Tag / HOF

by jim

2014 Hall Of Fame Ballot – The Holdovers

mlb_hofThe BBWAA released their ballot for the Hall of Fame class of 2014.  The results of the vote are due to be revealed on January 8th, with induction taking place next July.  After nobody was elected in last year’s voting, the new ballot contains 17 holdovers along with 19 newcomers, which may start to cause a bit of a problem.  The current BBWAA rules limit the number of votes on one ballot to 10, and there may be more than 10 deserving candidates.  As they start to pile up, and even more deserving candidates become eligible, the BBWAA and the Hall may find themselves with a mess on their hands.

Let’s take a look at the returning candidates today before moving on to the newcomers.

Jeff Bagwell
Years on ballot: 3
2013 Percentage: 59.6

Bagwell is going to be one of those candidates that, I think, gets hurt due to 10 vote limit.  He would have been elected already were it not for seemingly unfounded PED rumors.

Craig Biggio
Years on ballot: 1
2013 Percentage: 68.2

Biggio was the highest vote getter in last year’s election, only 39 votes shy of getting elected.  You would think he could make up that total this year as voters who have some inane theories on when someone deserves to be elected add him to their ballot.  It would be a boost to the Astros if both he and Bagwell were to go in together.

Barry Bonds
Years on ballot: 1
2013 Percentage: 36.2

Barry Bonds, he of the 7 MVP awards and 762 career home runs, found himself on the outside looking in after his initial run through the voting process.  Due to his connection to BALCO and PEDs, he’s unlikely to do much better this year.

Roger Clemens
Years on ballot: 1
2013 Percentage: 37.6

Roger Clemens, he of the 354 career victories and 7 Cy Young awards, also found himself on the outside looking in after his initial run through the voting process.  The interesting thing is that, despite his inclusion in the Mitchell Report and his connection to Andy Pettitte’s PED confession, Clemens picked up 8 more votes than Bonds.

Edgar Martinez
Years on ballot: 4
2013 Percentage: 35.9

The longtime DH for the Mariners has had plenty of support from the Internet but not as much from the BBWAA.  His long career as a DH may be holding him back.

Don Mattingly
Years on ballot: 13
2013 Percentage: 13.2

Back in 2010, I said that “being the best Yankee in a decade of bad Yankee teams does not a Hall of Famer make.”  Nothing that has happened since then would change my, or, seemingly, the voters, mind.

Fred McGriff
Years on ballot: 4
2013 Percentage: 20.7

A very good argument could be made that Fred McGriff has been hurt by the PED users more than anyone else.  Had he stuck around to hit an additional 7 home runs, he would likely have been elected thanks to his 500 home runs.  Without them, he gets penalized for not putting up better numbers than the PED users, who are also being penalized.  Doesn’t seem right.

Mark McGwire
Years on ballot: 7
2013 Percentage: 16.9

McGwire finds himself over 100 votes behind fellow PED users Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens.  Even if the voters do start to reverse track and start to vote for the convicted users, I think McGwire might still have trouble getting elected.

Jack Morris
Years on ballot: 14
2013 Percentage: 67.7

Morris enters his final year on the ballot needing only 42 additional votes to get enshrined, but with the influx of new, and exceptionally deserving, candidates,  I don’t see how he gets them.  Not that I would be too disappointed in that, as Morris, while a very good pitcher, falls short in my estimation.

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by admin

#317 – Jason Dellaero

dellaero

Name: Jason Dellaero

Rank: 317

Position: SS

Year With White Sox: 1997

Jason Dellaero was the first round draft pick of the White Sox in 1997.  He got his only taste of the major league life as a September callup in 1999, appearing in 11 games.  His inability to consistently hit professional pitching hampered his big league hopes, but his powerful arm led the White Sox to also try him as a pitcher.

Sadly, the highlight of his White Sox tenure came in an exhibition game in 2002, when he homered twice in the Hall of Fame game against the Rockies and then pitched the ninth inning, where he gave up 2 homers.  Following the 2002 season, he was cut loose to continue his dream of major league success in other locations.

Dellaero’s numbers in a White Sox uniform were:

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by jim

Zero Point Zero

The results of this year’s Hall of Fame election were announced Wednesday and the esteemed members of the BBWAA managed to elect no one.  Newcomer Craig Biggio, he of the 3000 plus career hits, led the pack with 68.2%, his crime being that he played at the same time as those who used steroids.  Jack Morris, the leading holdover, saw a small increase to 67.7% and has one more shot on next year’s ballot.

As expected, the big three of Roger Clemens, Barry Bonds, and Sammy Sosa did not get much support.  The surprising thing was the 8 voters who were willing to vote for Clemens but not Bonds.

Next year, the ballot gets even more crowded when Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine, and Frank Thomas, among others, become eligible for the first time.  Hopefully, the drama queens in the BBWAA figure out how to handle the steroid era in a way that makes sense without punishing everyone who played in the 90s and early 2000s.

by jim

Hall Of Fame Ballot Newcomers

24 newcomers, who played their last major league game in 2007, are on this year’s ballot for the Baseball Hall of Fame.  Balloting started yesterday and runs through December 31st, with the results announced on January 9th, 2013.  Here’s my quick read on the chances of these first timers.

Sandy Alomar Jr.

The former White Sox backstop had a very good career and will likely get enough support to stick around on the ballot, but he will not be joining his brother in the Hall.

Craig Biggio

The career Astro might have to wait a few years, but he will eventually be enshrined.

Barry Bonds

And this is where things get interesting.  Bonds was a surefire first ballot Hall of Famer when, by all accounts, he got jealous of the amount of attention being heaped on Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire.  Barry responded by ingesting enough steroids to make his head grow three sizes, and because of that he is likely to spend the next few years, if not forever, on the outside looking in.

Jeff Cirillo

Royce Clayton

Likely to become the newest members of the zero vote club.

Roger Clemens

Clemens initially retired following the 2003 season, and had he stayed retired, he would have been easily elected on the first ballot.  Unfortunately for him, he unretired, came back with the Astros, and got himself entangled in the whole steroids scandal and a lawsuit with his former trainer.  Like Bonds, he is likely to be held up as an example.

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by admin

#386 – Sammy Sosa

Name: Sammy Sosa

Rank: 386

Position: RF

Years With White Sox: 1989-1991

Before he and Mark McGwire helped heal the remaining wounds from the ’94 strike by smashing Roger Maris’ home run record, before becoming, again with McGwire, the poster boy for performance enhancing drugs and watching his Hall of Fame chances go up in smoke, Sammy Sosa spent 2 1/2 seasons frustrating the Chicago White Sox.

Acquired with Wilson Alvarez and Scott Fletcher at the trade deadline in 1989 in the deal that sent Harold Baines to Texas, Sosa started off strong, hitting .273 with 3 HR to close out the ’89 season.  In 1990, his first full season in the major leagues, his average slipped to .233 and he finished 4th in the AL with 150 strikeouts.

Following the 1990 season, GM Larry Himes, who engineered the trade with Texas, was fired, leaving Sosa without a guardian in the organization.  Unfortunately for Sosa, his 1991 season was even worse, with his average dropping again to .203 and being sent back to Triple A Vancouver for additional seasoning.  In his “autobiography”, aptly titled Sosa: An Autobiography, Sosa blames hitting coach Walt Hriniak for most of his problems with the White Sox and takes no responsibility for his lack of production.

Following the ’91 season, Himes was hired as the Cubs new GM, and near the end of the following spring training in 1992, Sosa was sent to the Northside along with Ken Patterson for a fading George Bell, where his career skyrocketed and then plummeted back down to Earth. But that is a story for a different time.

Sosa’s numbers in a White Sox uniform, both for games I attended and overall, were: Continue reading →

by admin

HOF Thoughts

As expected Barry Larkin got the only call to Cooperstown yesterday, joining Ron Santo in the Hall of Fame class of 2012.  As I explained earlier, I think he is well deserving and was somewhat surprised his election took this long.  Another surprising thing, as I look at the stats of the games I have attended, is that he, by far, has the worst numbers of any Hall of Famer I’ve seen play in more than 1 game.

HOF Career Batting

BA At Bats Runs Hits RBI Walks Strike Outs Doubles Triples HR SB GIDP Errors Games
0.111 27 4 3 4 5 6 1 0 1 1 1 0 7

After his .111 average, the next lowest is (again, those I’ve seen more than once) is Carlton Fisk at .302.  Anyway, let’s take a look at the overall election results and see if there are any interesting tidbits. Continue reading →

by jim

Our Long National Nightmare Is Finally Over

Ron Santo has been elected to the Hall of Fame.  The former Cub (and, for a brief time, White Sox) third baseman waited for years to get elected and wore the disappointment on his sleeve every time he was passed over.  Now, one year after his death, he is selected by a veteran’s committee made up by his peers.  It’s almost as if they were waiting for him to pass on before bestowing him with the honor.

Passed over for induction was former White Sox outfielder Minnie Minoso, who got a major push and support from the team and the New York Times.  Falling a few votes short, Minoso seems to be penalized for the stunt late in his “career” to become a 5 decade player, returning for a few at-bats in the late 70s and early 80s.  Which is a shame, because he was a tremendous player in his day, becoming the first dark skinned Latin superstar.  Hopefully the voters are not waiting for him to die before they will elect him to Cooperstown.

by jim

Hall of Fame Musings

The 2011 Hall of Fame class was announced today and Roberto Alomar and Bert Blyleven get to make a summer trip to beautiful Cooperstown, New York.  Alomar, who should have made it last year, raised his vote total by 126, meaning that there are 126 people who don’t deserve to have a Hall of Fame vote. 

Blyleven needed to wait a little longer, making it in his 14th year of eligibility.  His numbers certainly didn’t improve over that time, so I don’t necessarily agree with his selection.  But, if Jim Rice is a Hall of Famer, why not Bert Blyleven?

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by admin

The Big Hurt Says Goodbye

Frank Thomas

Frank Thomas

Frank Thomas, the best hitter in White Sox history, called it a careeryesterday, after 18 big league seasons.  Thomas was third of former GM Larry Himes four #1 draft picks that all helped lead the White Sox renaissance of the early 90s, culminating with the 1993 AL West title and the lead in newly created AL Central when the strike wiped out the 1994 season.  Thomas, of course, brought home the AL MVP trophy both seasons.

The Big Hurt, as he came to be known for the hurt he put on the ball when he hit it, would start to break down in later seasons, and, unfortunately, was mostly a spectator in the magical 2005 season, playing in only 34 mid-season games and missing the entire post-season.  Following the excitement of winning the World Series for the first time in 88 years, the White Sox sent their best all-time player packing.

Over the years, I managed to see Thomas play only 66 times, and he was not at his best when I was in the ballpark.  A career .301 hitter, he managed only a .256 mark in those 66 games, with 15 of his 521 career home runs.  Two of those home runs came in his first game in Chicago as a visitor, after a standing ovation before his first trip to the plate got national attention and produced my first (and, to this point, last) appearance on SportsCenter.

Thomas will make one more official trip to US Cellular Field on August 29th, when the White Sox retire his number 35, just over 20 years after his debut, and I’ll be there cheering him on for the penultimate time.  The last time will be in 2014, when he’s elected to the Hall of Fame.

by admin

Missed Opportunities – The Big Unit

Randy Johnson announced his retirement the other day.  Somehow, the 618 games he pitched over the last 22 years never matched up with the 550 games I attended in the same time frame.   I can’t think of any full-time player, let alone one heading to the Hall of Fame, that has been active during my adult life that I somehow managed to never see play live.   Odd.