Hall of Politics

Andre Dawson was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame this past weekend. Dawson put up big numbers while putting up with nagging knee injuries that began in high school. He played a bulk of his career with the Montreal Expos, which is reason enough to elect anyone into the Hall. The team was terrible and the field was essentially concrete spray painted green, which did his knees no help. While Dawson was certainly deserving to be inducted, the Hall does have its issues, and the voting process is one of them.

The voting process is a joke. Eligible members of the Baseball Writers Association of America each get 10 votes to decide who is elected. Players need 75% of the vote to go in. The problem with this strategy though is that if someone is on the fence, some writers will not vote him in due to lack of knowledge. If I am writing about the Houston Astros for my career, I may not have enough knowledge of Roberto Alomar to base my vote.

The lack of knowledge is only part of the problem. The other is the bias some of these writer's have against players. Alomar was probably the best 2nd baseman of his generation, but was not inducted this year with Dawson. Alomar had an incident in which he spit in the face of an umpire. The writers are now teaching him a lesson by making him wait. This is just one example of their bias.

No player has ever been unanimously voted in. The most recent man who probably should have been unanimous, was Rickey Henderson. Rickey was the best leadoff batter and most successful baserunner ever. There was absolutely no reason not to vote him in. No unanimous inductees. Not Willy Mayes, not Hank Aaron, not Mickey Mantle, not Babe Ruth. No one.

The last issue I have with the Hall is that, once in, Andre Dawson is on the same level as Hank Aaron. There was a writer, some years back, that suggested levels of Fame. The elite tier would be reserved for Ruth, Nolan Ryan, Aaron, the most remembered names in the game. The middle tier would be the players with exceptional careers, the no doubt Hall of Famers, Joe DiMaggio, Willie Stargell, Bob Feller. The bottom tier would be players that just barely make it in. Jim Rice would be here. Burt Blyleven would be here if he ever gets voted in.

It will be interesting to see if the performance enhanced will ever be inducted. They should be in there; it will be hard for the Hall to justify erasing an entire generation. While we ignored it at the time, Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire saved baseball. They should be in there, with an asterisk on their plaque noting that they admitted, or were accused of enhancing. Currently, McGuire is on the outside looking in, watching his support slip away each year.

I think Hall of Fame voting should be similar to the Heisman, with former winners being allowed to vote. I want the system to be changed, but it isn't completely broke yet, so nothing will be done. Barry Bonds has the single season and career home run records (*). Alex Rodriguez has a chance to end his career with over 800 home runs. Bonds is accused of enhancing, and A-Rod admitted using. Keeping them out would be like keeping the all-time hit leader out.

Oh, wait.