Posted By:
Chris CountsNice observation, Paul. In many cases, the public's perception of a player's greatness wins out over sound reasoning, such as a comparative study of a player's statistics measured aginst those he played with and against. I highly recommend Bill James' books, which go into this subject in great detail.
While a number of board members believe the Hall of Fame should have less, and not more, members, I would like to see its doors open a little wider. Clearly, the selection process has been flawed front the start, with politics often taking precendent over an objective analysis of a player's record. Just because the voters have considered a player 12 or 15 times doesn't mean they've gotten the vote right. And it's not like the potential new members are lesser players than dozens already inducted (Cecil Travis versus Rabbit Maranville, Jesse Haines versus Luis Tiant, Minnie Minoso versus Ross Youngs, etc.). Plus, by admitting new members each year, the public is more engaged with baseball's past, which is a big part of the game's appeal ...