"(Roberto) Alomar Wasn't A First Ballot"
AmyKNelson
Ppl wondering @ Alomar. Had a convo with a HOF voter this past wknd, who said Alomar wasn’t a 1st ballot for him. That was his argument
Major League Baseball revealed the Baseball Writers Association of America’s selection for who would be inducted into the Coopertown’s Class of 2010. Writers are instructed to select ten players who they believe are worthy of being inducted into the Hall of Fame and a player must receive votes on 75% of ballots cast in order to receive the honor.
Roberto Alomar gave Major League Baseball seventeen of the best years of his life. In 10,400 plate appearances, Alomar has a lifetime .300 BA/.371 On Base Percentage/.443 Slugging Average with over 2700 hits, 210 home runs and over 1134 RBIs. Alomar was rewarded with eleven straight All Star Game appearances, ten Golden Glove honors, four Silver Slugger awards. Can someone tell me why Roberto Alomar doesn’t deserve to be inducted on his first ballot?
Don’t even get me started on legendary Twins pitcher/color commentator Bert Blyleven missing out on the 2010 class by a mere five votes. Blyleven has a lifetime 3.31 ERA with over 2,700 strikeouts, where is the guesswork as far as voting for such a career to be immortalized? Barry Larkin? Fred McGriff? Shit, not even close, Larkin and McGriff landed 51% and 21% percent of the vote respectively.
What I really want to know is, who in God’s name voted for Eric Karros? Robin Ventura?Kevin Appier? Those combined ten votes would’ve put either Blyleven or Alomar into the Hall. Instead, a few homers lacked the onions to do what’s wright and they decided to give a pity vote to a hometown favorite. I think It’s completely disgusting. Peter Abraham of the Boston Globe didn’t pull any punches when he tweeted:” More BBWAA embarrassment. Our system is broken. Too many dopes who don’t cover the game vote.”
Look, I’m very happy for Andre Dawson as he had a long, outstanding baseball career that is Hall of Fame worthy. My gripe is that a segment of Baseball writers are running out of titles and milestones to hold sacred. Home Run Crown, tainted. The Steroid Era has made a few of these writers overvalue the power of titles and awards that they vote for.
The honor of being voted into the Hall of Fame in your first year of eligibility is a very high honor. Rickey Henderson, Oakland A’s legend was bestowed that very honor last year when his name appeared on an overwhelming 94% of ballots cast. I don’t have any emotional tie to Roberto Alomar, but taking a look back at his career and what he meant to Baseball during one of it’s most difficult decades he deserved this honor. When it comes to the Hall of Fame, you don’t vote for whether or not you think Alomar deserves the honor of being a first ballot Hall of Fame inductee, you vote for the best player on the ballot, period.
The BBWAA should be ashamed of themselves for letting such an episode play out. Nobody gives a shit about your lofty standards for who should be a first ballot Hall of Famer. All we care about is seeing our heroes who put in many years of service get recognized without the political bullshit that some of you hack writers live and die for. How about we put you on edge waiting for an honor only to break your heart year after year until you get it right.
BBWAA, let’s get it right for next year.
