Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
January 12, 2009
We Need a Screwed up Election

Sully Baseball suggests a way to get unanimous Hall of Fame votes and bring totals for Jay Bell down to zero:

And the only way writers will end this stupid habit is to have a wonderfully insane scenario happen that isn't 100% farfetched.

- Enough voters leave off a sure fire Hall of Famer to make sure they aren't unanimous that it takes them off the Ballot completely. (Mike and Mike brought this up on their show pondering how someone like Greg Maddux would be left off the ballot forever due to this stupid mindset.)

- Enough voters throw a sympathy vote to a non deserving entity that they get elected into the Hall of Fame.

This is the way Jesse Ventura ended up governor of Minnesota. An old Tank McNamara comic strip did something like this with the All-Star game, where lots of random fans decided to write in Marv Throneberry.

I don't have a problem with Jay Bell getting a couple of votes. Two writers liked Jay Bell enough to give him a vote. Big deal. I just don't understand the ones who leave players like Henderson off the ballot.


Posted by David Pinto at 06:44 PM | All-Time Greats | TrackBack (0)
Comments

We need firejoemorgan to chime in.

Posted by: rbj at January 12, 2009 07:03 PM

I wonder if anyone who left Henderson off the ballot, also put Jay Bell on their ballot. Hmmm. That would prove ineptitude right there. I'm not dissing Jay, but no reasonable thinker would think Jay Bell fits in the HOF while at the same time thinking Henderson doesn't.

Posted by: Devon Young at January 12, 2009 08:59 PM

Cal Ripken wasn't unanimous. If Greg Maddux isn't unanimous then I can't picture anyone in my lifetime who will be. Unfortunately, there will always be guys who can't resist the temptation to get cute with their ballot (I'm looking at you, Evan Grant).

@rbj - Ken and the crew at FJM have retired.

Posted by: deversm at January 12, 2009 10:50 PM

@deversm: When you said Maddux should be unanimous, I scoffed at the idea and went to look up stats to prove why I thought someone could leave him off the ballot... I can't. Great career and postseason WHIP and ERA. Excellent K-BB ratio. 17 CONSECUTIVE yrs of 15+ wins. 30+ starts in all but two years after his rookie season (durable and dependable). A WS Ring. The guy has it all.

At least as far as pitchers go... you're right, he HAS to be unanimous. The only thing that's missing from his resume is being a Yankee, lol.

Posted by: Jesse R at January 12, 2009 11:13 PM

I'll say it again, if Aaron, Williams, Mantle, Musial and Mays weren't unanimous then I can't see anyone in modern times who would deserve the honor above them.

That being said I personally can't see myself leaving a guy like Ricky off.

Posted by: P. Ingemi at January 13, 2009 07:17 AM

Let it go

Posted by: bandit at January 13, 2009 07:49 AM

Jesse Ventura ended up governor of Minnesota because he was the best candidate. You don't end up with 33%+ of the vote due to "sympathy". You also don't end up with any "sympathy" votes as an ex-pro-wrestler. In fact, quite the opposite, I'd say.

Posted by: Mike at January 13, 2009 08:45 AM

@deversm

I know. I'm hoping they'll make a surprise guest appearance for this.

Posted by: rbj at January 13, 2009 09:34 AM

Here's an idea: If a player gets over 95% of the vote, determine every voter who DIDN'T vote for him and take away their voting privileges for a year. Same thing at the other end: if a player secures less than 5%, suspend the voting privileges of everyone who DID vote for him. This will curtail truly eccentric voting.

Posted by: BD at January 13, 2009 11:50 PM
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