As a baseball fan, I was always look forward to hear the new inductees into the Baseball Hall of Fame. ( the Baseball Writers Association of America announce the candidates in November, vote in January and the ceremony takes place in Cooperstown, New York in July.) However, once again the Baseball Writers Association of America (BWAA) has it all wrong again. It is great to hear that Andre Dawson has finally made it in the hall, but it took nine years to get him in. Nine times!!! It was bad enough to hear players who finally got in after 7, 12 or even 15 years of disappointment (a player's name appears on the ballot for 15 years, then if they are not selected by the BWAA, then that player's name will go to the Veteran's Committee for possible enshrinement.) but this is ridiculous, especially when you hear that Bert Blyeven was five votes short and Roberto Alomar was a few percentage points away from getting in. This means that out of all the candidates on this year's ballot, Dawson is the only one voted in by the BWAA, and once again the Veteran's Committee will induct more players in the hall than the baseball writers.
The BWAA
The Baseball Writers Association of America are a group of baseball journalists who write baseball articles during the baseball season in newspapers, magazines, and online as well. It is tough to pass judgment on this crew because some of these folks actually do their homework
and research each player's career and then vote on a specific player (or players), while others has this "holier than thou" elitist-type attitude of saying like " This player did not talk to me when he was playing , therefore I'm not going to vote for him", or "This player has the stats to get in, but..."and so on. A majority of these writers never played in the Major Leagues, so they had no idea what it's like playing professional baseball because they see in through the eyes of a journalist (thank you Wikipedia for provide me the list of the current members of the BWAA.)
Change the format now!
If the Baseball Hall of Fame want to induct some more players in the hall every year, they need to make some changes and here they are:
1. Use the Pro Football, National Basketball Hall of Fame and
the Hockey Hall of Fame as a blueprint to induce players in the hall of fame
The Baseball Hall of Fame began in 1939, which is the oldest of the four hall of fame facilities mentioned here. However, the voting process , compared to the other three sports, is very outdated. While the other three sports enshrine between 3- 6 players into the hall, baseball
uses a rule where a candidate need a percentage of 75% or higher from the voters in order to get in. It is funny to hear recent inductees receive 88% or 90% on their first try, mainly because those players just retired five years ago (a player must have been retired for 5 years in order to become a candidate for Cooperstown.) The Baseball Hall of Fame should selected the top 3 players with the most votes and and enshrine them because it doesn't make any sense for candidates to wait 10-15 years to to get in after being on the ballot for that period of time.
2. Split up the voting process
The voting process needs to change. The BWAA has the power to elect and not vote for candidate into the hall of fame, and that is not right. The voting process must be divided into thirds. One third must go to the baseball writers; another third must go to the players who were either on the same or were opposing players during the candidate's playing days; and the last third goes to the mangers/general managers/owners who were around when the candidate's era.
3. Stop the hatred towards Relief Pitchers, Designated Hitters and Pinch Hitters
The Baseball writers has the tendency of looking down at non every daily players. They have a tough time voting for relief pitchers because they are not part of the pitching rotation and they come in for one inning. But a few relievers have been enshrined: Hoyt Wilhelm, Dennis Eckersley Bruce Sutter, Goose Gossage (it took both Sutter and Gossage a long time to get in the hall, which doesn't make any sense because they were the dominant closers of the 1970s and 1980s.) it would great to see Lee Smith get into the hall because he was the closer of 1990s ( also he held the career save mark until it was broken by another future hall of famer Trevor Huffman in 2006.)
Another set of players that the BWAA doesn't usually vote for are Designated Hitters because they are not position players, and their main purpose is to just hit for power and drive in runs. Edgar Martinez received 36.2% of the vote in his first on the ballot, so hopefully he will get in within the next few years. Also, players like Hal Mcrae, Harold Baines and once he retires, Frank Thomas should make the hall of fame.
The last set of players that the BWAA doesn't vote for are Pinch Hitters because they usually come in the later innings to help drive in base runners. It would great to see players like Lenny Harris, Rusty Staub, Manny Mota and Greg Gross get the recognition that they never received in their playing days.
Final Note
Growning up in the 1980s, I watched players like Jack Morris, Dale Murphy, Tim Raines, Alan Trammell, Lou Whitaker, Dave Parker, Don Mattingly, Dwight Gooden, Tommy John (he was wrapped up his rejuvenated career by then), Steve Garvey, etc. who were All-Stars, Most Valuable Player winners, Cy Young Award winners, etc. who for whatever reason is not in the hall of fame. It is messed up that that they are not in because they should be, no doubt about it.
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