04/17/24
January 06, 2016
Baseball Hall of Fame adds "The Kid" and the catcher in 2016.:
With 99.3% of the vote (the highest percentage ever), Ken Griffey Jr. (the second best left-handed outfielder born on November 21st in Denora Pennsylvania) is easily inducted by the 440 baseball writers. Mike Piazza also clears the 75% hurdle with 83% of the vote.
Not that it isn't deserved- like his fellow Mariner Johnson, he should have been 100%- but I'm actually surprised it was only three ballots that didn't include Griffey. Does this mean the curmudgeonly "No one should be unanimous" crowd is finally dying off, or is it some kind of subtle statement about Griffey being untainted by even a whiff of PEDs? Although I think Bonds and Clemens both improved their vote total this year, so maybe this is an overall recalibration from the era of PED witch hunt hysteria.
posted by hincandenza at 06:46 PM on January 06, 2016
Comments:
1. I say this every year, but in this case the three writers who left Griffey off their ballots better have a good strategic reason for doing so. If it was a "blank ballot" or "insane ballot", they should lose their voting privileges.
2. Bagwell, Raines, and probably Hoffman are going to get in next year. They are too close to fall short now.
3. Trammell (15 years are up) joins Edmonds and everyone else on the list below him (less than 5% of the vote) in falling off the ballot. Trammell will probably be elected with his buddy Whitaker in the veterans committee vote in the future. It would be nice if they both went in together that way. Edmonds should have remained on the ballot for a while, but I'm not sure he gets in until the big logjam disappears.
4. Schilling got a nice boost. Mussina moved up. They now have a chance of getting enough votes in the next 5 years or so.
5. Bonds and Clemens are showing an outside chance now of getting in through the regular vote. With Piazza (tiniest hint of PED) and Bagwell (ditto) getting in this year and next, and both Clemens/Bonds getting boosts (after some old retired writers were dropped), there might be a path there in front of them.
6. That's the first overall #1 draft pick to make it into the Hall of Fame (Griffey). It's also the LOWEST draft pick (by a large margin) to make it into the HOF (Piazza, 62nd round).
7. Fuck those writers who wasted votes on Anderson, Kendall, Eckstein, and Sweeney. There isn't any logical reason why you might use one of your precious ten spots on them.
posted by grum@work at 06:48 PM on January 06, 2016
How I'll remember Mike Piazza.
posted by Joey Michaels at 08:46 PM on January 06, 2016
Jebus, I'm old. And have accomplished doodley-squat. Griffey was a class ahead of me at Moeller High School in Cincinnati (his brother Craig was in my class). He's in the Baseball Hall of Fame, and I am now in my 5th year as an associate attorney.
Anyhoo-huge congratulations to Griff, the Gooch (his high school moniker), the Kid, whatever else he has been called. He deserves ever bit of recognition, and I'm incredibly proud to have known him at one point.
posted by tahoemoj at 08:55 PM on January 06, 2016
Donora, not Denora.
Shame about Edmonds; deserved more than a year on the ballot.
posted by holden at 09:00 PM on January 06, 2016
I consider 99.3% as unanimous.
Got to be the same dumb ass Yankee writers with the legacy agenda again.
posted by cixelsyd at 09:50 PM on January 06, 2016
Donora, not Denora.
Right.
[BAD FINGERS! YOU TYPED WRONG!]
posted by grum@work at 10:21 PM on January 06, 2016
I can't disagree with either selection, although unanimity for KG Jr. would have been nice. There's always someone who poops in the punch bowl. I sort of rooted for Tim Raines and Jeff Bagwell, but I can understand why both were a near miss. In Bagwell's case he might have been a little too close to the PEDs, but there was never anything other than rumor and speculation to connect him. With Raines it might be the team he played on for much of his career. He appeared in only 8 playoff series in 5 seasons, and the bulk of those (6) were with New York Yankees toward the end of his career.
posted by Howard_T at 10:30 PM on January 06, 2016
I saw bacne on Bagwell once at the community pool in Sugar Land. Will never get my vote.
posted by holden at 11:40 PM on January 06, 2016
the Gooch (his high school moniker),
Wasn't there a football player in the 80s from Moeller who was nicknamed the Gooch, as well? I think he ended up going to Notre Dame. It was right after the Francisco brothers (Hiawatha and DaJuan, I think). I'm pretty sure it was during the Faust era.
posted by jagsnumberone at 03:22 AM on January 07, 2016
Please send this to the 3 writers who did not vote for Griffey.
How I'll remember Mike Piazza.
Same! I treat "New York Catcher" as his full last name.
Is the "Randy Winn" listed there someone other than the guy I remember?
posted by yerfatma at 09:48 AM on January 07, 2016
yerfatma: That's the same Randy Winn. He's a perfectly fine choice to have on the HOF ballot (13 seasons, a reasonable career (2002-2008 he was better than average and had some good seasons)), and thankfully didn't get any votes.
posted by grum@work at 10:32 AM on January 07, 2016
I'm glad that Griffey's PED use (and subsequent side-effects) weren't a hindrance to his election.
posted by grum@work at 10:37 AM on January 07, 2016
Wasn't there a football player in the 80s from Moeller who was nicknamed the Gooch, as well?
All I can think of is Vada Murray, who was a senior in '86, which made him a senior when I was a freshman. I believe that would place him in the Steve Klonne era, right about when Faust was foundering, and on his last legs in South Bend. I don't remember him being referred to as Gooch, but that doesn't mean it wasn't the case.
posted by tahoemoj at 11:30 AM on January 07, 2016
That's the same Randy Winn.
I know, I just always find the bottom of the ballot perplexing. I never once saw him take the field and felt like I needed to figure out whether he had my HoF vote or not.
posted by yerfatma at 01:34 PM on January 07, 2016
Final vote totals: