The Hall of Fame is going to get add a few members today, and as Maury Brown notes, MLB Network will carry the official announcement live (and exclusively) starting at 1:30pm. The only shoo-in on the ballot is Rickey Henderson, baseball’s all-time leaders in runs scored, stolen bases, and third person references. Chris Jaffe over at THT did a great job of summing up the wonder of Rickey, I highly recommend it.
You can check out the rest of the ballot here. Chances are that Jim Rice will finally break through and make it too Cooperstown in his final year on the ballot, and at that point the HOF floodgates should open. Once Rice is in, don’t you have to let Frank Howard, Fred McGriff, Albert Belle, Juan Gonzalez and Will Clark in? I mean, when the best thing you can say about a guy is “he was the most feared hitter of his era” (BBWAA code for “I have no evidence to support my claim”), does that make him Hall worthy? I’m pretty sure Mark McGwire scared the bejesus out of pitchers, so why hasn’t he been let in? He hasn’t been proven guilty of anything. Oh, and how does a guy go from receiving 29.8% of the vote in his first year on the ballot to 72.2% in his 14th year on ballot? How many games did he play in between ballots?
Eh, whatever. Sorry about the rant. Hopefully Bert Blyleven and Tim Raines break through and make it to their rightful place in the HOF. I’ll update this post as Harold Reynolds & Co. make the announcements, supposedly they’ll come around 2pm.
Update (2:01pm): Rickey Henderson and Jim Rice make it. That’s it. Congrats to them both.
Update (2:05pm): Here’s the voting:
Rickey, 94.8%
Rice, 76.4
Andre Dawson, 67.0
Bert Blyleven, 62.7
Lee Smith, 44.5
Jack Morris, 44.0
Tommy John, 31.7
Tim Raines, 22.6
Mrk McGwire, 21.9
Alan Trammell, 17.4
Dave Parker, 15.0
Donnie Baseball, 11.9
Dale Murphy, 11.5
Harold Baines, 5.9
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