2010 Baseball Hall of Fame: 1 Inductee and 5 Blank Ballots!

The 2010 Baseball Hall of Fame voting results are in. Apparently, America's pastime is certainly falling in the past in the minds of privileged members who get to vote on Cooperstown's enshrined - five ballots that were turned in were blank. Yes, you read that right. What's behind the five blank ballots for the 2010 Baseball Hall of Fame? These five blank ballots can be considered a mockery to the sport and tradition of baseball, as well as the 2010 Baseball Hall of Fame class. Only certain individuals have the opportunity to vote for the baseball hall of fame, and to turn in a blank ballot is a ridicule of the esteemed privilege. Baseball's Hall of Fame is voted upon by the BWAA (Baseball Writers' Association of America). There are countless baseball fans and figures that would love to have a say on who makes it into the Baseball Hall of Fame, and turning in a blank ballot to make a personal statement or whatever these individuals may have wanted to accomplish is arguably selfish. Personally, if you don't want to bother filling out the Baseball Hall of Fame ballots, there must be a way to remove yourself from the voting.

Now that that's been discussed, the 2010 Baseball Hall of Fame only had one inductee this year, Andre "The Hawk" Dawson. Out of the 539 votes received, 420 votes went to Andre Dawson. That's a 77.9%, and the percentage of votes necessary to garner Baseball Hall of Fame initiation is 75%. Andre Dawson, who appeared in the baseball all-star game eight times during his career, had been included 9 total times on Baseball Hall of Fame ballots before finally making it this year. Dawson played in a time before my days as a young baseball fan, but he is only one of three players in MLB history with 400 home runs and 300 stolen bases. Dawson had a .279 career average, 1.591 RBIs, 314 steals.

While Andre Dawson is the lone player of the 2010 Baseball Hall of Fame class, Bert Blyleven (74.2%) and Roberto Alomar (73.7%) were the two closest players. It is highly likely that either one, especially Blyleven, or both will be enshrined next year. Stand-out ball players who were on the Baseball Hall of Fame ballot for the first time include Alomar, Barry Larkin, and Edgar Martinez. All three were players that I grew up watching, and it will be interesting to see how Martinez is viewed in Baseball Hall of Fame votes to come because he was primarily a DH hitter.

Source

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