Another Coot Rant

It is an annual tradition for Coot to write about the errors and omissions of the Baseball Writers Association of America, and this year is no exception. I’m already on record as approving their selection of this year’s Baseball Hall of Fame honorees, Andruw Jones and Carlos Beltran, but as always, there are some voters whose ballots make no sense at all. Of course they vote behind the curtain of anonymity, and many voters don’t choose to make their votes or their reasoning public.

This year there were a number of blank ballots submitted. I respect the viewpoints of those who prefer a “small hall” but surely these writers could find someone on the ballot worthy of a vote. There have been over 23,000 who have played in the major leagues, and there are only 281 enshrined in Cooperstown. That’s about 1.2 %. I’d say that’s a small hall, wouldn’t you?

Then there are the ones who want attention or decide to “make a statement” with their votes, or the ones who harbor personal grudges. This accounts for some strange ballots.

This year a voter only voted for one candidate - Alex Rodriguez! I’m pretty sure that Jennifer Lopez is not a BWAA writer, so it had to be someone else. Maybe they thought they were voting for the Pompous Phony Hall of Fame?

Odd voting is not a new phenomenon. There have been many illustrations over the years. For example, did you know that there were 23 who didn’t vote for Stan Musial or Willie Mays, 43 who didn’t include Mickey Mantle and 65 who overlooked Warren Spahn, who won more games (363) than any other lefty in history?

Look at this list of players who didn’t get elected in their first year of eligibility and how many extra years they waited: Yogi Berra, Whitey Ford and Tris Speaker (2nd year eligible), Cy Young (3), Joe DiMaggio (4), Rogers Hornsby (5), and Jimmy Foxx (8). Granted, most of you are younger than me, but if you don’t recognize those names, you shouldn’t be voting for the Hall of Fame. And neither should have those writers who omitted those players.

So this proves that writers make mistakes, intentionally or otherwise. And I am qualified to make that assessment, because I am a writer! And finally, I obviously have never been allowed to vote a HOF, but I believe I am competent for that task!

That’s one man’s opinion - what’s yours?