Baseball announced the results of its Hall Of Fame in Cooperstown, and two guys will be getting plaques this spring. Former Twins pitcher Bert Blyleven and second baseman Roberto Alomar, who played with eight different teams over his 17-year career, garnered the necessary 75 percent of votes for enshrinement into baseball’s hallowed hall.
If [former Cubs second baseman Ryne] Sandberg deserved to be in the Hall — and he absolutely did — then Alomar is a slam dunk. He probably should have gone in last year. It’s possible that some writers levied a one-year penalty for the John Hirschbeck spitting incident. I don’t agree with that, but I get it. And it’s moot now, anyway. Alomar is in the Hall of Fame because he was one of the greatest players of his generation.[..]
Blyleven finally won his way to Cooperstown, on his 14th year on the ballot. As I wrote earlier this week, he is the first Hall of Famer whose candidacy was definitively advanced by the sabermetric community.
Some people are pointing to Blyleven’s sudden rise in votes over the last two years as evidence of “unworthy” players getting into Cooperstown. If people are that bent out of shape about so many people getting in, then an obvious solution would be to have fewer elections for enshrinement. Why are the baseball writers voting every year, anyway? Just so that they can lord authority over a guy’s career for as long as possible? This is the same argument I made for our Dead Hookers Hall Of Fame at Christmas, and why Cinnamon and Mercedes won’t be getting in until 2012 at the earliest. It’s not the Hall Of Very Good, ladies.
