Hall of Fame Ballot Announced

[scotgreb]

There are always going to be players at the margin for whatever reason(s) -- no matter what voters are engaged. I expect that if any of us endeavored to choose the 341 [eligible] individuals -- or more so, the 269 players, we believe should be in the HOF, the overlap would be quite large. If you had the current BBWAA vote toward the top 269 today -- no chance they would all be the same -- and it would be different ten years from now even with the same BBWAA voters. The Hall (and its membership) was not built at a point in time. It's a much different proposition when building it over nearly 100 years. I mean, how many of us would include ten umpires?

[Mike D.]

It's worth noting that not everyone's candidacy is so quickly judged. I mean, it took Blyleven 15 years to get elected, and he's 13th all time in WAR for starting pitchers.

At the time, there were huge groups of people who argued he wasn't deserving. Nowadays, you don't see him on many "shouldn't be in the Hall of Fame" lists.

[etsmith]

Cecil Travis? His career was too short, even taking into consideration his military service. The problem is everyone has a different idea of who should be in the Hall of Fame. What about Jim McCormick? Or Adrian Beltre? Or Bill Dahlen? Or Bobby Grich?

[JustinD]

Not the world's biggest McGwire fan, but for everyone stating he is still deflecting steroids that is wrong. He admitted it more than 12 years ago to clean the slate when he returned to baseball. Not sure how that was forgotten, it was a bit of big deal at the time.

[MR RAREBACK]

I do enjoy buying the steriod players for dirt cheap, If they do make the hall there will be no deals to be had.

[michael3322]

Originally Posted by etsmith

Cecil Travis? His career was too short, even taking into consideration his military service. The problem is everyone has a different idea of who should be in the Hall of Fame. What about Jim McCormick? Or Adrian Beltre? Or Bill Dahlen? Or Bobby Grich?

Edward. Thanks for pointing out Travis. Had never heard of him before your post and enjoyed reading about his career and service. Definitely in the category of "What might have been?" like so many others whose careers were disrupted by health issues, military service, etc.

Re: health, consider the great Dave Orr
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Orr

Had he not had a stroke...