A 2014 Hall of Fame Vote From Outside the Norm

Well, the 2013 Hall of Fame voting has come and gone with no one selected by BBWA. This is not too surprising for me.  We all knew going in that none of the PED guys were going to be selected. While others just dont have the stats or awards and in the case of Biggio, many voters still use the "selected on first ballot" for the elite of the elite. He will likely get in next year.
Speaking of 2014, lets take a look at the newcomers on the ballot. Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine, Frank Thomas, Mike Mussina and Jeff Kent.  Another star studded class to go with 2013 holdovers that the BBWA has to decide on.  I am not going to debate the merits of these players as we all are pretty familiar with them. On the otherhand, I will give a vote for another first timer for 2014 that will likely get overlooked- Hideo Nomo.

1995 Topps Stadium Club

Hideo Nomo??  You all are likely thinking I have officially fell off my rocker, but please hear me out.  In order to be on the ballot, a player must be play ten seasons in MLB.  Nomo has done this,but I fully admit if you look at his stats (123-109 record, 4.24 ERA and 1.918 career strikeouts) and his other accomplishments(rookie of year, NL All-Star and 2 no-hitters), he is not even close to being a candidate for Cooperstown.  He gets my vote in the pioneer category.  A pioneer is described in baseball as a person whose innovations helped move the game forward or starts a trend in the game.  Nomo was the first Japanese player since Masanori Murakami(1965 SF Giants) to play in MLB and many has followed in his footsteps in varying degrees of success.
Before Nomo made his debut in 1995, the prevailing thought was that Japanese players were not good enough to play in the Major Leagues. His immediate success and the media coverage that went along with it, reminded many of another Los Angeles Dodger rookie pitcher-Fernando Valenzuela from 1981. Nomo went on to start the All Star game for the National League and won the Rookie of the Year, edging out future Hall of Famer, Chipper Jones. For the next several years, he was a mainstay in the Dodgers starting rotation before moving onto different clubs.  We all knew from Nomo that a Japanese player can play in the majors. In 2000, Kaz Sazaki became the next Japanese player when he suited up for the Seattle Mariners and the following year, Ichiro Suzuki became the first everyday player from Japan.  Since, 40+ more players have done the same.
One can make an argument that Nomo's accomplishments was a benefit for Japan much more than for MLB. I have to disagree with. Yes, Nomo's success legitimized the Japanese player and the Nippon Professional Baseball(NPB) league. MLB also reaped the benefits of Nomo. Along with subsequent all star caliber players that followed Nomo, MLB also has grown financially from the Japanese fanbase and now considers Japan as a viable source for revenue.
So if you consider Nomo's trendsetting decision to play in USA to go along with his playing career, I will give Nomo a vote for 2014 Hall of Fame class. Will he get enough of the 75% votes for entry? No, I highly doubt it will happen. Voters will look at his MLB stats only and plus with all the big names on the ballot with him, Nomo will be pushed to the side. It is far more likely, that Nomo will not reach the 5% vote minimum in order to stay on the ballot. If that happens, he will have to wait until he is eligible for the veteran's committee. But that is okay. Time is on his side. With every future Japanese born player in the majors and every win for Japan in the World Baseball Classic, it is a vote for Hideo Nomo down the road.

My Hall of Fame Ballot

Here is my Hall of Fame ballot for the 2013 induction. A voter is required to select up to ten players and can select none if chooses to do so.  According to the Baseball Hall of Fame, the requirements are detailed in this link: http://baseballhall.org/hall-famers/rules-election/bbwaa .  So, here is my ballot:

In:
Craig Biggio:. In addition to his 3,000 hits, he is 5th all time in doubles and made all star teams seven times and won seven silver sluggers. While moving from catcher to 2nd base and then to centerfield.

Curt Schilling:  216-146 record. 3,116 strikeouts and 3.46 ERA. He owns the highest strikeout to walk ratio in history(3,116Ks-711BBs) and his considered one of the best post season pitchers ever. Won 3 World Series titles(2 with Red Sox and 1 with Arizona) and won the 1993 NLCS MVP with pennant winning Phillies.  

Jack Morris:  He is the anti-stat guy.  If elected he would have one of the highest ERAs(3.90)  in Cooperstown. He never reached 300 career wins(254) nor 3,000 strikeouts(2,478) which are usually hall of fame guidelines. He did however lead 3 franchises (1984 Tigers, 1991 Twins and 1992 Blue Jays) to World Series crowns. He is all-time leader in AL in all the major statistical categories for pitchers during the decade of the 1980s.  So if a players is considered the best at his position in the league for a decade. Isn't that what the Hall of Fame is all about?

Tim Raines:  He was the Rickey Henderson of the National League during the 1980s. Because of this comparison, Raines is widely overlooked. He, however, has a higher batting average than Henderson and is the all time leader in stolen base made percentage. If you compare him with Hall of Famer Lou Brock. Brock has the 3,000 hits and Raines doesn't mostly because Brock was more of a free swinger. If you include walks, Raines has more combined career hits and walks than Brock. Raines fell off stat wise pretty quickly late in his career. Was it because of playing on astroturf for so long? or did the steroids era go in affect and Raines skills became less useful? Who knows, but if he didn't play at the same time as the greatest leadoff man(Henderson) did, he wouldn't probably be in by now.

Alan Trammell:  6 time All-Star. 4 time Gold Glove winner. 3 time Silver Slugger winner. but no MVP. If he had won the MVP in 1987(he finished 2nd to Toronto's George Bell despite leading the Tigers to 1st place finish over the Jays), he would be labeled as "MVP Alan Trammell" and be considered more of a candidate to others ala Barry Larkin.  In addition, Trammell was one the first power hitting shortstops in the majors which as since become common and also teamed with 2nd baseman Lou Whitaker to become the longest double play tandem in major league history. If Tinkers to Evers to Chance is in, Tramm and Sweet Lou should be also.

Fred McGriff( .284 avg 493 HR 1,550)5 time all star and 3 time Silver Slugger winner. If McGriff had hit just seven more HRs, he would be considered a lock for the Hall of Fame. I think close enough works well here. He posted ten 30 home run seasons and eight 100-RBI seasons, yet never had that monster season to hang his hat on. He was a very consistent hitter for a long time while competing in the steroid era.  Braves catching fire after acquiring McGriff in 1993 and becoming division champs helps his case also.

Almost in(but not):
Dale Murphy, Edgar Martinez and Larry Walker.  If the Hall of Fame is the "hall of very good", these guy would be automatic. But, I don't think their numbers quite reach Hall of Fame standards. Murphy was a 2time MVP and perennial all star in the 1980s, but wasn't great long enough. Martinez is considered the greatest designated hitter ever. but I find it hard to vote for a guy who rarely takes the field. Walker was very good player, but how much was his numbers aided by playing in Coors Field. If any of these guys make the hall, it wouldn't bother me much. There are already lesser players inducted in from my viewpoint.

Wait and see:
Mike Piazza and Jeff Bagwell. These two sluggers had hall of fame careers but are under the cloud of suspicion of performance enhancing drugs. Even though they were never named or found guilty of any wrongdoings. I am going to take the wait and see approach to see if anything surfaces with Bagwell and Piazza. Their silence speaks volumes for me. If they were clean players, wouldn't you think they would deny all allegations when asked, yet they say nothing. I have confidence that they would receive enough votes to stay on the ballot and can be voted in later.


steroids maybes: Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds. These 2 greats were implicated with steroids by others but still deny usage. Many people believe they both had hall of fame careers before they allegedly started using PEDs. So if they eventually get in, I think I am ok with it. But right now would not get my vote.

Steroids definite nos: Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa and Rafael Palmiero. These alleged PED users had great stats, but I believe their hall candidacy is based only by these skewed numbers. They were not the all around players of Clemens or Bonds. If these three never used PEDs, they would not even be considered for induction.

There is where my voting lies. Who I think I will actually get in? If I was a betting man, I would guess Biggio and Schilling would get in. Morris would likely just get enough of the votes since he was so close last year.  It would not shock me if no one gets voted in. Every voter has their own distinct view of each player. It could be possible where all the votes are spread out so far, no player would reach the 75% needed to be elected in. We would all find out next week and end the discussion for another year.

Barry Bonds vs Pete Rose for Cooperstown

2003 Bowman

Well it is that time of year. No, I am not talking about the jolly old fellow in the red suit. I am referring to Hall of Fame voting. This year has been debated even more than usual because of the historic class of first time eligible players and their involvement or alleged involvement in Performance Enhancing Drugs(PEDs). Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Sammy Sosa all have been linked to PEDs and put up some historic numbers in their careers.

In addition to this debate, there is the yearly discussion among fans that if Pete Rose(and Shoeless Joe Jackson) should be in inducted in the hall.  Many of these fans like to group Bonds and others with Rose.  In my eyes you can't compare the two groups.  Rose is much worse in my opinion.  Here is why....

For the sake of my argument, I will use Bonds as the representative for all of the PED guys and Rose for the gamblers for easy discussion. I also hear the argument that PEDs were not illegal during the time period of Bonds and gambling has always been. I don't buy this, because steroids has always been illegal in society and Commissioner Fay Vincent wrote a memo to players stating that steroids and other PEDs are outlawed in 1991. So both are transgessions and the players knew it.
Bonds knew what he did was wrong and hurt the integrity of the game, but his intentions were not entirely wrong.  Bonds still wanted to win, get the hits, save the runs in the field and win the World Series as any other player. He played just as hard as did if he weren't on PEDs. He didn't hustle any less or try not get on base any less at any point in his career.  For Bonds and others, PEDs were either used to recover from injuries quicker, prevent long slumps, have a longer career or just keeping up with the Joneses,  Of course and the end of it all, rack up bigger numbers and get paid more. Bonds felt in order to maintain his edge in the game while competing with other users, he had to also. Unfortunately for everyone involved, Bonds went down the wrong path with this decision and forever tainted his legacy.

1968 Topps

For Rose, even though as a player he became one of the greatest of all time, his time as a player/manager tarnished the game and got him ultimately banned for life. By being a gambler while managing a club, Rose committed the ultimate crime of sports-betting on the game you are involved in. Having a wager on a game for solely personal financial reasons, a person can change the his/her effort in order to win the bet. Even though in all likelyhood, Rose never bet on his beloved Cincinnati Reds to lose a game, he still could alter the outcome of the game. He could have left a pitcher in too long or set up any other bad matchup for his hitter or pitcher in order to cover his wager. On the player side, Shoeless Joe for example, could have not hustled in the gap for a liner or threw to the wrong cut off man in order to allow the opposing players advance on the bases.  He could have altered the outcome of the game while showing decent stats as Shoeless Joe did in the 1919 World Series.  Also, I hear the argument to separate Rose as a player from his days as a  manager. I am sorry, it is the same person doing both. You have to take the good with the bad. 

The difference between PEDs and gambling comes down to amount of effort used and the desire to help the team win. PED player still uses maximum effort, even though using an unfair advantage, to succeed on the field while a gambler used just enough to cover his/her personal bet and end up losing trust from teammates, managers, fans, etc. Once a sport is no longer trusted and has no credibility among fans, they will go elsewhere for their entertainment.
You may think after reading this I will be okay letting in Bonds et al in the Hall of Fame.That is not true. PEDs is still dishonest and hurts the intregrity of the game and should not be ignored. But I think what Rose did was on a different level. So if and when a player enters the Hall of Fame who was helped illegally thru performance enhancing drugs, the Pete Rose backers should not use it as an argument for their case.