[smokinjoe]

The Baseball Hall Of Fame is a broken establishment. For far too long have the writers been tainting the reputation of the HOF and diluting it's halls to become instead the Hall of Very Good and Great Players. It has lost much of it's exclusivity.

Writers have been bestowed the priveledge (no.. it should not be a right) of voting on the enshrinement of formeer players. The aguement for their voting has been that they are well informed and more in tune with the game itself and are thus more able to judge a player's merit. While this may have held a little mor weight 40 years ago, it does not hold true today. Information is available to everyoe at the click of a button. I can watch a player or team instantly and follow the games of any team at anytime if I so wish.

Writers who have been given this privlege have not much more information than the average fan anymore. The only qualifier for this privelege is that they are a baseball writer for at least ten years. No other creds neccessary. Some of these people are definately from the shallow end of the gene pool. Really look at some of the votes that have been cast. These writers now use their vote as a meaans for clickbait and to get their names back out there by submitting ludicrous submissions.

The writers already vote for the annual awards and I have no issue with that. Except those hypocrites who for years were giving MVP's and CYA"s to Bonds and Clemens but now all of a sudden have some Self-Righteous conscience that now will not allow them to vote for them for the Hall.

I would suggest that the vote be stripped from the writers and put where it belongs. Into the realm of the fans themselves. It is the fans that pay to visit the Hall of Fame, It is the fans who paid to watch the players, paid for merch and jerseys, kept the teams in business and the attention of the fans helped get the players paid. If it were not for the fans there would not be a game and there would be no Hall of Fame.

As a fan I am a bit offended that we are thought of as ignorant and are not afforded the opportunity to have a say in who should be considered a Hall of Famer....

Have a voting forum similar to the All Star Ballots. Why should the fans be left out of the process when it has been the fan that made the whole thing possible to begin with.

Sorry, a bit of a rant....

I do also find it strange that the National Baseball Hall of Fame does not have an actual affiliation with the MLB but still holds to the "banned from MLB banned from the Hall" position. Have a look at their website and their mission statement, it was set up to prserve the history of the game itself not Major League Baseball. Not tellling the whole story is not preserving history. It is the 21st century ideal of omitting the parts that dont fit your idea of right and wrong.