Hall of Fame – for the Sports Guy
I do have to generally agree with the Sports Guy in that the Hall of Fame (HOF) voting process is just about as screwed up as the All Star Game voting process in most leagues is.
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/060913
Sportswriters deciding awards and the HOF bugs me, as it takes away a portion of presumed journalistic objectivity and makes them a party to the process of what is news and how the sports they cover actually function. Plus, sportswriters are just as biased as fans, players, and retired veterans committees. The only redeeming quality is that sportswriters follow the games much closer than most fans, veterans, and even players can.
Hall of Fame issues:
1 – Staying on the ballot for years and years and suddenly making it. No. One time only. None of this 3rd ballot crap. A player is retired, he can’t do anything to change things when retired. The whole first ballot status has made it silly. It is just sportswriters inserting themselves into the story to add status to when a player is enshrined. If a player didn’t get in last year there is no valid reason for voting this year. Some years there will be huge classes and some years there will be small classes.
2 – Good players but not great players. Jay Buhner is not a Cooperstown HOF player. He was an important piece of the Seattle Mariners for a long time and brought credibility to a franchise. But, that is what franchise halls and rings of honor and retired numbers are for. I met him once and he is a great guy, had great power, an amazing arm, and should see his jersey number retired in Seattle. Putting him in Cooperstown would be an overstatement of his career and like putting Joe Dumars in the hoops hall.
3 – My soccer HOF rant. The indoor guys have been given the shaft. No Steve Zungul. No Tatu. Where is Stan Stamenkovic or Branko Segota? It is the soccer equivalent to the DH argument or the closer argument for baseball HOF voters. Put the top and most elite of this group into the hall and be done with it and then any future guys have to live up to that bar to get in. Edgar Martinez is the greatest DH ever. Put him in to acknowledge that aspect of greatness and then if a player isn’t that good or a voter never wants to vote in a DH again it can be pointed out that Edgar is the bar. In soccer, vote in Zungul, Tatu, and Stamenkovic and be done with it. Fernando Clavijo was recently inducted, but his career includes the 1994 World Cup and coaching. Preki will get in not just for the indoor but for the MLS play, national team play, as well as his run in Tacoma in the 80s. I mean, the soccer hall has been updating and adding the NASL non-Americans who contributed to the game. They have started with the women from the 91 and 99 team as they retire. The 90 and 94 Men’s players are rolling in. The MLS guys are getting their due. It is time for the soccer hall to admit indoor soccer happened and was important to soccer for a while and put in these guys. www.soccerhall.org
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No quibbles on electing the unworthy, it happens far too often.
ReplyDeleteHowever, requiring first ballot or none may be too strict if the other rules for the Baseball HOF are kept. Each voter can only vote for 10 candidates and election requires 75% of the vote. If you're a borderline HOFer who is unfortunate enough to become eligible in the same year with a bunch of shoo-ins, then you may not get a fair bite at the apple.
The HOF should not be for borderline candidates ... if you have to split hairs to decide to let them in, just let their respective teams retire their numbers and call it good .... Thanks for stopping by.
ReplyDeleteBut there are always borderline candidates. Even if you based it all on stats and demanded that someone have at least 3,000 hits, 500 HRs, or 300 wins or something, what do you do with the guy that hangs on for 4 years after he should clearly have retired driving his average stats into the ground to make it to some specified plateau?
ReplyDeleteAnd even if you don't do it that way, but base it on intangibles and all around performance, you don't think reasonable people can disagree about where to draw the line? Hank Aaron? He's in. But what about Sammy Sosa? He's struck out nearly twice as many times as Aaron in six fewer seasons. Even though he has 588 HRs and might reach 700 before he hangs 'em up for good (if he's lucky) he's not in the same class as Aaron. So does he belong in the HOF or not? What about McGwire? Bonds? Fred McGriff? McGriff has the same number of HRs that Gehrig has.
Bottom line, I'm curious as to where you see the bright line that divides the worthy from the unworthy.
All very valid points ... to me ... it is very subjective and not about stats from one era versus another ... it all comes down to the Hank Aaron is an obvious HOF'er argument ... if a guy isn't an obvious one then that answers the question on its own ... a bit harsh, but the line is not clear ... 2 or 3 ballots maybe? It would give people a chance to reflect one or two more times ... or why not just elect 12 one year and none the next? ... The process right now places the sportswriter voters into their own story ... in any event, thanks for your comments, I would hope that voters spend as much time looking at each guy as you did with the Sosa argument ...
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