When the results of this year’s Baseball Writers’ Association of America (BBWAA) Hall of Fame election are announced later this month, it would be fair for baseball fans to assume that voting for the next achievers of MLB immortality would be a fairly simple process.
I mean, how complicated can it be to look at this year’s list of 27 eligible players and check the box next to each one the voter believes should be enshrined at that bucolic little sports landmark called Cooperstown?
But it’s actually both complicated and convoluted, and yet the hundreds of voters (who must have served 10 years as a full-time baseball writer to participate in the election) usually come to the right conclusions.
If I were to guess, Carlos Beltrán and Andruw Jones will soon be able to start working on their July induction speeches, and I have no problem with that. I voted for both of them along with five other candidates and did so knowing that at least four of those other five are highly unlikely to gain induction until they come before one of the various incarnations of the Veterans Committee.
This year’s ballot, in particular, includes an unusual number of players who have absolutely no chance to be inducted by any of the voting bodies, but almost all of them will get at least a few votes.
How that is possible is the result of a combination of factors both logistical and subjective. The ballot is designed to not make the qualifications for inclusion so stringent that the nominating committee that prepares the list would essentially decide who is worthy before it reaches the voting body.
And the fact that voters can choose up to 10 players on annual ballots that seldom yield more than three inductees allows each voter to create his or her parameters for who deserves at least a modicum of consideration.
That’s why I have routinely voted for relief pitcher Francisco Rodríguez even though I know he is a borderline candidate. In my opinion, relief pitchers are dramatically underrepresented in the Hall and the guy who has the most career saves of any closer not already there should probably get in. Just my opinion.
During a recent discussion with my former Baltimore Sun colleague Dan Connolly, he pointed out that KRod’s success rate in save situations is not elite. I pointed out that there are dozens of elite home run hitters who are in the Hall even though their batting averages and defensive ability would not have been Hall-worthy.
I think we’re both right.
Another factor that plays big in the decision-making process is the fact that the experience of those hundreds of voters is (or was) spread over all of the major league franchises, so each was up-close to a certain group of players and may be in a position to appreciate their careers from a different perspective than the overall electorate.
The long-standing rule that voters can check up to 10 boxes on the ballot allows those voters to show some harmless personal or regional bias toward players who might display less relevant attributes.
Of course, there is also the buffed-up elephant in the room. There are and will continue to be players on the ballot who have been connected to baseball’s performance-enhancing drug scandal and others who have skeletons in their lockers, leaving each voter to decide whether those issues are disqualifying.
Obviously, feelings are so strong in this area that Roger Clemens, Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire and Rafael Palmeiro got little consideration during their time on the BBWAA ballot, and both Bonds and Clemens were recently rejected in their first time eligible for Veterans Committee consideration. But I have believed since Pete Rose was banned from consideration for gambling in 1989 that the Hall should both recognize the very greatest of the game’s tarnished heroes while acknowledging their shortcomings.
That’s why I have made a habit over the years of voting for those players in their last year on the BBWAA ballot, knowing we will not elect them but signaling my personal belief that the Hall Fame is not complete without them.
If you’re still confused, join the club.