Slim Pickens on the 2009 Baseball Hall of Fame Ballot
According to the Sporting News 2009 will be the first year on the ballot for; Ricky Henderson, Jay Bell, David Cone, Ron Gant, Mark Grace, Jesse Orosco, Dan Plesac, Greg Vaughn, Mo Vaughn, and matt Williams.
Of those names only Henderson's rings out as Hall Worthy, more on that in a minute.
They are joining; Harold Baines, Bert Blyleven, Andre Dawson, Tommy John, Don Mattingly, Mark McGwire, Jack Morris, Dale Murphy, Dave Parker, Tim Raines, Jim Rice, Lee Smith, and Alan Trammell all who got enough votes last year to remain on the ballot.
Of these names only McGwire should be a shoe in, but his legacy darkened by a sickening display in front of Congress probably will keep forever out of the hall.
Keeping my emotions out of this, as a life long Detroit Tigers fan and considering that Alan Trammell was my favorite player as a kid, I can only make a case for Hall enshrinement for a few of these players.
Of the new players on the ballot only Henderson seems to be hall worthy. As the career stolen bases leader, the leader for most runs scored, and second all time in walks, that is a strong resume.
Beyond that making a case for any of these men is extremely tough. To me Jack Morris has the best case. Even though he is well short of the 300 win plateau that grants automatic enshrinement Morris who had the most wins of any pitcher in the 1980's and won a World Series with three different teams. Granted I may be reaching at straws here but that seems to be a strong case to me.
The problem comes in if Morris gets in, then Bert Blyleven who has more wins and more strike outs then Morris would deserve to be in.
In the end these players just didn't have the numbers to deserve enshrinement. They were all very, very good but that should not be the standard used for admittance to the Hall of Fame.
The stats used in this article were compiled from www.mlb.com, and www.ESPN.com
Published by Joshua Lobdell
I started out writing Political opinion pieces for a friend's website. That led to me writing for a sports blog, and that turned into a featured sports blog, and that led to me working at FIO as a racing exp... View profile
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2 Comments
Post a CommentHe doesn't have 300 wins that is the benchmark for pitchers espically guys who come from an era whee most clubs only had 4 starters
So what's wrong with Bert Blyleven getting in? You make it sound like a bad thing. Considering who is in the hall already, Blyleven should be a soo-in
Redsoxfan