Monday, January 12, 2009

28 baseball writers are idiots

Well, the number is actually higher than that, to be sure. But I can confirm 28. They're the 28 (out of 539) Hall of Fame voters who did not vote for Rickey Henderson.

Rickey Henderson. You know, MLB's all-time leader in runs and stolen bases. Second in walks. 3,000 hits. Changed the game. Dumber than a sack of hammers, to be sure, but a no-brainer Hall of Famer if there ever was one.

And 28 of these dumbasses didn't vote for him? Are these crusty old farts still pissed off that Babe Ruth didn't get 100% of the vote? Never mind that the voters from the first Hall of Fame class were trying to boil down 100 years of baseball into 15 inductees. Nah, because Babe Ruth didn't get every single fucking vote, the BBWAA has decided to purposely not vote for deserving players for some symbolic purpose that makes no sense.

How do you not vote for Cal Ripken for the Hall? Or Tony Gwynn? Or Joe DiMaggio, Ted Williams, Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, Tom Seaver, Steve Carlton, Nolan Ryan, George Brett, Mike Schmidt, Frank Robinson, Johnny Bench, Mickey Mantle ... or Rickey Henderson?

If I were in charge and a Hall of Fame player receives 90% of the vote, the 10% who do not vote for that player would be put on probationary status. If it happens again, you lose your ballot. Because it's obvious that if you're in the 1 (or fewer) out of 10 who goes against the grain, the problem is not with the rest of your colleagues. The problem is with you.

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