The first ever Contemporary Hall of Fame committee has inducted Fred McGriff into the Hall of Fame.
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A good 30 minutes before the Hall of Fame announcement, we learned that Chipper Jones was unable to attend today's vote for who was going into the Hall of Fame. It makes you think what is going wrong with Jones if he wasn't able to attend a Zoom conference to do the vote. I hope that he's okay. I also wonder- as they have yet to announce- who the late minute replacement for Jones was.
What Hall of Fame players would've been at the Winter Meetings? Could he have been replaced by a writer? Could he have been replaced by a highly respected executive? It'll be interesting to find out who that mystery person was.
We have learned that Derrick Hall- the president & CEO of the Arizona Diamondbacks- stepped in for Jones.
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This is not surprising and also surprising at the same time. Fred McGriff got inducted into the Hall of Fame with all 16 votes from the committee.
One has to think that the committee was very strict on steroids, career milestones (and accumulation metrics), and was strict on personality.
Congratulations to Fred McGriff!
I am not looking forward to the "Yankees messed up trading McGriff" posts in the future over this.
Darn shame for Don Mattingly not making it into Cooperstown. I was secretly hoping that he'd finally get his chance.
1 PLAYER? Uggg...the log-jam of great players to get stuck on crap committees (which will now meet once every 3 years) is far too big.
Off this ballot alone were (in my opinion): Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Curt Schilling, and Rafael Palmeiro as sure-fire Hall of Famers.
What about guys like Thurman Munson? Graig Nettles? How much longer are we going to hold those guys- who deserve the Hall- to get in. Mattingly would've been a huge gain for both of their candidacies as well.
Darn.
Darn darn darn.
What about guys like Bernie Williams? Jorge Posada? Kenny Lofton? By being too strict, it takes away an ability to love the Hall of Fame because of all the big names of guys who aren't enshrined.
What a shame.
Again, this is nothing against McGriff. He was a deserving candidate. The signs were obvious that he was going to get in this go-around. They stacked the deck in his favor as a guy with the best overall stats without any on or off the field problems.
I should start my own Hall of Fame.
Maybe we could have the SSTN Hall of Fame?
It's an idea.
8 votes for Donnie Baseball?
7 for Schilling?
Less than 4 for each of Bonds and Clemens?
Jeez.
These voters are out of touch with what the baseball fans want.
Don't do what they want and you'll drive them away.
Darn.
I wanted to add this tweet as an extra little bit of information, but this makes me even more upset. Nobody else was even close.
We need better people voting for stuff like this. People without bias. No players. No media. No executives. We need something new.
Sorry, Donnie.
Bonds and Clemons are never getting in the hall.... Baseball is just too conservative! Right or wrong that's the way it is!
Here's a question -
I understand how the character clause is used to keep players out of the Hall of Fame, but with guys like Dale Murphy whose character is as clean as anyone, and who was one of the most respected players ever - why is it that the character clause doesn't help players like him get in?
Just looking at WAR (as a unique way of looking at this):
Barry Bonds had 162.8 WAR. The typical cut-off for the Hall is seen as around 60 WAR. Bonds exceeds that standard by more than 100 points of WAR. The penalty on Bonds then, it can be argued, is worth more than 100 points of WAR. The penalty for B…
"These voters are out of touch with what the baseball fans want."
Cheaters and racists? Well, 46.9% of them if you go by a November 2020 survey made in another context. A clear majority, however, do not want this kind of scum and are sick of them.
And to put it bluntly, based on the words of yours I've read here and the upstanding values they reflect, it stuns me that character and decency are irrelevant to your calculus of who is worthy of being honored.
I thought this was Donnie Baseball's chance. I'm sad he didn't make it.
Our Tuesday Discussion this week will focus on whether or not Don Mattingly deserves to be in the Hall of Fame.
In short, his stats come up a bit short. Still, he's one of my favorites of all time. Ever. Because of that, I'm sad. I was hoping he'd get in.