.
Sez John Pierce, with the Counselor and The Spectator at his left and right elbows,
.
John Pierce: Even though the Big Unit amassed on of the highest % totals for induction, what morons decided not to vote for him? The old adage that, since Babe Ruth didn't get 100% of the vote nobody else should, needs to be put to rest. It'll be interesting to see what % Griffey will receive next year.
mojician: Re: Johnson non-unanimous vote: Yeah, its that kind of stuff that tarnishes the hall of fame. The voters have become a bigger story than whoever actually gets in.
Spectator: Unit 97.3% HOF no surprise. Edgar had slight uptick from 25.5% to 27.0% after dropping prior two years. Probably doesn't mean much. Fun at the bottom: Aaron Boone two votes! Huh? That's one more than Darin Erstad. Everyday Eddie Guardado gets zero votes. Thought he might get a vote for teaching JJPutz the splitter. Not really.
....
James had a pithy comment on this twenty years ago, when Hank Aaron or somebody pouted about being left off of a couple of ballots. "This is what it has come to: the Hall of Fame can no longer honor a player like Henry Aaron. It can only insult him."
The same will be true of Felix Hernandez. To call him a "Hall of Fame" caliber pitcher doesn't mean much; the only way to use the HOF to make a meaningful statement about Felix would be to say that Felix isn't at that level. Personally, I wouldn't want my name only available as a means of insulting people. :- )
The definition of "insult" is to --- > make a remark, statement or perform an action that conveys lack of respect, especially when done in a denigrating way: "Dr. D piled insults on the very hobby that obviously consumes >50% of his waking attention."
:- ) It can be used medically, for an occurrence that causes damage to soft tissue: "the movement of the bone caused a severe tissue insult."
It can be used sabermetrically, for a phenomenon that disrupts the natural order of baseball: "the Seattle Mariners' -5.3 WAR off the bench insulted the Replacement Level Player construct."
Any sportswriter who left the Big Unit off his ballot was, of course, insulting Johnson in a rather nasty, mean-spirited way. And doing so deliberately. It's like if I created a list of the 10 greatest Mariners ever -- from Johnson all the way down to Rich Amaral at #10 -- and left Ken Griffey Jr. off the list. It is ZERO comment on Griffey that I did so. It is only a comment on me. We don't say that with hyperbole; we mean it with surgical calm. The 2.7% who insulted Randy, those dudes commented on themselves. Dr. D should know. He insults himself by hitting the "post" button about five times per week.
So if they're commenting on themselves, what did they say? See Mojician's remark. That they're bigger than the game. Like art critics are bigger than the art, like Rolling Stone magazine is bigger than the artists.
We're guessing that Johnson's legacy will survive the ballots that regarded him as being outside the 75-100 greatest pitchers in the game. But the great thing about the 2.7% anti-Unit vote is that it calls attention to the Kangaroo Court aspect of the voting. Maybe some day, somebody will do something about it?
Sigh,
Jeff
Personally I don't care for the Hall of Fame, for baseball or any other sport. I don't know if it's true, but someone told me once that Halls of Fame are mostly an American phenomenon, that they don't have the equivalent for European Soccer, for instance. Is that the case? I'm sure someone on this blog can tell me if that's true or not.
...if I weren't such an M's fan. And would have had nothing to do with the Unit's worthiness, and everything to do with the 10-vote limit.
In my case there's actually no way I skip Randy on my ballot. (Hah! Made you look). But if we assume there are more than 10 worthy candidates this year, I'm in the camp of assigning those votes strategically.
Pedro? No vote, he doesn't need it to get in.
Randy? Same principle applies but I'm voting in the worthy Mariner.
Piazza? 75% candidate gets a vote to clear the logjam.
Are there any worthy candidates in danger of failing to get 5%? Unlikely, but if so they get a vote.
As many of the remaining votes as possible go to prop up future campaigns of the most worthy. Edgar gets one from me to build his momentum slightly, Bonds/Clemens don't because for now they are firmly entreched where they are. Fill in your own blanks here.
At the end of this analysis if 'unneeded' votes remain - sure, assign them to your Randy and Pedro types! But geez... the fact that some writers are having to even consider this process is beyond dumb.
It's really too bad, because I'd bet a fair bit that half of Randy's no-votes aren't comments on his qualifications (or that of the voters!) at all, but rather on the broken electoral process.
None of Britain's three main team sports (football/soccer, cricket and rugby) have an equivalent and I'm not aware of HOF's for other nations that primarily play these sports. The national football museum has something called a HOF (which I've only just found out despite being an avid fan for 30 years) but the annual nominees are voted for by a panel of 5 ex-players and gets literally zero coverage in any of the press. I suspect you physically have to go to the museum to see who's in the hall.
So, I think you're correct about it being a mainly US phenomenon.
That's exactly right, King. Several writers had earlier said they would leave RJ off their ballots because he was getting in anyhow and they would use their votes to help other candidates. The whole thing has gotten too meta.
On another note: What do we make of the fact that the Atlanta Braves had three Hall of Famers at their peaks in their starting rotation and won only one Series? How exactly do you mess that up?
There's no Halls of Fame in European Soccer, only some minor club internal halls, similar to the M's Hall of Fame.
You do keep your records on a national level, knowing names like Beckenbauer, Matthäus, Zidane, Keagan, Puskas, et al, but Halls of Fame are mostly an American thing, as is the league/franchise system.