Tag Archives: Harold Baines

July 21, 2019

Hall of Fame Day

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The Hall of Fame welcomes six former player today:

Baseball’s living legends convene for the annual National Baseball Hall of Fame induction ceremony at 1:30 p.m. ET outside the Clark Sports Center. MLB Network’s coverage of the 2019 Hall of Fame induction ceremony will begin at 11 a.m. ET and be streamed live on MLB.com.


This year the celebration is a toast to commanding closers Mariano Rivera and Lee Smith, distinguished designated hitters Edgar Martinez and Harold Baines and sabermetrically-supported starter Mike Mussina. But it will also bring tears for the late Roy Halladay, whose widow Brandy will deliver an acceptance speech on his behalf.
The emotions, like the humidity, will be high.


“You just think about how hard it is to get to Cooperstown,” Smith said, before a small chuckle. “It is hard to get to Cooperstown.”

MLB.com

Smith and Baines won election through the Today’s Game Era Committee. This group obviously holds closers and designated hitters in higher regard than the sports writers. I suspect the Baines vote, coming during the BBWAA voting period, pushed the writers to vote for Martinez. If Baines made the Hall, then one of the two actually great designated hitters should be in.

My feeling in general is that relievers and designated hitters should be treated like other specialists in the game, they only get in the Hall if they are exceptionally great. So I have not problem with Martinez and Rivera winning election. What is surprising is that Rivera made it unanimously on the first ballot. A first ballot election is still meaningful. If relievers do not merit the same support as a someone who pitches thousands of innings, they should wait a year or two. What I believed happened was:

  • A number of closers were already in the Hall of Fame.
  • Rivera was better than all of them.
  • Therefore, there was no reason not to vote for him.

Mussina and Halladay were easy picks. Mussina pitched well year after year, accumulating lots of wins with excellent ERAs. It took him awhile to reach 75%, but that’s okay. Halladay resisted the modern usage of pitchers, completing games when younger pitchers were being pulled from starts.

Congratulations to all. No matter how one feels about the election of a particular player, all these men had long, successful careers, and their fans get a chance to honor these wonderful representatives today.

January 22, 2019

Hall of Fame Day

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The Hall of Fame announces the Baseball Writers Association of America vote for the class of 2019 this evening at 6 PM on MLB Network. I believe you can stream it live if you do not have access to the channel otherwise. USA Today lists the votes of their writers here. Five of the seven writers there voted for Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens, as those two gained a bit in the public voting this year.

The latest tracker includes over 50% of the potential ballots, and it looks like Mariano Rivera, Roy Halladay, and Edgar Martinez are locks. Mike Mussina remains at about 81%; he dropped about 6% last year when the vote was announced, so he is on the edge. Given his jump in support among the public ballots, I suspect he will see some growth in the non-public ones as well. It’s going to be close. Bonds and Clemens managed to pick up a few public votes compared to last year, and new voters went for them strongly. There’s been a surge for Fred McGriff as well in his final year on the ballot, but not nearly enough to put him over the top.

I suspect Martinez’s surge has something to do with the Today’s Game committee electing Harold Baines. Once a designated hitter is in the Hall of Fame, there’s no reason a much better one should be shut out.

Finally, we will see if Mariano Rivera is a unanimous choice. My bet would be no. There are people out there who believe closers should not be in the Hall of Fame. I don’t agree with that. Closer and DH are modern positions, and the best at those should be recognized. There should just be very few of them. There is a hierarchy in the Hall based on how many ballots it took to get in, and the percentage of the vote on the first ballot. While I feel Rivera should be in, he shouldn’t be the first unanimous choice, and probably not a first ballot player. He’s in the right place at the right time.

It is sad Roy Halladay won’t see his election. Halladay was a man who finished what he started, leading the majors in complete games during the years of his major league career. As that stat quickly became an oddity, Halladay kept staying on the mound. His election will be a fine memorial.

December 9, 2018

Part Time Hall

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The Today’s Game Committee of the Baseball Hall of Fame voted in closer Lee Smith and designated hitter Harold Baines:


Results of the 16-member Today’s Game Era Committee were announced at the winter meetings. It took 12 votes for election — Smith was unanimous, Baines got 12 and Piniella had 11.
Smith and Baines both debuted in Chicago during the 1980 season. Smith began with the Cubs and went on to post a then-record 478 saves while Baines started out with the White Sox and had 2,866 hits.
George Steinbrenner, Orel Hershiser, Albert Belle, Joe Carter, Will Clark, Davey Johnson and Charlie Manuel all received fewer than five votes.
Baines was a .289 hitter with 384 home runs in a 22-year career. He never drew more than 6.1 percent in five elections by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America, far from the 75 percent required.
“I wasn’t expecting this day to come,” the six-time All-Star said.

Tha’ts a huge disconnect between the writers and this committee. 
Jerry Reinsdorf was on the committee, and I wonder how much pull he exerted.   Smith would get around 30% of the vote, finishing at 34% his last two years on the ballot.

The writers clearly don’t like relief pitchers that much, nor do they like designated hitters.  I thought Edgar Martinez would be the first DH, and David Oritz the second.  Those two had amazing careers.  This strikes me as one of the poorer committee votes.

Despite that , congratulations to both Smith and Baines on their election!  It’s a happy day for Chicago.

December 15, 2009