With all the stats available to us now, someone who has never watched a game can do as good a job handing out the awards and honors as anyone.
With all the stats available to us now, someone who has never watched a game can do as good a job handing out the awards and honors as anyone.
He might not get in. The voters will have to decide if he really failed that test or if that info was incorrect. If he really failed the test, they should keep him out.
But Ortiz's candidacy is an issue for several reasons--the DH thing too. To be sure, he won't make it in his first year of eligibility. He will be a controversial candidate.
Manny might not even get enough support to make the ballot the second time. That's the key for me--getting these guys off the ballot ASAP so that we don't have to talk about it every year (I think that happened to R.Palmerio).
Bonds and Clemons were always in that grey area because they were great players prior to juicing. In fact, they would both be in the HOF if they didn't cheat the game. Of course, take away steroids and Bonds doesn't turn into Babe Ruth at the age of 35 (and wouldn't be the all time HR leader) and Clemons would have fewer Cy Youngs, and so keeping them out is now the only acceptable course of action.
Last edited by Fan_since_Boggs; 12-26-2017 at 03:35 PM.
No, people who played the game are not in the best position to judge recipients of these awards. They are biased and vote largely based on reputation. Would they do a better job than sportswriters? Perhaps. But they would not do a better job than the geeks.
Managers have voted on the Gold Gloves for ages, and that award is considered probably the largest joke of all the awards. Managers have gotten it very, very wrong. It is only recently that the Gold Gloves have gained an ounce of respectability, after they added the sabermetric component.
The geeks would get it right, as is evidenced by the Fielding Bible Awards.
It is their club. They should decide. There need to be standards which I am pretty sure would be enforced. They don't want to dilute their own accomplishments. The veterans committee has been far from a free pass. Very few players have made it that way and some very deserving players have not made it -- like Gil Hodges imo.
Isn't that essentially the Veteran's Committee? They almost never vote anyone in.
Santo was elected by the Golden Era Committee or Golden Age Committee or something like that, and I'm not sure who's on that one. Electing Santo was the first thing thry did upon formation...
Last edited by notin; 01-01-2018 at 04:41 PM.
Arguably it's a museum and not really a club, although elected members do apparently feel different. I think it gets too personal at that point. Although I also think the BBWAA has made some really questionable selections as well.
Not sure why the Hall itself can't handle the process internally...
I can't recommend this book enough: https://www.amazon.com/Cooperstown-C.../dp/1250071216
Even if you don't agree with who he wants selected, the first few chapters are invaluable to any discussion concerning how players have voted into the Hall.