Hall of Fame panel needs West voters

A cloud hovers over Harold Baines and, to some extent, Lee Smith because their Hall of Fame selections have been criticized by many fans and media members.

It’s perfectly fine to debate the results of the Today’s Game Committee and the process that got Baines and Smith elected, but let’s also celebrate their wonderful careers — one’s consistency as a designated hitter and the other’s dominance as a closer — no matter how specialized they might have been in their combined 40 years in the majors.

I don’t have a gripe that they’re Hall of Famers. I didn’t vote for Baines on the writers’ ballot, but I voted for Smith because I concluded he ranked with the elite all-time relievers. My only concern is the committee hardly has any left-coast representation.

Other than Tony La Russa, none of the 16 voters spent a significant portion of their professional careers in the West, and that probably didn’t help Will Clark’s or Orel Hershiser’s candidacies. (Clark hit .303 with a .384 on-base percentage and .497 slugging percentage to Baines’ .289/.356/ .465, and in seven fewer seasons, Clark had 56.5 career WAR to Baines’ 38.7.)

The Hall decides who votes and rotates folks on and off the committee, so the stars aligned perfectly for Baines. All committee members are accomplished baseball people and certainly qualified to vote, but it would have been appropriate to include Vin Scully or Rickey Henderson or others with roots in these parts.

Did it help that Baines’ White Sox manager and owner, La Russa and Jerry Reinsdorf, were on the committee, along with Roberto Alomar and Pat Gillick, his Orioles connections, all of whom could make cases to the others for Baines? Absolutely. It’s a geographical edge not gained by Clark or Hershiser.

Ozzie Smith was a voter, one of several Cardinals with whom Clark brawled in a 1988 incident. So was Greg Maddux, who gave up a grand slam to Clark in the 1989 NLCS after Clark read his lips and knew to expect a fastball high and in.

I’m not sure these are the type of friends Baines had.