Time to solve the Jeter ‘ lone voter’ mystery
MIAMI — A brief chronology of the world’s 10 greatest mysteries:
Is there intelligent alien life? ( Infinity) What happened to the Ark of the Covenant? ( 587 B. C.)
Where is Cleopatra’s tomb? ( 30 B. C.) Who was Jack the Ripper? ( 1888) Why is “abbreviation” such a long word? ( Unknown)
Did Lee Harvey Oswald act alone? ( 1963) Whatever happened to D. B. Cooper? ( 1971)
Where is Jimmy Hoffa? ( 1975)
Why ‘ New Coke’? WHY?!?! ( 1985) Who didn’t vote for Derek Jeter? ( 2020) There you have it. Nine eternal mysteries that may never be fully solved — and one that still might be.
“The Lone Voter” is still out there. But where?
Someone knows who he ( or she?) is. The unnamed anarchist is someone’s neighbor or friend, hiding in plain sight, ripe for outing.
Surely a best- selling book is forthcoming: “IT WAS ME!,” by Anonymous.
Perhaps Rand Paul will name “The Lone Voter” first on the Senate floor, like he outed the whistleblower.
Or maybe there can be a TV special similar to “The Masked Singer,” called “The Masked Voter.” The show will end with “The Lone Voter” dancing as he removes a giant papier- mache’ head of Steve Bartman to reveal himself.
The longer the mystery goes, the more likely multiple people will eventually claim to be “The Lone Voter,” calling to mind the Dire Straits song lyric about crazy people in a park: “Two men say they’re Jesus — one of them must be wrong!”
Somehow, some way, we will learn the identity of the solitary Baseball Writers Association of America member who denied Jeter unanimous entry into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N. Y.
There were 397 votes cast ( including my own), and 396 votes for Jeter.
There were 315 ballots ( including my own) made public this week by the BBWAA. It was one of the 82 ballots kept private that excluded Jeter, the 3,465- hit, 14- time All- Star Yankees shortstop who now, of course, is trying to build the Miami Marlins into winners entering his third season as the club’s CEO and partowner.
Jeter has been gracious publicly in not criticizing “The Lone Voter.”
“I look at all the votes that I got, and it takes lot to get elected,” he said. “Trying to get that many people to agree on something, that’s pretty difficult to do.”
To its credit the BBWAA decided in 2011 to make all ballots public — but that unfortunately was overruled by the Hall of Fame’s board of directors. They “rejected the proposal,” BBWAA secretary- treasurer Jack O’Connell told us Friday.
As a compromise, beginning with the 2012 vote, writers have had the option to check a box saying whether their ballot should be made public. Close to 80% ( me among them) typically check yes.
The “Lone Voter” controversy should lead the Hall and its voting group to make all ballots public moving forward. Transparency is a good thing, and this is not something where classified information should apply. We’re just a bunch of writers voting yay or nay on a bunch of ballplayers every year.
The irony is that BBWAA members are journalists. We are in the business of ferreting out truth, not hiding it. The idea that a writer would want to keep his ballot a secret ( or even be given that option) is just plainly weird here.
“The Lone Voter” had a right to his dissent, to make that clear. There had never been a unanimous vote — not for Babe Ruth, not for Hank Aaron — until closer Mariano Rivera went in perfectly just one year before Jeter.
The point is not to punish “The Lone Voter” or any voter for a nonconformist ballot.
It is that, from now on, anyone given the privilege of a Hall of Fame ballot should be prepared to stand behind their vote, not hide behind it.