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View Poll Results: Who are your choices for the Hall of Fame (Select no more than 10)

Voters
78. You may not vote on this poll
  • Roberto Alomar

    63 80.77%
  • Harold Baines

    4 5.13%
  • Bert Blyleven

    59 75.64%
  • Andre Dawson

    33 42.31%
  • Barry Larkin

    76 97.44%
  • Edgar Martinez

    25 32.05%
  • Don Mattingly

    7 8.97%
  • Fred McGriff

    16 20.51%
  • Mark McGwire

    25 32.05%
  • Jack Morris

    18 23.08%
  • Dale Murphy

    18 23.08%
  • Dave Parker

    15 19.23%
  • Tim Raines

    37 47.44%
  • Lee Smith

    27 34.62%
  • Alan Trammell

    28 35.90%
Multiple Choice Poll.
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Thread: 2010 Hall of Fame ballot released

  1. #61
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    Re: 2010 Hall of Fame ballot released

    Quote Originally Posted by Chip R View Post
    Well, O.J. made it in before the murder. I believe Billy Cannon is in the college football HOF even though he was convicted of counterfeiting.
    college football HoF actually kicked out Cannon because of the counterfeiting conviction. had OJ been convicted, there would have been pressure for NFL to do the same.

    had Pete made HoF prior to gambling conviction, I assume that he would have been kicked out as well.

    interestingly, college football HoF reinstated Cannon 25 years later, probably due in part to his humanitarian work as a prison dentist.

    great story

    http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/etick...030BillyCannon
    2015, baby!


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  3. #62
    Rally Onion! Chip R's Avatar
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    Re: 2010 Hall of Fame ballot released

    Quote Originally Posted by princeton View Post
    college football HoF actually kicked out Cannon because of the counterfeiting conviction. had OJ been convicted, there would have been pressure for NFL to do the same.

    had Pete made HoF prior to gambling conviction, I assume that he would have been kicked out as well.

    interestingly, college football HoF reinstated Cannon 25 years later, probably due in part to his humanitarian work as a prison dentist.

    great story

    http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/etick...030BillyCannon

    I read that a month or so ago. I couldn't remember if he was kicked out or not.
    Quote Originally Posted by Raisor View Post
    I was wrong
    Quote Originally Posted by Raisor View Post
    Chip is right

  4. #63
    Member Will M's Avatar
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    Re: 2010 Hall of Fame ballot released

    In:
    Roberto Alomar - easy choice.
    Bert Blyleven - easy choice.
    Barry Larkin - easy choice.
    Edgar Martinez - career OPS+ of 147!
    Fred McGriff - career OPS+ of 134.

    IMO guys who play DH/1B/LF/RF can't put up a career OPS+ of 120 & get in the hall. I know there are guys in the HOF with these numbers but that says to me good career not HOF.
    .

  5. #64
    breath westofyou's Avatar
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    Re: 2010 Hall of Fame ballot released

    http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/hof10/...son&id=4777032


    Tuesday, December 29, 2009

    Underrated Larkin deserves spot in Hall

    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    By Jayson Stark
    ESPN.com

    If you're hanging out in a Skyline Chili or in the Montgomery Inn right now, you already know all about Barry Larkin.

    But if you're not someone who has passed through the inimitable 513 area code in the past quarter-century, please listen up. I have some important news for you about this man:

    Barry Larkin is one of the greatest shortstops who ever lived. Period.

    I'm not sure why this is a fact lost on most of the non-Ohioans on our fine planet. But it's a fact I can assure you is 100 percent true. And because it's true, you should also know this:

    Barry Larkin is a Hall of Famer. An easy Hall of Famer.

    That doesn't mean he'll go sailing into Cooperstown next week on the first ballot, of course. I've already resigned myself to that. For whatever reason -- injuries, geography, forgetting to change his name to Ozzie Smith, etc. -- Larkin just seems to lack that first-ballot-Hall-of-Fame aura.

    But if he doesn't get elected, let me be the first to say that that will be a grave voting injustice. And I'll be happy to explain exactly why that is.

    Matter of fact, I already did.

    Three years ago -- (Caution: Shameless book plug ahead) -- I wrote a book called "The Stark Truth: The Most Overrated and Underrated Players in Baseball History." Guess who got named The Most Underrated Shortstop of All Time in that book?

    Uh, right you are. Barry Larkin. Heck, you were expecting maybe Deivi Cruz?

    In fact, I even suggested at the time that everybody stick a candy wrapper or an expired credit card in that chapter, so they could pull it out in January of 2010, when Larkin appeared on his first Hall of Fame ballot. And then they'd be ready -- ready to explain to the world why this man is a Hall of Famer, an easy Hall of Famer.

    So now, for all of you who mysteriously neglected to purchase that book, I'm going to save you the $24.95. I'm going to explain it all again.

    For most of the 19 seasons (1986 to 2004) that Larkin spent patrolling shortstop in Cincinnati, a fellow named Ozzie Smith was known as the National League's most famous shortstop. But inside the game, baseball people knew the truth -- that the real pre-eminent shortstop in the league was actually Barry Larkin.

    So why wasn't that fact recognized by the rest of civilization? Because Larkin was a victim, to some extent, of his era. But it's important to define that era, because you should recognize that Barry Larkin came along before the modern age of Masher Shortstops. Before A-Rod. Before Nomar. Before Tejada. Before Jeter.

    Cal Ripken beat him to the big leagues by a couple of years. But for the most part, our definition of what a great shortstop was, or was supposed to be, back then was Ozzie.

    Not that I'd quarrel with any scouting report that included "great" and the Wizard in the same sentence, obviously. I'm not that big a knucklehead. The point is that, during Larkin's time, our concept of what constituted a superstar shortstop changed dramatically. Yet Barry Larkin fit all the definitions, flashing a multifaceted kind of brilliance that worked in any generation.

    You want to talk offense? OK, let's talk offense.

    Larkin won nine Silver Sluggers. Want to name all the infielders in history with more? It won't take you long. There has been precisely one of them -- A-Rod (with 10).

    Want to name all the other players in history with more Silver Sluggers at any position? That won't kill your day, either. There have been only two others: Barry Bonds (12) and Mike Piazza (10). And that, believe it or not, is it.

    As thumping shortstops go, Larkin was never a threat to win a home run title like A-Rod or Ernie Banks. But he did hit 33 homers one year (1996). He also slashed more than 50 extra-base hits five times.

    And his .815 career OPS is higher than Ripken's. Higher than Miguel Tejada's. Higher than Jimmy Rollins'. Higher, in fact, than all but five players in the modern era who got more than 5,000 at-bats as a shortstop.

    But there was more to this man's game than thunder.

    Unlike Rollins or Jose Reyes, Larkin wasn't the kind of burner you could easily have imagined running anchor on somebody's 4x100-meter relay team. But he was still the only shortstop to steal 50 bases in any season in the '90s, and the first shortstop ever to join the 30-30 Club. And yes, that word was "ever."

    And when this man did decide to run, he was going to be safe. Well, he was safe 83.1 percent of the time, anyway -- which is merely the fifth-best stolen-base success rate since the invention of the caught-stealing stat, among members of the 200-SB Society.

    I'm not going to argue that, when this guy threw a glove on, it was impossible to tell the difference between Larkin and Ozzie. Who exactly could you say that about, anyhow?

    But Larkin did win three consecutive Gold Gloves (1994 to 1996) after the Oz apparently realized it wasn't fair for one guy to win about 30 of them in a row. And you should take into account that, besides the Wizard, only three other NL shortstops in the past 50 seasons ever won three straight Gold Gloves -- Jimmy Rollins, Dave Concepcion and Rey Ordonez.

    Larkin's awards don't stop there, though. Here's the rest of his accolade collection: One MVP award (1995); more All-Star teams (12) than any shortstop in history except Ozzie and Ripken; those nine Silver Sluggers; and both major off-the-field awards that honor character and contributions to society at large -- the Roberto Clemente and Lou Gehrig awards.

    But now that we've got all those preambles out of the way, let's make it absolutely, positively clear why Barry Larkin is a Hall of Famer:

  6. #65
    Mailing it in Cyclone792's Avatar
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    Re: 2010 Hall of Fame ballot released

    Great article. Hopefully enough BBWAA voters saw what Stark and the rest of us here see.

    I want to make the trek to Cooperstown next July.
    The Lost Decade Average Season: 74-88
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  7. #66
    Member Ron Madden's Avatar
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    Re: 2010 Hall of Fame ballot released

    Thanks WOY.

  8. #67
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    Re: 2010 Hall of Fame ballot released

    I voted for:

    Alomar
    Blyleven
    Dawson
    Larkin
    Mattingly
    Murphy
    Parker
    Raines
    Trammell

    I predict only Dawson and Alomar get in, with possibly Bert "Be home Blyleven" (it will be very close though).

    I'm thinking Larkin gets somewhere between 40-60% of the vote and might have to wait a few years (it will take annual columns educating certain writers), but he'll eventually get in.

  9. #68
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    Re: 2010 Hall of Fame ballot released

    http://joeposnanski.com/JoeBlog/



    Some people seem to think that because I am now focusing so much attention on Tim Raines that I have in some way forgotten about my outrage over Bert Blyleven STILL not being in the Hall of Fame. Well, I have not. Look for lots of little posts this Christmas week …

    I realize that the game has changed a lot since Blyleven’s day.

    Still. Did you know: That Bert Blyleven has more shutouts than:

    – Randy Johnson and Pedro Martinez. Combined.
    – Roger Clemens and Chris Carpenter. Combined.
    – Greg Maddux, John Smoltz and Mark Buehrle. Combined.
    – Tom Glavine, Mike Mussina and Brandon Webb. Combined.
    – Orel Hershiser, Curt Schilling, Johan Santana and Bartolo Colon. Combined.
    – Dave Stieb and Jack Morris. Combined.
    – The New York Yankees pitchers have had since 1988. Combined.
    – The entire American League in 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006 and … every year going back to 1992.

    He also has more shutouts than every single pitcher of his era except Tom Seaver and Nolan Ryan, Hall of Famers who each have exactly ONE more shutout than Bert Blyleven.


    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------





    We have about eight different blog posts that are almost done and could go up as early as today. There’s one long post comparing the Hall of Fame with the Hall of Merit. There is one that has been budding for weeks now about those Verizon map commercials. There is one about Andre Dawson and Dave Parker. There is one about NFL tiebreakers. There is one about the Pozmans in the 2000s. And there is one going through this year’s Hall of Fame ballot player by player. And there are others. So much to finish. So little time.


    In the meantime — brilliant reader Hondo pointed me to an old Baseball Digest story, from 1985, and it shows which pitchers in baseball history had the most 1-0 shutouts. Putting that together with my own list, the overall list looks something like this (there might be some pitchers missing down toward the bottom of the list):

    Most 1-0 shutout victories

    Walter Johnson: 38
    Pete Alexander: 17
    Bert Blyleven: 15
    Christy Mathewson: 14
    Cy Young: 13
    Eddie Plank: 13
    Doc White: 13
    Ed Walsh: 13
    Dean Chance: 13
    San Coveleski: 12
    Gaylord Perry: 12
    Steve Carlton: 12
    Fergie Jenkins: 11
    Greg Maddux: 11.
    Nolan Ryan: 11.
    Sandy Koufax: 10.

    So the next time someone tells you that Bert Blyeven never won a Cy Young, you can say: “Yeah, but he won more 1-0 shutouts than Cy Young.” And he did it when the ball was LIVE.

    Numerous people have asked me to comment on the Hall of Fame ballot of my friend and colleague Jon Heyman. He voted for Robbie Alomar, Andre Dawson, Barry Larkin, Dave Parker, Jack Morris and Don Mattingly. Jon then boldly answered complaints and questions on Twitter about it — Jon is an excellent baseball writer and someone who stands behind his opinions and I have all the respect in the world for him.

    Obviously, I don’t agree with his whole ballot, but I think there is merit in it. There is merit to me in every thought-out Hall of Fame ballot. Alomar and Larkin, I think, are excellent choices. Andre Dawson was a great player — he is in the Hall of Merit too — and as you will see I think Dawson and Parker have quite similar cases. Mattingly really was a great player for five or six years (he averaged about 29 win shares from 1984-1989), and I would never begrudge a voter for choosing a player who was, for a rather lengthy time, in the argument for best player in baseball. I have voted for Dale Murphy for that same reason. More on him later too.

    Now, sure, you know there are things I strongly disagree with here. I think Tim Raines was very clearly better than Dawson or Parker and he’s not on Jon’s ballot. Jon has said he will give Raines another look, which I think is great. The Daily Raines is coming soon (man, I have a lot of work to do). I think Edgar Martinez was a much better hitter for much longer than Mattingly, even if he was a DH. Mark McGwire — well, obviously, he’s a whole other case. Still, I have no illusions that my Hall of Fame is right or better than anyone else’s. All I think is that Hall of Fame voters should put a lot of thought into their vote, and I know that Jon does that. It’s not a right or wrong thing.

    Oh yeah, you may have noticed that there is one other thing I have avoided on Jon’s ballot … well, I can’t help it. Jon voted for Jack Morris but not Bert Blyleven. And, yes, you’re right, that is my one Hall of Fame screamer, the one vote that sounds to me like nails screeching on a blackboard. I understand the urge to vote for Morris. He won a lot of games, was a consistent innings eater, and he had one of the great postseason performances ever. I can see how those things might override his 3.90 ERA in a voter’s mind.

    But I do not sit well with the logic behind voting Jack Morris and not Bert Blyleven. I just don’t. The usual argument here is that Morris has more 20 win seasons and a better winning percentage, and he made a bigger impact (14 Opening Day starts!).

    But even those arguments in themselves — flawed as I may think they are — don’t really hold up. For all the talk about wins, Blyleven did win 33 more games than Morris while playing for appreciably lesser teams most of his career. (Blyleven’s teams without him had a .496 winning percentage). Blyleven made 12 Opening Day starts, including two for World Series champions, so he’s not exactly a slouch in that category. We’ve talked about how Blyleven’s postseason ERA and his World Series ERA are better than Morris’, and how in the one postseason match-up between the two, Blyleven won by knockout.

    And then, if you want to look at things that I think are more telling than wins … well, you know Blyleven had 1,200 more strikeouts while walking fewer batters than Morris. He gave up fewer home runs per nine innings. He threw about 1,000 more innings, his ERA is more than a half run better, his WHIP is significantly better, his ERA+ is significantly better (118-105), he threw more than twice as many shutouts, and so on.

    Here is one other way to look at it: You know about Bill James’ Game Scores, right? They basically rank how well a pitcher pitched in any game using very basic measurements — add a point for every strikeout, subtract a point for every walk, add two points for every inning completed after four, subtract four points for every earned run, and so on. It’s a fun little system, and 50 points is about what we would call an average game while 100 points is remarkable. The highest Game Score ever was Kerry Wood’s 20 strikeout, no walk game — that was a 105 Game Score.

    Anyway, it’s a nice easy way to judge how well a player pitched in any given game.

    For instance, Blyleven had 11 games where he scored at least a 90 Game Score. Morris had 4.

    Blyleven had 78 games where he scored at least an 80 Game Score. Morris had 36.

    Blyleven had 172 games where scored at least a 70 Game Score. Morris had 118.

    Blyleven had 308 games where he scored at least a 60 Game Score. Morris had 223.

    Now, Game Scores of 40 or less? You betcha: Jack Morris had 133 (he won 16 of them despite a 10.47 ERA) and Blyleven had 131 (he won only six of them, and his ERA was 9.64). Yes, Morris pitched more lousy game than Blyleven even though Blyleven made 150 more starts in his career.

    I sometimes fear that these Hall of Fame arguments get SO snarky and angry that the point gets lost. Every player who gets serious Hall of Fame consideration was, in one way or another, excellent. Jack Morris threw 250 innings every year, won 15 to 20 games every year, he threw a 10-inning shutout in Game 7 of the World Series. He won 254 games. I mean, these are great things. He has a Hall of Fame case. I just think that Blyleven’s case is much, much, much better. And it’s my blog.


  10. #69
    Member Ron Madden's Avatar
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    Re: 2010 Hall of Fame ballot released

    I think Blyleven will make it this year.

    It's a shame he should have made it in long before now. Wonder what those guys in BBWAA are thinking sometimes.

  11. #70
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    Re: 2010 Hall of Fame ballot released

    He already had my vote but this may hurt his chances a little with the late voters.
    Blyleven: Making my case for the Hall of Fame
    Numbers stack up well with others from my era already in Cooperstown
    OPINION
    By Bert Blyleven
    updated 2:30 a.m. ET, Tues., Dec . 29, 2009

    Voting for the Hall of Fame is currently underway. The ballots must be sent in by Thursday, and the new class for Cooperstown will be announced on Jan. 6. This will be my 13th year of eligibility for Cooperstown, and once again I’ll be waiting to find out if I’ve made it.

    It hasn’t been easy going through this process every year. I’ve been frustrated at times, and I’ve been angry. But that doesn’t get you anywhere. After awhile you just learn to accept it. I think I’ve gotten to the point where I’m kind of numb this time of year. The sad part is that I think I do have Hall of Fame numbers, but I feel like I have to defend them because people want to pick them over, and almost belittle what I’ve done. That to me is the negative part of this time of year.

    This is not to rag on the writers in any way, shape or form. Over the years some players have come out and said the writers shouldn’t have a Hall of Fame vote because most of them have never played the game on such a high level. But it’s a system that’s been in place a long time, and the writers have earned their vote through their own longevity in the game. This is the way it has been throughout history so I’m not against it.

    Have there been flaws in the system? Yes. Can a writer choose to not vote for anyone? I guess that’s their right. All I ask is that the writers take a good long look at my stats. Not just at my wins and losses, but at the entire body of work. Compare me to other pitchers who are already in the Hall of Fame, particularly those from my era.

    I believe that my numbers stack up against anyone.

    WHERE ARE THE WINS?
    When talk of my Hall of Fame candidacy comes up, usually people like to point at my career win total of 287 as a reason I shouldn’t be elected to Cooperstown. The so-called magic number of wins for automatic induction is said to be 300, and obviously I come up short in that department.

    But in my opinion, wins are one of the hardest things to come by, and a pitcher can only do so much to control whether he wins a game. You can control your walks, you can control your strikeouts and your innings pitched. You can control whether you go nine innings by the way you approach a game. But one thing you often can’t control is wins and losses. It’s very difficult.

    When I first came up in 1970 at age 19, I won my first game 2-1. My second game I lost 2-1. So after two starts, I had allowed three runs in 14 innings (1.93 ERA), but was just 1-1. That just shows you how hard it is, and it made me work harder. Maybe that’s why I was able to pitch 22 seasons in the majors, because I was so stubborn.

    If you allow one run, but your team doesn’t score any runs, then you can’t earn the win. If your bullpen gives up a lead after you leave the game, then you can’t earn a win. Wins are a product of your team as a whole, and while the starting pitcher plays a significant role in who wins the game, he is not the only factor. The starter can only control so much.

    Case in point: I lost 99 quality starts (at least six innings pitched while allowing no more than three runs) in my career, more than all but four pitchers since 1954. And I had 79 other quality starts in which I had no-decisions. That’s 178 quality starts in which I did not earn a win, yet people knock me for coming up 13 wins shy of 300.

    Clearly, wins is a flawed stat, and I think observers of baseball are beginning to realize that. After all, this year’s Cy Young winners were Zack Greinke (16 wins) and Tim Lincecum (15). Both are great pitchers and deserving of the award, but neither led their league in wins.

    One thing a pitcher can control is how far he lasts in each start. The better you pitch, the longer you last. This saves wear and tear on your bullpen, which in turn helps the starters who follow you in the rotation. Every time you pitch a complete game, your team benefits. That’s why I think complete games and shutouts are better stats to look at than wins.

    I made 685 starts in my 22 seasons, and threw 242 complete games, so I went the distance in 35.3 percent of my starts. Compare that to Hall of Fame pitchers from my era and I stack up well. Phil Niekro completed 34 percent of his starts, Nolan Ryan 29 percent, Tom Seaver 35.7 percent and Steve Carlton 35.8 percent. Ferguson Jenkins (45 percent) and Gaylord Perry (44 percent) were the most impressive from my era in that department.

    There are other negatives I often hear about my career: That I only played in two All-Star Games, and I only won 20 games once. But there are flaws in these arguments as well.

    The All-Star Game, as you know, is played in July, in the middle of the season. So the voting for the game is based only on how a player performs in the first half of the season, not on their entire season. Did you know that I was 115-84 with a 2.93 ERA during my career after July?

    As far as only winning 20 games once, well that gets back once again to how hard it is to win games. The year I won 20 games (1973), I made 40 starts and threw 25 complete games and a league-best nine shutouts. But I was barely above .500 at 20-17 despite having a 2.52 ERA. The next season, I was 17-17 despite throwing 19 complete games, three shutouts and compiling a 2.66 ERA. In 1985 I had a 3.16 ERA and led the AL in starts (37), complete games (24), shutouts (5) and innings (293 2/3). But despite all of this, I finished 17-16 on the season.

    I was on some good teams in my 22 seasons, including two championship teams, the 1979 Pirates and the 1987 Twins. But I also played on a lot of teams that didn’t fare too well. Sometimes I felt like if I didn’t pitch a shutout, I wasn’t going to win the game. Everyone would like to have a strong Yankee offense behind them, but it doesn’t always work out that way. I don’t know how many times I sat on that bench and watched my team score five or six runs, then the next day when I was pitching I would lose 2-1. That was very frustrating, but there is not much you can do about it.


    COMPARING CAREERS
    It is hard to win games, for sure. Even so, my 287 wins ranks 27th on the all-time list. Only six players ahead of me on the list are not in the Hall of Fame. Four of them (Greg Maddux, Roger Clemens, Tom Glavine and Randy Johnson) are not yet eligible, but should get in once they are.

    Let’s look at some of my other key statistics:
    • 3,701 strikeouts, fifth all time: Of the 16 pitchers with at least 3,000 strikeouts, all of the eligible players are in the Hall. The players who are not yet eligible (Johnson, Clemens, Pedro Martinez, Curt Schilling and John Smoltz) could all get in.

    • 4,970 innings pitched, 14th all time: All of the players ahead of me are in Cooperstown except for Maddux, who will be.

    • 250 career losses, 10th all time: It might seem odd that I would bring this up, but when you pitch a long time you tend to rack up losses. Again, wins and losses are difficult to control. Of the nine players with more losses than me, only Jack Powell is not in the Hall of Fame, and he had a losing record at 245 -254. The great Cy Young lost more games than anyone at 316.

    • 430 home runs allowed, 8th all time: I have been knocked for allowing too many home runs, but Robin Roberts (505), Fergie Jenkins (484), Phil Niekro (482), Don Sutton (472) and Warren Spahn (434) are all in Cooperstown.

    • 242 complete games, 91st all time: Hall-of-Famers like Tom Seaver (231), Nolan Ryan (222), Jim Palmer (211), Don Sutton (178) and Don Drysdale (167) all threw fewer complete games than I did. In 1985 I went the distance 24 times, and no one has thrown that many since. Fernando Valenzuela threw 20 complete games in 1986 and Roger Clemens tossed 18 in 1987. Since 2000, no one has thrown more than nine complete games in a season.

    • 60 shutouts, 9th all time: Shutouts are the absolute best thing a pitcher can do. Every pitcher with at least 50 career shutouts is in the Hall of Fame except for me. By comparison to the great pitchers of recent times, Clemens threw 46 shutouts, Randy Johnson had 37 and Glavine had 25.


    Of my 60 shutouts, 15 came by a score of 1-0, the toughest, most pressure-packed situation in which to operate. By comparison, Steve Carlton won 12 shutouts by a 1-0 score, Jim Palmer won 9, and Phil Niekro 6. Of the recent greats, Randy Johnson tossed four, while Clemens and Martinez each have thrown three 1-0 shutouts.

    TO THE VOTING BOOTH
    Thank you for allowing me to state my case. I know a lot of the voters never saw me pitch, after all I haven’t thrown one since 1992. And that’s fine, I don’t have a problem with the way the system is set up. All I ask is that the voters do their homework. Don’t look just at my wins and losses, but look at all of my numbers. Look at innings pitched and strikeouts. Look at walks and WHIP. Look at shutouts and complete games. See where I stack up against pitchers from my era, especially those already in Cooperstown.

    It has been a long wait, and I could easily end up continuing to wait. But one thing that has been rewarding to me is when I run into great Hall of Fame pitchers like Bob Feller or Tom Seaver and they tell me to be patient and that my time is coming. It means a lot to me when my peers come to me and bring it up, offering words of encouragement.

    The pitchers who are already in the Hall of Fame know how hard it is to win a ballgame. How hard it is to put together a career like I have.

    Who knows, maybe 13 will be a lucky number for me.

    Bert Blyleven writes regularly for NBCSports.com, and is a former two-time All-Star who won 287 games during his 22 seasons in the major leagues. He is currently a broadcaster for the Minnesota Twins.
    URL: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/345994...orts-baseball/

  12. #71
    Member Ron Madden's Avatar
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    Re: 2010 Hall of Fame ballot released

    [QUOTE=redsfandan;2007985]He already had my vote but this may hurt his chances a little with the late voters.

    I don't see why the members of the BBWAA would hold this against Blyleven.

  13. #72
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    Re: 2010 Hall of Fame ballot released

    Some of them don't seem to like it when a candidate openly promotes themselves. Granted, since it was a last minute opinion piece it might not matter anyway. But I wouldn't be surprised if it rubs a few of them the wrong way.

  14. #73
    Rally Onion! Chip R's Avatar
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    Re: 2010 Hall of Fame ballot released

    Quote Originally Posted by redsfandan View Post
    Some of them don't seem to like it when a candidate openly promotes themselves. Granted, since it was a last minute opinion piece it might not matter anyway. But I wouldn't be surprised if it rubs a few of them the wrong way.
    Perhaps. But it is last minute and keeping quiet hasn't worked for him before.
    Quote Originally Posted by Raisor View Post
    I was wrong
    Quote Originally Posted by Raisor View Post
    Chip is right

  15. #74
    Member Ron Madden's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2003
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    Re: 2010 Hall of Fame ballot released

    Quote Originally Posted by redsfandan View Post
    Some of them don't seem to like it when a candidate openly promotes themselves. Granted, since it was a last minute opinion piece it might not matter anyway. But I wouldn't be surprised if it rubs a few of them the wrong way.

    Then Hell with'em!!!

  16. #75
    Member
    Join Date
    Aug 2008
    Posts
    3,868

    Re: 2010 Hall of Fame ballot released

    Quote Originally Posted by Chip R View Post
    Perhaps. But it is last minute and keeping quiet hasn't worked for him before.
    Yeah, that's why I said it might not matter anyway. But I think campaigning for the HOF has always been frowned upon. At least to an extent.
    Quote Originally Posted by Ron Madden View Post
    Then Hell with'em!!!
    Works for me.


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