Congrats To Bert Blyleven

The suffering and the waiting are over! Bert Blyleven has finally made it into Cooperstown, thanks in large part to a greater awareness of sabermetrics and the internet movement to push for his enshrinement.

In honor of this happy news, I'd like to share a fantastic photo of the newest Hall of Fame righty.

All I can say is: so do I, Bert. So do I.

Another Reason to Root for Ichiro

How many major leaguers of any era would even think to do this?

Baseball is a game built on its statistical records and the legacy of its heroes - arguably more than any other American sport. This is one reason why we get so excited when legends like Bob Gibson and Stan Musial show up at an All-Star Game.

That Ichiro would go out of his way like this - to visit the grave of one of baseball's greatest and forgotten stars - shows that he understands the power of this game and its history. I love it.

Mad Dog 20/20 and the Man of Steal

I haven't posted in that long because I have been underneath a ton of school work and family stuff but I figured I would post some praise about two players that are will headed to the HOF.  

The first, Mad Dog, aka The Professor aka Gurg Schmezer Maddux recently announced that he will be hanging up his glove and retiring.  Greg Maddux exemplified the intelligence in the game of baseball.  While being shrouded by the steroid epidemic, Greg used his brains on the mound.   With 4 Cy Youngs under his belt, 17 straight Gold Gloves, 355 career wins (8th all time)  and 3371 Ks (10th all time)he easily deserves to be in the HOF.  The question is whether he will gain the most percentage of votes by of the writers since Tom Seaver.  I mean who could not vote for Mad Dog.  Even Kitsch's bitches are familiar with Mad Dog.   But I guess we are talking about the same people who voted for Edinson Volquez for Rookie of the Year when he wasn't even eligible.  I look forward to listening to the Professor's lecture from the podium in a few years.

The second person is a slight contradiction to the Professor.  It was announced earlier that he was going to placed on the ballot.  I am sure that Rickey Henderson will be a first ballot winner as well.  He might not be the most well spoken person, but he sure could steal bases.    And even he did not lead the ML in bases stolen, runs, have 3000 hits, and an MVP award, he should be in the HOF because of his oratory abilities.  When asked about why he chose to steal bases head first he said, " wanted to know how to dive into the base because I was getting strawberries on my knees and strawberries on my ass... I was thinking about head-first versus feet-first, and wondering which would save my body." 

The man who refers to himself in the third person will grace the HOF next summer, and I will most definately TIVO the speech that he makes, it will be fantastic.

I'm Begging You, Please Don't Beg

With apologies to Cubs fans who I hope will not be offended by this column, it’s really rather unbecoming of Ron Santo to be lobbying so hard for enshrinement into Cooperstown. His credentials notwithstanding, it never looks good to make public statements about why you think you should be a Hall of Famer.

Jayson Stark Fiddles While MJ Burns

With the news that Curt Schilling's career might be done, attention has turned to whether #38 should be enshrined in Cooperstown. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Jayson Stark takes on all comers in his defense of Schilling's candidacy.

Although Stark's passion is a little more strident than my personal opinions on the matter...I think it's a very close call. He wasn't THE dominant pitcher of his era - that honor goes to the likes of Clemens, Maddux, Randy Johnson, and Pedro. Further, although he had some truly dominant seasons, primarily from 1997-2004, the rest of his career is not overwhelming (1992 notwithstanding). In the end, I think he'll make it in, but it won't be on the first ballot and if he doesn't make it, I won't be too shocked.

What say the ESPN/Red Sox-loving Back Seat Drivers?

Cooperstown News and Notes

1. Congratulations to Goose Gossage on his election into the Baseball Hall of Fame. It's great to see closers get some recognition, with Goose's election this year and Bruce Sutter's in 2006. Goose was truly dominant for a number of years, and fully deserves this great honor.

2. There has never been a player who has ever received at least 63.6% of the vote in any given year and who has not eventually been elected. This bodes extremely well for Jim Rice, who fell just 16 votes short of induction at 72.2%, and Andre Dawson, whose 65.9% is 50 votes shy. Both players absolutely deserve induction - and as noted below, I think this year's vote indicates that we'll see them both enshrined in the next two years.

3. 2008 was also good news for Bert Blyleven, whose candidacy I have supported and who picked up a whopping 76 more votes (after backsliding, along with Dawson, from 2006 to 2007). He is now at 61.9% support. I'm not sure if he'll eventually make it, but this is encouraging.

4. We've debated the candidacies of Lee Smith and Jack Morris in years past. I support both of them, and particularly think it's hard to exclude Smith now that Sutter and Goose are both in - but at 43.3%, and with no significant upward movement, I don't think the big guy will ever make it. Morris has gone up and down a bit...but again, without any real jump, it doesn't look good for a guy who was the game's best big-game pitcher for a decade.

5. Tim Raines got only 24.3%. I recognize that he's not a first-ballot inductee, and that many others have come from similar depths to ultimate induction. But I expected more than this. Let's see if he can garner more support in the next few years.

6. McGwire is stuck at 128 votes. Not even a quarter of the voters support him. Whether you agree or not...it's safe to say that Big Mac isn't moving up unless/until there's either a sea change of opinion regarding the steroids scandal, or McGwire adopts a different PR stance.

7. Looking ahead:

a. The only truly viable candidate in 2009 is Rickey Henderson, who is a lock to make it on his first try. Given the voters' general willingness to give a guy the extra push when he gets past 70%, I expect Rice to find those last few votes and join Cooperstown next year. But, the voters don't like voting in too many at once, which should mean that Dawson gains a little bit but doesn't quite get there.

b. In 2010, we'll see Roberto Alomar, Edgar Martinez, and Fred McGriff on the ballot. All should get serious consideration, but none will be a first-ballot success. Unless Dawson's totals in '09 takes a major dive, I think he'll be the beneficiary of a weak 2010 class and make his way to the Hall in two years.

Hall of Fame Thursday

MEMORANDUM

To: Messrs. Mark Messier, Craig Biggio, and Frank Thomas

From: MJ

Re: Hall of Fame
_____________________________________________________________
Congratulations to all three of you.

Messier’s getting his picture on the wall in Toronto this year. Craig and Frank will have to wait until five years after they’re retired before partying in Cooperstown. But all three of them got their ticket punched and will be joining the list of legends. Awesome!