JcHc3in1

Oh Damn, Biggio got 74.8%
 
So close!

Cause he pitched to the store! And had winzzzzzz!
 
Oh, and was a lovely human being:
 
"Morris, the Detroit Tiger pitcher, behaved inexcusably before a recent game at Tiger Stadium when Jennifer Frey, a sportswriter intern for the Detroit Free Press, approached him to get some comments for a story on baseball's latest collusion ruling. Before Frey could get out a question, Morris, who was wearing only sliding shorts, snapped, "I don't talk to people when I'm naked, especially women, unless they're on top of me or I'm on top of them." Frey turned and left."
 
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1136544/index.htm
 
 

sportswriters are an odd breed. it's hard to understand that players like ruth, gehrig, musial, dimaggio, mays, bench, ryan, aaron, mathewson, walter johnson, cy young, etc. never got in on a completely unanimous vote. 

i don't understand what piazza needs to do get votes from people around here. 

Who's the racist that voted for Clemens but not for Bonds

Jeff,
You completely avoided the question of the validity of voting for Morris and not Maddux. Morris pitched in the steroid era. That is a fact.
Frankly I could care less if Maddux gets in with 99, 90 or 100 percent of the vote. That is irrelevant to this conversation.
----
I would vote for Bonds and Clemens on a hypothetical HOF ballot. Instead of kicking all steroid users out I simply think KNOWN abusers should have a higher bar than players without any solid evidence of steroid use.
Bonds biggest problem is he was a terrible teammate and a complete and utter douche and an asshole to media. If he had Jack Morris' personality he would be receiving a lot more votes from BBWAA members most likely.
The sanctimonious way some see the steroid era is absolutely ridiculous. Should we exclude every player from the HOF before racial integration since those players played against artificially weaker competition?
Should we exclude everybody from the HOF that was in the greenie era as they might have used amphetamines (which I believe are just as significant as a performance enhancing drug)?
Alcohol use and DUIs are a bigger issue with society than steroids -- perhaps we should kick anybody with a DUI or known alcohol issues out of the hall then? Bye-bye Mickey Mantle -- dude gets the boot.
The HOF quickly becomes totally vacant in an ivory tower.

i disagree with jeff completely. i would not vote for some of the steroid users, but you have to have the ability to reason between light and dark. greg maddux, etc. played in the steroid era. bonds, mcgwire, sosa, clemens, etc. were the steroid era. it's not a fact, it's my opinion.

I'm guessing its due to the number of candidates on the ballot.

That's just wonderful.  
 
I'm certain the people who "know and respect" Greg Maddux will take comfort in knowing that Kenny "gave it a lot of thought" before he decided he would rob him of any chance of being the first player in MLB history to go into the HOF with a unanimous vote -- I mean, that wouldn't have been a huge deal or anything.  Snarkiness aside, I really hope this guy isn't the only person that leaves Maddux off his ballot, cause if that happens he will have gone from a guy who's job it is to report the news to a guy who ended up becoming the news.  A sort of Steve Bartman of sportswriters..    
 
BTW, since you and Ken are buddies -- do you have any insight into whether or not this guy voted for any of the major awards over the last 20 years  Sure would be hypocritical if he voted for any of the MVP, ROY, or Cy Young awards given his stance on the HOF.   

What's crazy is that most if not all of those on the ballot have better numbers than several current HOFers at their respective positions, with several of those inducted within the last 25 years which isn't that long ago.  It makes you really wonder what criteria these guys are using because if they went by simply comparing their stats to current HOFers at the same position, almost all should be voted in.

The system is broken if a voter picks Morris and not Maddux. There is no logical explanation for this decision that I can conceive of. An individual whose thought process results in this outcome has little credibility IMO.
The process how people make decisions is important and need to be evidence based. I fail to recognize how voting for Morris and not Maddux is the result of a sound, evidence-based decision process.

I find it more interesting that Larry Walker didn't get a single vote. Career .313 BA, 1 MVP, 3 time batting champ, 7 GGs. I have a feeling the BWAA's will get him 10%-20% the vote.

Results are in! From this loaded ballot, we would have inducted a grand total of THREE players. That's it.
Maddux: 100%
Glavine: 83.3%
Thomas: 81.0%
Piazza: 71.4%
Biggio: 61.9%
Bagwell: 50.0%
Raines: 47.6%
Martinez: 38.1%
Smith: 33.3%
Clemens: 31.0%
Bonds: 28.6%
Mussina: 28.6%
Schilling: 23.8%
Morris: 19.1%
Trammell: 16.7%
McGwire: 11.9%
Mattingly: 9.5%
Kent: 7.1%
McGriff: 7.1%
Alou: 2.4%
Sosa: 2.4%
Gagne: 2.4%
Nomo: 2.4%
Palmeiro: 2.4%
0%: Larry Walker, Sean Casey, Benitez, Todd Jones, Durham, Luis Gonzales, Jacques Jones, Lo Duca, Kenny Rogers, Sexon, Snow, Timlin

Rosenthal isnt defending him, hes defending his right to the opinion... bit different.
Still, i find it laughable how the media and baseball want to throw these guys under the bus after all those years turning the blind eye and being duplicitous in the whole of it. 

I was just about to create a separate post for this.  Unbelievable.  That guy's voting privileges should be pulled immediately.

http://www.gammonsdaily.com/ibwaa-selects-four-in-2014-hall-of-fame-vote/
 
IBWAA vote...   Not the BWAA

Yet another example of why the HOF has become as meaningless as the Gold Gloves award....  Clowns like this guy get to vote and do crap like this,
 
_________________
keithlaw â€@keithlaw1m Wow. Time to surrender your ballot, Ken. “@RedSoxFannnn: @kengurnick only voted for Jack Morris on his HOF ballot. What a disgrace!”
   Hide conversation _________________
 
http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article/mlb/how-mlbcom-writers-voted-in-hall-of-fame-balloting?ymd=20140106&content_id=66341930&vkey=news_mlb
 
KEN GURNICK, Dodgers beat reporter
Morris
Morris has flaws -- a 3.90 ERA, for example. But he gets my vote for more than a decade of ace performance that included three 20-win seasons, Cy Young Award votes in seven seasons and Most Valuable Players votes in five. As for those who played during the period of PED use, I won't vote for any of them.

Maddux
Clemens
Raines
Glavine
Bonds
Thomas
Biggio
Bagwell
Piazza
Trammell

Like some of the BWAA's are?

Rolling my eyes....

In any event, this is a much more anticipated HOF balloting than in quite a few years.

I still don't for the life of me understand how people can vote for Morris, yet leave Mussina off the ballot. Mussina was a better pitcher than Glavine and Morris. Also how the hell was Tony Gwynn a first ballot HOF, yet Tim Raines is not in yet. Raines had a higher war, way more walks, much more stolen bases, and still had some pop in his bat. 

Edgar Martinez' lack of support is stunning.

http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/10231471/craig-biggio-tom-glavine-greg-maddux-frank-thomas-elected-espn-2014-baseball-hall-fame-ballot
 
I'm surprised Glavine got 16 of 17.
 
If this is any indication..looks like 3-4 guys might get voted in this year.

Jeff Bagwell
Craig Biggio
Tom Glavine
Greg Maddux
Mike Mussina
Mike Piazza
Tim Raines
Curt Schilling
Frank Thomas
Alan Trammell