1/2/14

My (fictional) 2014 Hall of Fame ballot

Members of the BBWAA had until 12/31 to send in their annual HOF ballots (via fax or snail mail only.)   The results will be announced in two days, so I decided to post my fictional ballot.  A couple of notes:

  •  I explain this more in depth here, but I believe that entry to the Hall of Fame should be restricted to the very few select players.   It is ok to have displays on Jack Morris' game 7, as a great game in baseball and a great appearance, but it is not ok to induct the player, just for this.  The same with Mark McGwire and Samy Sosa and their HR title contest.  Thus, my cut offs are more stringent than others.  The Hall has 306 members, some of the players have an under .700 career OPS.  This is not right as far as I can tell.
  • I am going with performance and not proven or suspected PED use.   This witch hunt has to stop.  If someone wants a "clean Hall", Hank Aaron should be kicked out, since he publicly admitted to using "greenies" that are now banned from baseball.  If someone does not vote for modern PED suspects but wants to keep already enshrined PED users, is a hypocritical position.  So is, celebrating Tony LaRussa's induction while not voting for Mark McGwire because of steroid use.   Unless LaRussa was blind or absent, he at least knew what was going on in the Canseco/McGwire/Giambi clubhouse.

With those things in mind, my 2014 HOF ballot would have been:

Jeff Bagwell
Barry Bonds
Roger Clemens
Tom Glavine 
Glenn Maddux
Mike Mussina
Curt Schiling,

There is a reason that 10 votes is the maximum.  It is not the Hall of Very Good.

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