idea? Seriously - your average fan is a moron who knows nothing, but thinks he knows everything (case in point: me).
I don't know. . .is it really that big of a deal? Sure, I want to see Dale Murphy in the Hall, but if he doesn't make it, does it mean he's any less of a player? And just because George Kelly is a Hall of Famer doesn't mean he's one of the best players ever. It's just a title, right?
