Dear Craig Biggio, Edgar Martinez, Mark McGwire and Jeff Kent:
I’m sorry. It wasn’t supposed to end this way.
I pledged to support your cause to be in the Baseball Hall of Fame through snow, sleet and hail for as long as it took, long enough for my voting peers to vote like I did or long enough for them to abandon you until your name fell off the ballot.
I just never thought that the day would come where I’d be the one throwing you into the Charles.
It’s like asking a parent to choose his or her favorite child. It’s a choice that doesn’t have to be made.
Don’t make me choose a maximum of 10 Hall of Famers each year. If I thought you were a Hall of Famer the first year you were on the ballot, I kept voting for you, for as long as it took.
Until this year.
Because my voting peers could not muster the 75 percent threshold to vote in even one candidate last year, this year’s strong incoming class — Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine, Frank Thomas, Mike Mussina and Jeff Kent — meant trouble for voters, like me, who had nine players on their ballot last year.
Others may disagree, but I don’t believe my standards are too lax. The trouble lies in that nearly 80 years ago, the Hall of Fame founders in 1936 plucked from thin air an arbitrary cut-off of 10 votes for that first ballot.
With PED’s clouding candidacies of such slam-dunk Hall of Famers as Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds, there is now a backlog that’s not going away soon. Next year’s class is strong, too — Randy Johnson, John Smoltz and Pedro Martinez — so tough choices will again have to be made unless a miracle happens on Jan. 9 and more than one name — predict it will be Greg Maddux only — is announced.
But that’s a year from now.
Yesterday was about taking an ax to four names on my 14-strong list. Rather than hack away, I tried to be rational with the irrational task. Feel free to tear down the logic I used. I’ve reviewed it multiple times and it holds no water with me, either.
My nine holdovers from last year were Biggio, Martinez and McGwire, plus Clemens, Bonds, Jeff Bagwell, Mike Piazza, Tim Raines and Curt Schilling.
As soon as I opened my ballot, I placed three checks by the names of Maddux, Clemens and Bonds. By far, they are the three best players on the ballot and I knew I would never second-guess a vote for them.
Here’s an example of my warped logic: Because Biggio received the most support — 68.2 percent — of any candidate last year, I figured he can live without my one vote this year.
Sick, right?
Mussina has just as strong a case to be in the Hall of Fame as Glavine does. I didn’t want Mussina’s cause to fall short so early, so he and Glavine got a checkmark.
I still had eight names for five spots. Looking at the new names, I thought Thomas’ cause held up better than Kent’s in terms of overall dominance. If I was going to eliminate some holdovers, then at least one deserving new name had to kneel down before my guillotine. I hope it was painless, Jeff.
Six names left, four spots still open.
I couldn’t leave off Raines. He’s been perennially underrated but after cracking the 50 percent vote barrier for the first time last year, I’d like to see his momentum continue.
Five names — Schilling, Bagwell, Piazza, Martinez and McGwire — were left for three spots.
I threw up my hands with McGwire. PED’s don’t make me lose sleep but if I’m going to make a point with my vote, I might as well make it with Bonds and Clemens.
McGwire’s losing momentum, anyway, and even though that should have zero bearing, I fled like a rat from his sinking ship.
I felt like I was getting the hang of indiscriminate slaughter. The last cut wasn’t the deepest. Bagwell and Piazza dominated their positions and have strong candidacies. Two more checkmarks.
Between Schilling and Martinez, not so tough in the end.
Schilling’s case is as solid as Glavine’s and Mussina’s.
Martinez, the guy who got my vote all four previous times?
What a stiff.
My ballot’s got no room for a talent like his.
