Update 10 AM: Repoz from Baseball Think Factory has informed me the other Rose supporting is perennial backer Jack McCaffery of the Daily Times in the Philly area. Original Post Last night, I was joined by Marco Maturo, a member of the BBWAA who spent 40 years covering sports for Gannett, which included 7 years on the Mets beat […]
The terms “Cincinnati legend” and “lifetime Cincinnati Red” were used to describe Barry Larkin yesterday after his election into the Hall of Fame. He also became the 48th member of the Hall to spend his entire career with one team. Born in Cincinnati, Larkin won the 1990 World Series, MVP in 1995, and become the first shortstop […]
The Baseball Hall of Fame will announce its 2012 inductees later today. Over the past month I have encouraged readers and listeners to vote in our own BBWAA-style ballot. Here are the results. Jeff Bagwell 61.7% Barry Larkin 57.7% Tim Raines 55.7% Edgar Martinez 43.6% Jack Morris 40.3% Mark McGwire 29.5% Alan Trammell 27.5% Lee Smith 26.8% Rafael Palmeiro 24.8% Don Mattingly 22.8% Bernie Williams 20.1% […]
Forget any stats - advanced or otherwise- let’s do a fun exercise and vote for the Hall of Fame based on “feel.” This isn’t easy since you would have to see someone play for a majority of their career. As mentioned before, if I had a Hall of Fame Ballot it would include Jeff Bagwell, Edgar Martinez, Mark McGwire, Rafael Palmeiro, Jack […]
We are a little over a week away from the Baseball Hall of Fame announcing its 2012 selection. Each year, I give the readers of NYBD an opportunity to cast their own BBWAA-style ballot. Last year Bert Blyleven and Roberto Alomar garnered the most fan support, but not the requisite 75% needed for induction. In December, Gil Hodges received the most […]
Back in the 40s and 50s the United States was facing a huge threat - communism. During this era, thousands of Americans were accused of being Communists or communist sympathizers and became the subject of aggressive investigations and questioning before government. Wisconsin Senator Joe McCarthy led the brigade with the “Hollywood Blacklist” and investigations by the House […]
It’s been nearly 15 years since the BBWAA elected to not enshrine someone in Cooperstown. During the 1996 election, Phil Niekro received 68.3% of the vote, followed by Tony Perez (65.7%), and Don Sutton (63.8%). Ironically, all three would be enshrined by 2000. I believe there is a good chance no one will be inducted by the […]
We talk about bad contracts all the time, but watching the Yankees play Minnesota last night got me to thinking about Joe Mauer‘s deal. This is the first year of an 8 year/$184 million dollar deal ($23 million AAV) that Mauer signed last March. It’s hard to argue with the Twins giving him that money. After […]
This is a little old, but figured I would share it since we talked about the viability of baseball in Montreal earlier this week. What If Sports ran a sim of the complete 1994 season on the 10 year anniversary of the strike. It’s been 17 years since the players and owners walked out on […]
Last night, Jeff Pearlman of Sports Illustrated joined me to discuss his controversial comments regarding steroids and Jeff Bagwell. One of the points that Jeff made, and I agree with, is how MLB hasn’t provided direction on potential PED users in the Hall of Fame like they have with Pete Rose and the Black Sox. […]
To wrap up this 24 hours of Hall of Fame, I decided to take an early look at the 2012 ballot, and perhaps project who I would support, and maybe lay out some questions that could be answered over the next twelve months. It appears that Barry Larkin might have the best shot for induction […]
First, congratulations are in order to Roberto Alomar and Bert Blyleven for their induction into the Hall of Fame. Regardless of what you think about their candidacy, only a small percentage of individuals play Major League Baseball, of that small group, an even smaller percentage are awarded the games highest honor. With that said, I […]
There are a contingency of writers that have decided to judge players on the “guilty by association” when it comes to performance in the steroid era. Players who best years happened post 1990 usually fall into this category. Recently, Jeff Pearlman discussed how he holds all the players of this era accountable, regardless of evidence, […]
Later today the BBWAA will announce the latest member(s) to join the Baseball Hall of Fame. A year ago everyone assumed Roberto Alomar would be a shoo-in his first time on the ballot. Instead, the BBWAA threw everyone a curve and only elected Andre Dawson. As a matter of fact, Alomar got a lower percentage […]
Over the past week I created a survey so we could conduct a BBWAA style ballot for the readers of NYBD. Last year, you elected both Roberto Alomar and Bert Blyleven to the Hall of Fame. The BBWAA disagreed and elected only Andre Dawson. This year we had greater participation in the vote, and the […]
