Baseball Hall of Fame Voters Can't Get it Right
Hall of Shame Voters: 5 Reasons Why I Hate the Press
As I was eaglerly anticipating the votes for this year's election I decided to cast a fake ballot myself. I decided that there were 7 hall of famers on the list and if I had an actual ballot I would have voted for 8 (Albert Belle was one of the scariest hitters I have ever seen. He was gauranteed for 30 plus homers, hundred plus ribbies every year. He was Manny Ramirez with 3 fewer years.) The seven players I chose were Ripken (Duh!), Gwynn (an even better hitter than Boggs), Goose Gossage (Think Bruce Sutter and now replace that split-fingered fastball with uncanny intimidation), Jim Rice (by far the best pure hitter in his league for 10 years), Andre Dawson (Lets see he could hit for power, steal, play D, and had a hose. Sorry if you never got to see him in Montreal), Bert Blyleven ( a poor man's Nolan Ryan), and Jack Morris(one of the best big game pitchers).
Now when I saw the voting I was apalled at what I saw from the "experts". I had these 5 problems with the way the vote turned out.
1. Cal Ripken not unanimous: If there was ever a candidate for the unanimous vote it was Cal Ripken. The perfect ambassador to the game. He brought people back to baseball before Juice Monsters McGwire and Sosa were having their anabolic race. Everyone who is a baseball fan can remember where they were when Ripken broke his streak. Those two noble souls who did not submit a vote because of the steroid era are idiots. Cast one for Ripken because nobody embodies baseball more than Cal.
2. Mark McGwire 23.5%: If people wanted to show the current baseball players how the public feels about steroids no one should have voted for McGwire. If he ended up with a zero then you would see the Player's Association go out and ban HGH and anything remotely close to a steroid because if there is one thing that is bigger than these guys' biceps is their egos. These guys live for greatness and are trying so hard to get into the doors of the Hall do not want to be denied because of some bogus cloud that is hanging over the league.
3. Why the Hell is Jim Rice not in: Jim Rice did burn out a little soon to injuries. His numbers are not gaudy especially considering the new era where second basemen should drop twenty bombs a year, but still Rice should be in. I never understood how players' vote tallies can rise over the years. I believe that you either in or you are not. Maybe not first ballot because those are saved for the true Immortals, but by the second ballot these guys should get in. I will stop arguing Rice's case if someone can name three hitters more dangerous than Rice during his era. Goodluck trying to find two.
4. Why is Nolan a first timer and Blyleven is still getting shafted: Nolan Ryan has two things on Bert Blyleven. One is the no-hitters, the other is the K's. Yes, Nolan won 300 games but Blyleven was just 13 short. Blyleven started 80 games less than Nolan and he recorded 60 shoutouts to Nolan's 61. He ended his career with a 3.31 ERA which considering he spent 80 percent of his career in the American League and with the DH it should count for something. Noland spent half of his career pitching against pitchers that did not even want to get in against his curveball let alone his 100 mph heat. Blyleven also threw 242 CG. That is twenty more than Nolan. Yet, Nolan has the 2nd highest vote percentage in history. I am not saying that Blyleven deserves the same amount of votes but he definitely deserves to get in.
5. Careless Votes: I will never get mad at people who vote for questionable guys. For instance Albert Belle, that I conclude was one of the scariest hitters (let alone person) to ever grace a baseball diamond. But 6 votes for Jose Canseco. He should have been eliminated from voting because he admitted to steroids. An admitted cheater should not be on the ballot. If this is the case can we bring Pete to the ballot then. 3 votes for Dante Bichette. If this was a hall on who looked most like a frog (His face really resembles an amphibian) then yes Dante deserves some votes. Dante Bichette was an above average player who played in Coors. Ken Caminiti, once again admitted cheater should have been off the ballot, instead he gets two votes. Bobby Bonilla, you remember him right . He was the less talented member of the killer B's of Leyland's old Pirates team, even if you can remember him he doe not deserve two votes. And Jay Buhner received one vote. I am just hoping that was by a guy who meant to check Cal.
So congrats to the Press. Those nerds who could not play and now have all the power. You guys will probably never get it right.
Published by Seaver Spahn
I am the greatest thing that ever happened to me. I do not feel that I can change the world but I know that my words have jagged edges sometimes. The rest can be tossed into the furnace with the other crap... View profile
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11 Comments
Post a CommentYou want to pretend that it didn't have the influence of Coors Field, but that is simply not true. Rice was a right-handed slugger playing in a park with a 300-foot left field wall - in the era before they built the 600 Club which cut down on the wind patterns. If you don't think this is significant, check out the runs scored totals from any one of Rice's big years to that from the 1990's onward. Context is everything and you don't give it a second thought. It was the perfect marriage of player and ballpark. Plus, the fact that he had Wade Boggs and Dwight Evans getting on base 550-600 times a year batting in front of him led to the gaudy RBI totals. Again, context. You can't look at raw numbers devoid of context and make reasonable conclusions. Otherwise you'll think all of the best hitters in history played in the 1930s.
The two most important stats for hitters are on-base percentage and slugging, as they correlate best with run production. If you neutralize stats for home ballpark - Ken Singleton was clearly a better ballplayey than Jim Rice. During his best five years, Jim Rice had an OPS+ of 128, 121, 148, 158 and 154 from 1975-1979. In that same time period, Ken Singleton was 153, 132, 165, 152 and 156. And if we take the entire contribution of a ballplayer - hitting, baserunning and defense - the gap gets even larger. Rice Win Shares from 1975-79: 20, 17, 26, 36, 28. Singleton over that same time frame: 33, 24, 36, 28, 32. The only way to conclude that Jim Rice was a better ballplayer than Ken Singleton was to not have seen them play and simply look at their raw stats in a vacuum. Everything has context and the context of Fenway Park in the 1970s is that it was one of the best places to hit in all of baseball. You want to pretend that it didn't have the influence of Coors Field, but that
with the hitters you came up with none are definitely better than him. And he was arguably better than all of them. Hopefully next year he gets his just do and gets in the Hall of Fame and leaves haters like you looking like the jokes that you are.
My final comment to you Brian on this subject. I will not even mention ogilvie or singelton. That is disgraceful you Rice Hating Machine. Rice had a career average of everyone on that list besides Brett and Cooper (who he tied). He had a better OBP (.352) than everyone besides Jackson (.356) and Brett (.369). He had more RBI (1451) than everyone beside Jackson (1702) and Brett (1595), he did have around 1,000 less at-bats than Jackson and 2,000 less at-bats than Brett. He had more home runs than everybody but Jackson. He had more hits than everyone besides Jackson (only 100 behind), Brett, and Yount. Oh and by the way like I said a more feared hitter? Rice had the highest slugging percentage out of every hitter you mentioned. Rice is comparable to these players. He is comparable to Jackson, Yount, and Brett. He played 6 years less but in for 10-12 years he was better than all of them. He is better than Evans, Cooper, Ogilvie, and Singleton. Bottom line Brian you came up with hitters th
Rice was one of the top hitters from 1975-79. He was certainly not one of the most feared sluggers after 1980. He had a nice year in 1983. His career was virtually over after 1986 and he was completely out of the game after 1989. From 1981 on, Rice was behind Dwight Evans in 81, 82, 84 and 85. He was behind Boggs from 1983 on. And that's on his own team! In 1980, he was clearly behind George Brett, Reggie Jackson, Cecil Cooper, Ben Oglivie, Ken Singleton and Robin Yount. And that's just in the AL. And it just gets progressively worse from there. Look, Rice put up great numbers for a five-year period. But his period of dominance wasn't long enough, it received a huge boost from his own park and he didn't play long enough to merit serious HOF on a career basis
Brian it lasted 12 years. 12 years constitutes an era. Jim Rice was once again the best hitter of his era. Belle had 10 good years, Juan Gonzalez had 10 good years (always linked to steroids), Mo Vaughn had 8 good years. All star appearances Mo had 3, JuanGone 3, Belle 5. Though the all star game is not the be all and end all it does count for something. People in Rice's era new he was the best around. Top 5 in MVP voting JuanGone 4, Belle 3, mo vaughn 3. So maybe your memory is a little droggy and you can not remember that far back, but Rice was better than all three of these players and the only one of those three players that deserved a vote was Belle. But Belle was also a jerk so he did not get a sniff. You still have yet to named 3 better hitters from the Rice era.
The problem is that Jim Rice's era didn't last long enough. In the mid 1990s, you could say the same thing (best hitters) about Albert Belle, Juan Gonzalez and Mo Vaughn. They just didn't last long enough to be considered all-time greats.
First off Xavier Nady plays in the steroid era. Secondly maybe Rice just thrived at home, not just the ball park. How can you discredit someone just because of the ballpark they played at. You do not think that Rice probably adjusted his swing to be a Fenway Hitter because that was where he was going to spend most of his games. He also played in a league that did not have these Home Run obsessed ball parks, like the ones in Arlington or Camden Yards. My last and final point please pick three hitters better than Jim Rice in his era. Brian am I saying that Jim Rice was Lou Gehrig, Stan Musial, or Roberto Clemente. No I am not. Was he one of the most dominant hitters of his era if not the most dominant yes he was. And if you are even going to mention double plays then someone should Reggie Jackson out because he did not have a high average or because he struck out too much.
The fact that he hit SO much better at home means he's not nearly as good as you think he was. Let me see if I can put in in perspective for you. In 2006, Xavier Nady had a .790 OPS, which ranked 96th in the Majors. So, away from Fenway Park, Jim Rice was Xavier Nady. Do you think Xavier Nady belongs in the HOF? Furthermore, you can't have it both ways. If you spend your article criticizing writers for their picks in HOF voting, you can't turn around and use writers vote totals in MVP voting for your case. If anything, it means that the writers have a better understanding now of what made Jim Rice such a good hitter when he was active. And that was that he was fortunate enough to play half his games in Fenway.
17 players have as high of an average as Jim had and as many HRs as Jim had, they are both in the hall. 8 time All Star, 8 time 100 rbis, 7 time .300 hitter, 6 time top 5 in AL MVP (that means for more than half a decade "writers" voted him as one of the top 5 players in the league. Eddie Murray the only player in his era even close had 5. He also won an MVP in 1978 where he is the only player ever to lead the league in 3bs, HRs, and Ribbies. Did he play in a hitters park yeah but during his twelve year span he hit more homers than any other player and was the most dominant force in the batters box. Name me three better hitters and I will give you the argument. By the way the argument that he played in Fenway should not be counted against him. It was not Coors. And because he hit better at home doesnt mean he should be shafted.