Over the last couple years we’ve had some great debates about the inductees and potential inductees to the Pro Football Hall of Fame at our sister site, Zoneblitz.com.
We’re going to try to start doing the same thing here at Brushbackpitch.com as well, starting today.
Jeff Idelson, Baseball Hall of Fame president, announced on the MLB Network that, in his 14th year of eligibility, pitcher Bert Blyleven received the necessary 75 percent of votes to make the Hall. Blyleven’s self-promotion sometimes went over the top but his 287 wins, despite playing for some lousy teams, and two World Series championships certainly helped his argument. Nor did his career totals of 3,701 strikeouts and 242 complete games hurt.
Joining him will be Roberto Alomar, who played second base for seven teams during a 17 year career. He stole 474 bases, earned 10 straight gold gloves and made 12 straight All-Star games. He received 90 percent of the vote and, Idelson said, the third highest vote total ever.
They join Pat Gillick, who was tapped by the Expansion Era Committee.
That leaves a number of the 33 candidates on this year’s ballot still on the outside looking in, including Barry Larkin, Jack Morris, Lee Smith, Jeff Bagwell and several members of the controversial “steroid era,” which we’ve written about several times in other contexts and certainly will cover under this heading as well.
So what do you think? Are this year’s selections the right ones? Who should have gone in and who should have stayed out?
We’re looking forward to hearing from you at brushbackpitch.com.
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I think all three inductees (Blyleven, Alomar, Gillick) are most worthy HoF choices.
Of those still on the ballot, I’d definitely vote for Barry Larkin, Jeff Bagwell, Tim Raines, Alan Trammell, Mark McGwire, and Fred McGriff. I’m more on the fence with Lee Smith, Larry Walker, Edgar Martinez, and Dale Murphy. I don’t see any player on the upcoming ballot I’d vote for, so a few more of these players have a reasonable shot next time around.
I’m not someone who thinks steroid use should necessarily keep a player out of the HoF. That being said, it’s tougher to be supportive of players who were caught in steroid tests after the hard-line anti-steroid policy was enacted, which is why Rafael Palmeiro (and Manny Ramirez, when he becomes eligible) are more of a problem for me than folks like Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, Alex Rodriguez, Roger Clemens, and Sammy Sosa.