As per usual, the Baseball Hall of Fame announcement show took two hours to ramp up before they finally announced the balloting results. You can see Ryan Thibodaux’s invaluable public-ish ballot tracker here, but it was unclear whether the leaders, Scott Rolen and Todd Helton, had enough to squeak in.
Prior to the ballot announcement, we found out that former Cubs slugger Fred McGriff had been elected on the Contemporary Era ballot. McGriff was one of the most consistent, albeit under-appreciated, sluggers of his time, winning a World Series with Atlanta and remaining productive well into his late-30s, including two seasons with the Cubs, where he socked 12 homers after being traded to Chicago in 2001 and another 30 in his full season in 2002. I imagine part of the issue was that he was overshadowed by many other sluggers who may or may not have taken PEDs, as well as being squeezed out on some super loaded ballots while he still had eligibility, but better late than never. I personally don’t care about PED guys from that era getting in, if they ever do, because the allegations had been papered over so many times by actual MLB that any re-legislation seems dumb and hypocritical, but I’m glad that didn’t ultimately affect Fred here, he was just a bit delayed. Since he did most of his damage with Atlanta, I think McGriff’s plaque will display that cap.
Also announced earlier was Cubs radio announcer Pat Hughes, recipient of the Ford C. Frick Award for excellence in broadcasting. Pat had been previously honored with a spot in the growing Cubs team hall of fame, which still doesn’t include Sammy Sosa because reasons. But this has been a long time coming, as I listened to Pat and Ron (first Santo, then Coomer) on the radio nearly every day during the season when I lived in Chicago and I miss their broadcasts now that I’m in California. I am excited about his speech come this summer and I’m sure there will be plenty of celebrations in the village of Bedford Park as well as in Des Moines, where the “s” is silent but the city is buzzing (or whatever the schtick is).
There was a bit of an internet drama because the Hall of Fame may or may not have tipped their hand with their use of URLs, which seemed plausible seeing how close Scott Rolen was to the induction threshold. And as it turns out, Rolen was the only one that got in on the ballot this year. Helton and Billy Wagner seem poised to make it next year given their vote totals.
Rolen was the only one of the 28 candidates to reach that threshold with 297 votes, which accounted for 76.3 percent of the electorate. He will be honored during Induction Weekend 2023 July 21-24 in Cooperstown, N.Y., at the July 23 Induction Ceremony on the grounds of the Clark Sports Center along with Fred McGriff, who was elected by the Contemporary Baseball Era Players Committee last month in San Diego.
Also being honored that weekend will be the Ford C. Frick Award winner for baseball broadcasting, Pat Hughes, and the BBWAA Career Excellence Award winner for baseball writing, John Lowe, July 22 at the Awards Presentation.
From BBWAA
Next year’s ballot has a number of intriguing holdovers who are probably deserving of getting in, including Gary Sheffield, who will be in his final year of eligibility but has been making strides and stands a good chance of getting some sympathy boost votes. That ballot is also going to have a lot of big names so we can see yet another crowded ballot, so blank ballots are going to get the side eye for sure. Congratulations to Rolen and McGriff and Pat Hughes this year, and on to the next.
Comments
That’s awesome for Rolen. Absolutely deserving and I’m happy he made it.
PerkinsQuote Reply
Can’t imagine not voting for Helton.
andcountingQuote Reply
andcounting,
I think he got the Coors snub like they did with Larry Walker but he probably has enough momentum to get in next year
Rice CubeQuote Reply
True, though I think I can hear the creatively profane curses from my Philly-native relatives from all the way here in NM (dying laughing)
berseliusQuote Reply
berselius,
What’s the deal with Philly fans not liking Rolen anyway? I know he was traded but is it as simple as that?
Rice CubeQuote Reply
Rice Cube,
IIRC he took a dump on the franchise/city on his way out. Looking over the team records for the following years, they were over .500 for nearly the next decade, and could have been title contenders if he stuck around. Good thing Philly fans arent known for holding grudges (dying laughing)
berseliusQuote Reply
I haven’t done the research, but why do I have a strong suspicion that there’s a considerable overlap in the Venn diagram circles representing baseball writers who bemoan cancel culture and baseball writers who refused to let Bonds, McGwire, Sosa, and Clemens into the Hall?
It just seems so silly to challenge just about any player’s HOF worthiness when Bonds and Clemens aren’t in. Like, any pitcher getting in from here on out wasn’t as good as Rocket. Any position player getting in wasn’t as good as Bonds. So if you weren’t as good as Bonds or Clemens? Yes, you meet the criteria. Welcome to the Hall, why not.
andcountingQuote Reply
Good for Rolen , despite playing for a bunch of teams I don’t like much. Helton should have gotten in too, but he will next year.
Next year’s ballot will be interesting. Beltre and Mauer should get in. Plus Helton and I’d guess Wagner too. Utley probably takes a few years. David Wright and Matt Holliday will probably stick around. Plus of course holdovers with Beltran, Andruw, Sheff, Manny, and Arod pulling significant votes. Could be a lot of 10 player ballots again.
BVSQuote Reply
BVS,
The HOF should enact a rule that anyone who submits a blank ballot next year needs to be purged
Rice CubeQuote Reply
Based on max impact (i.e. playoffs, won the World Series etc) it would seem they make Rolen wear the Cardinals cap on his plaque.
This is nice:
Rice CubeQuote Reply
Rice Cube,
Last I looked at the tracker, there were like 7 ballots with only one name, each with a different name.
Now I have almost no reason to look at Twitter.
BVSQuote Reply
Insights on the shift going away (for the most part) from the Cubs players during Ian Happ’s live podcast at the Convention
Rice CubeQuote Reply
BVS,
I’m gonna be the Titanic orchestra when that hellsite finally goes under
Rice CubeQuote Reply
Rice Cube,
I started (somehwat) enjoying twitter again when I treated it as a microblogging service for a bunch of individual accounts, and just avoided replies, the main feed, and trending topics as much as possible. https://twitter.com/dougjballoon is still the main source of my traffic to twitter (dying laughing).
berseliusQuote Reply
As much as diagnosing twitter’s decline is equivalent to pinpointing when the Simpsons started to fall off, I think the biggest mistake twitter ever made (pre new ownership) was allowing people to thread tweets. The site was the king of the pithy comment, threading just turned it in to FB rant lite.
berseliusQuote Reply
From Sahadev @theAthletic, regarding our podcast confusion on Hosmer’s defense…
I stand by my opinion that Hosmer should have the short end of the playing time among the 1B crowd.
BVSQuote Reply
BVS,
Also, I don’t know how the GG award criteria changed. (dying laughing)
BVSQuote Reply
berselius,
Isn’t OV the king of the pithy comment?
BVSQuote Reply
BVS,
I believe at least part of it is based on manager/staff vote and then another part is based on defensive metrics, unsure which ones though.
Rice CubeQuote Reply
BVS,
It could go either way.
berseliusQuote Reply
berselius,
It is kind of hilarious how many articles are still being shared of Teslas crashing or Musk Melon sucking and then I recently saw some “fact checking” boxes which seemed like someone was coding a legitimate fact check for controversial statements. Also I know lots of folks are complaining about the feed defaulting to “for you” which actually means all the trash and promoted tweets that you otherwise don’t actually want to see. I usually go back to the “following” tab so I don’t have to deal with that, and my experience since Musk Melon took over hasn’t actually changed except that I see far fewer ads I would term “relevant” and more QVC type infomercial crap. For the most part the blue checkmarks I follow, I know they are who they are because I followed them before the great Twitter Blue experiment, so I think the news I’m sharing with you all is at least from a legitimate source.
Rice CubeQuote Reply
Rice Cube,
I just don’t want to frequent and promote a company owned by Elon Musk anymore. It’s not a public service, it’s owned by an asshole, and I’d like to help make it become even less relevant.
andcountingQuote Reply
andcounting,
It unfortunately remains one of the quickest ways to get news so I think I’m hoping he gives up and sells it to a billionaire that sucks less, kind of like with the Ricketts and the Cubs.
Rice CubeQuote Reply
Pretty cool
Rice CubeQuote Reply
Latest BN talks about the Cubs and certain relievers, I’d do it too but then it’s definitely white noise (dying laughing)
https://www.bleachernation.com/cubs/2023/01/25/lukewarm-stove-cubs-connected-to-lefty-relievers-is-barnes-a-target-white-sox-trade-interest-more/
If it were me I’d just see whether Chafin wanted to come back to Chicago and give him whatever is below the luxury tax threshold if they’re keen on staying under it.
Rice CubeQuote Reply
Rice Cube,
Cots spreadsheet suggests they should have about $15MM AAV to play with and Chafin isn’t going to cost that, I don’t think…figure $9MM AAV since you would think even if Chafin was better than Matt Strahm that his agent won’t get too nuts about it? Doesn’t leave a lot of in-season maneuvering space but at that point you just reassess and say “damn the torpedoes”
Rice CubeQuote Reply
andcounting,
Missed this earlier (I don’t read every comment) but I think in due time, the older eligible voters (writers and HOFers on the veterans committees) will die and/or go away and the younger ones will get some of those guys in, while giving the next generation other things to complain about…just like in real life
Rice CubeQuote Reply
Rice Cube,
Indeed, at least one of the blank ballot guys cast his last vote this year. But so did an 8-vote guy too, Adam Mertz (Helton, Jones, Wagner, Pettite, ARod, Manny, KRod, Beltran). Not sure on others.
BVSQuote Reply
andcounting,
Yeah, where I pinpoint Twitter’s decline was the day it got bought by a fucking nazi.
uncle daveQuote Reply
uncle dave,
Any other possible gaffe, including RC’s thread complaint, is just noise on the seismograph compared to the takeover.
I guess Jack Dorsey is laughing all the way to the bank though.
BVSQuote Reply
BVS,
I’m still greatly amused at how they forced him to overpay for the website because he just simply doesn’t know how to shut up
Rice CubeQuote Reply
Rice Cube,
Bellinger can’t match his socks?
BVSQuote Reply
BVS,
I dunno, I’m not his mother (dying laughing)
New shit about pitching –> http://www.obstructedview.net/a-winning-pitch-we-hope/
Rice CubeQuote Reply
I’m not going to judge anybody by their ability to ditch their habits, but the ability /demand to relay news as soon as it breaks is both the strength and pitfall of twitter. And the big difference between Musk and Ricketts as it relates to their respective ownership is that the Ricketts ultimately have a desired end in common with me (we both are interested to various degrees in seeing the Cubs win it all) whereas I don’t think Musk has a desired outcome for Twitter that intersects at all with what I’d want it to be. And, all morals/ethics aside, he owns it. Even if he desired it to be something distinct from what I wanted my preferred social medium to be but still benign or beneficial to the greater good, I’d have ample reason to leave it because I could reasonably predict it changing into something I didn’t enjoy using. As it is, it’s objectionable to me on every level.
I’ve also seen the quality of my relationships on their deteriorate quite a bit much by my own doing, so it’s an easier break for me.
andcountingQuote Reply