Ah, yes. After-Baseball season, when drama falls from the sky like rain and hot takes are thrown around willy-nilly. This week in particular is usually a busy one for baseball fans, but the most important thing that happens around this time is the announcement of the Hall of Fame Ballot.
This year, we have so many first time guys on the list who are either sure fire entries or at least have an argument to be on the ballot. Plus, we have returning candidates who are worthy as well.
Most notably on this year’s ballot are Chipper Jones and Jim Thome, who if you ask me are no brainers. And then, of course, we have the return of Mike Mussina, who should have been in YEARS AGO but is still languishing on the ballot. Guys, if Jonah Keri can get Tim Raines into the Hall, we can get Moose in there, too. So I’m proud to announce that once again this year, we are going to usher forth another season of…
MOOSE WATCH!
This year’s ballot, without further ado:
New to the BBWAA Ballot: Andruw Jones, Chipper Jones, Hideki Matsui, Jim Thome, Johan Santana, Omar Vizquel, Chris Carpenter, Johnny Damon, Liván Hernández, Orlando Hudson, Aubrey Huff, Jason Isringhausen, Carlos Lee, Brad Lidge, Kevin Millwood, Jamie Moyer, Scott Rolen, Kerry Wood and Carlos Zambrano.
Returning Nominees (with their vote tally and years on ballot per BBWAA):
- Trevor Hoffman
74.0%
3rd year - Vladimir Guerrero
71.7%
2nd year - Edgar Martínez
58.6%
9th year
- Roger Clemens
54.1%
6th year - Barry Bonds
53.8%
6th year - Mike Mussina
51.8%
5th year
- Curt Schilling
45.0%
6th year - Manny Ramírez
23.8%
2nd year - Larry Walker
21.9%
8th year
- Fred McGriff
21.7%
9th year - Jeff Kent
16.7%
5th year - Gary Sheffield
13.3%
4th year
- Billy Wagner
10.2%
3rd year - Sammy Sosa
8.6%
6th year
So, FI Fam, who would you vote for? Which hard decisions would you make to leave someone off the ballot (you get 10 votes per year)? Are you willing to face my wrath if you neglect Moose? Let’s discuss it below.
Fan Interference 
So, here’s my vote for this year. I believe everyone knows that I am an Inclusive Hall person, and please allow me to explain one notable exclusion.
Chipper
Thome
Moose (obvs)
Scott Rolen
Trev
Wags
Schilling
Bonds
Manny
Andruw
SomeGuy asked me why, if I put Bonds on the list, why I omitted Clemens. Here is why: I think that Roger Clemens is a really gross human being. A brilliant baseball player, yes. One of the finest pitchers of all time, without question. But I think he’s a lizard. Is Bonds gross? Yeah, in some ways. So is Curt Schilling in some ways. But Clemens, to me, is personally and morally just ick to me. So while I think Rocket should be in the Hall of Fame eventually, I would rather let him sit it out a few more years and give my vote to those I respect much more. This was My Hard Decision.
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Chipper
Moose (I’m a convert here)
Schilling (I hold my nose)
Clemens (Likewise. It’s not the Hall of Decent Human Beings)
Bonds (I think he was actually a better teammate than he ever got credit for. And at his best, he was impossible to pitch to. Who else can you say that about?)
Thome (A little mixed feelings. I said on HBT yesterday, his comp to me is Lance Berkman. But Thome did it for 20 years, Berkman 13+. So I can go Thome)
Vlad, Andruw and Scott Rolen are borderline cases to me. I wouldn’t object to any of them, but not compelled by them either.
I’m a bit of a naysayer on Hoffman. Old-fashioned enough to think a guy in a specialty has to overwhelm to convince me.
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BTW, if I seem to disappear for three weeks, never fear. The wife and I are leaving for Athens in the morning. We will be in the Eastern Mediterranean for the duration.
CHECK THAT. We will NOT be IN the Eastern Mediterranean, hopefully we will be sailing ON it. The plan is to investigate ancient civilizations by day and to imbibe sublethal doses of alcohol by night. (Manhattan with rye, straight up, twist of lemon, please. Yes, you can make that a double.).
Unlike Gator, I don’t have some arcane English novelist’s program at some European university to subsidize me. All on my nickel. But I plan to have some fun with some old friends. (Emphasis on the OLD)
I will try to follow the hot stove by wifi, and I will give a thought to my F-I friends. Back – much the worse for wear – in mid-December.
Happy Thanksgiving, all.
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Have a great time, Stex.
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Stex, 1st you get my pitcher and win the World Series, now you’re taking one of my dream vacations. Enjoy yourself (you thief!).
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I include Hoffman because he was THE most dominant closer in the NL and helped revolutionize for better or worse what the closer role can be, alongside Mo. The pitching game is evolving and the metrics we have used for the last 80 years will no longer be valid. We have to redefine our viewpoint, and redefine what is “great”. Having watched Trevor Hoffman destroy guys on the reg, even in the twilight of his career, I grew to have huge respect for him. I believe he is a pioneer in a new world of pitching, and was just plain damn good. He gets my vote for these reasons.
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Stex, have a blast. Me, I’m now organizing a spring trip to Vietnam to explore the sources of the cultural background radiation of my youth. If time and budget allow I may take my youngest (and most politically radical) son with me, and stop in Japan on the way home. I have a photo of my son and I standing in front of the Godzilla statue in front of the Tokyo central railroad station when he was 13 and now, 11 years and a million miles flown with commensurate air mile credit later, I want to re-pose us there.
Sorry, no Bonds in the hall of fame for me. You’ll be saying Trump belongs in the White House next.
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Ewwwww. No way that will ever happen.
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I just quick read the Wikipedia article on Barry Bonds, and while reviewing his astonishing on the field achievements I didn’t notice any mention of him walking in on naked teenage girls participating in a “beauty contest”, or forcibly raping his soon to be discarded wife because he was crabby about discomfort following some hair transplant thing born of little boy vanity, or having conned desperate and vulnerable people out of their few remaining resources with a scam “university”, or having hosted and attended sex parties where underage girls were present presumably to be the life of the party. I think you have to agree that Barry Bonds is a far preferable candidate for the chair of Lincoln than its current occupant.
Baseball is memories and the hall of fame is about whose careers occupies the largest and most important parts of those memories.. I remember watching a game between the Giants and the Diamondbacks with my dad in the hospital, as he neared his death. At the time Bonds was being routinely pitched around and most every pitcher was terrified of throwing him a strike. Curt Schilling of the Diamondbacks had publicly said before the game that no way was he afraid of Bonds and that he was going to get him out with nothing but fastballs. The first at bat, he struck Bonds out with nothing but fastballs. The second at bat, Bonds bounced it off the right field wall. The third at bat, Schilling threw breaking balls..
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I always think it a little funny that I of all people do not care much about the goings on with the Hall.
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It’s not funny it’s normal and it’s called getting old, and I agree.
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I am getting old. It stinks.
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Agreed. I think the only hall of fame with any merit is the LPGA Hall of Fame. Correct me if I’m mistaken, but it’s the only one where admittance is determined by specific points criteria, not the whims and biases of voters. That said, I’m stilled pissed that Lou Whitaker didn’t make the recent Modern Era ballot.
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LPGA???? Yeah, but don’t you have to be lesbian, gay, bisexual or transsexual to get into the…uh…oh.
Never mind.
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