Rollins, Howard welcome additions to Hall of Fame candidates list
The ballot arrives in the mail, on or around Thanksgiving, whenever the post office finds it convenient.
It will be one sheet thick, in black-andwhite paper, never of magazine quality.
The instructions will be brief, and hardly complicated: Take a pen, check the box next to up to 10 candidates, stuff it in an envelope and mail it back.
That’s how the voting for the Baseball Hall of Fame is done, and that’s how it should be done. There is nothing complex about it. No reason to run statistics through computer in a foolish search for manufactured relevance. No reason, at least five years after any of the candidates have played in a game, to engage in tormenting debate. No reason to hesitate. Just go down the list and ask: Does that player, for every right reason, belong in the Hall of Fame?
It’s why the Hall of Fame has entrusted qualified baseball writers to do the voting: Their opinions will reflect what they’ve seen, what they’ve heard in and around clubhouses, what they know from at least a decade of dedicated reporting.
If given to the fans, that responsibility would turn into organized trolling.
If trusted to some cockeyed panel of super-genius former players, that responsibility would yield Harold Baines as a Hall of Famer.
If turned over to former Hall of Famers, the elections would deteriorate into something of a fraternity rush.
Managers? Seriously? When is the last time one of them uttered one syllable not meant to advance an agenda?
So writers it must be, for they are relied upon for their eyes, their guts, their contacts, their experiences, their objectivity. And ultimately, they get it right, even if it sometimes takes a while. Even the system itself has enough firewalls to ensure Derek Jeter makes it to Cooperstown, even if some rogue voter chooses not to include him on a ballot.
It is under that system, then, that Jimmy Rollins and Ryan Howard are each one checked-ballot closer to Cooperstown than they were on Thanksgiving Eve. Though neither is projected to be named on the 75 percent of completed ballots necessary for induction, Cooperstown would be emptier without their presence.
They were cut-above superstars for a NL East dynasty, ultimate professionals, big-game performers, steroidfree competitors who not only generated statistics as alluring as many already in the Hall of Fame, but never brazenly broke a rule. In the case of Howard, he belonged in the Hall of Fame alone for running out a ground ball to end a playoff series with one of his Achilles tendons dragging six feet behind.
Those first two votes, then, were simple: Rollins? Check. Howard? Check.
Then what?
Begin with the curious case of Curt Schilling, who received 285 votes last season — including one from right here — before falling 16 votes short of election. It was at that point, in the grand spirit of ignorance that dominated the Phillies’ clubhouse in 1993, Schilling chose not to try to appeal to those final 16 voters but to insult the first 285. He said he didn’t want to be elected by the baseball writers, anyway, and would prefer to be chosen later by some old-timers’ panel. No problem, C.S. Happy to oblige. Consider one vote lost. And ask yourself: Why have those ancient sages never elected Mickey Vernon, who should have been elected 15 years before your first pitch?
From there, it would be the usual scratches. That would include Gary Sheffield, who should have been banned for life the instant he threatened to make an error on purpose, and Sammy Sosa, known to manipulate the equipment.
Among the charms of the voting system is that players remain on the ballot for 10 years. That allows for a changing electorate and, in some cases, changed minds. Plenty of Hall of Famers needed to wait years to earn induction, with some voters reconsidering their earlier decisions. That works the other way, too, however. Once, I had zero problem with athletes juicing to better entertain the paying customers. Their bodies, their choice.
But the more disgusting it became every time the Basketball Hall of Fame inducted some rotten cheating coach, the more clear it became that people who illegally manipulate the outcomes of games, whether alleged or convicted, should not be rewarded with immortality.
So there will be no vote for otherwise obvious Hall of Famers Barry Bonds,
Alex Rodriguez, Roger Clemens, Manny Ramirez or David Ortiz.
From there?
Give me a pen: Rollins and Howard, of course. Omar Vizquel, the top defender of his generation. Todd Helton and Andruw Jones, superior hitters. Bobby Abreu, who played fair in an era when that left him at a disadvantage. Same with Jeff Kent. That’s it.
Were others technically as qualified? Of course. There
is more than one way to look at this thing. The system will work. It always does. Just remember that keyword: Look. And any prolonged look at Rollins, Howard, Vizquel, Helton, Jones, Abreu or Kent should have been plenty to win at least one a Hall of Fame vote.
So, it did. It was just that simple.