Breaking News: Robbie Alomar and Bert Blyleven Elected to Baseball Hall of Fame
Congratulations to two very deserving new members of the Baseball Hall of Fame. Robbie Alomar who had three of his best seasons with the Indians was elected with 90% of the vote on his second time on the ballot. Bert Blyleven who played for Minnesota, Pittsburgh, Texas, Cleveland and the California Angels was finally elected on his 14th time on the ballot.
Alomar was considered one of the greatest second basemen in baseball history. Tremendous in the field with his glove work and dangerous offensively both at the plate and on the base paths.
Blyleven is 5th all time in strikeouts and 9th in shutouts with 60. Voters initially failed to warm to Blylevens career due to a less than eye popping winning percentage and a lack of understanding on the writers part that wins are more correctly a team stat than an individual one. A pitchers job is to limit the number of runs the opposition scores by keeping them off the bases. When measuring his effectiveness at performing that job, Blyleven is clearly one the top 20 starting pitchers all time and clearly deserving of this honor.
Former Red Barry Larkin made considerable progress towards eventual election by garnering 62% of the vote. With Alomar and Blyleven off the ballot and no great players among next years new candidates, Larkin has a chance to be inducted next year.
Very disappointed with Jeff Bagwell's poor showing. Bagwell was an absolutely fantastic hitter and a great base runner. It can be argued that prior to Albert Pujols coming along Bagwell was the best National League first baseman ever.
posted by LargeBill at
11:45 AM
2 Comments:
Agreed with you about Blyleven and Alomar. As for Bagwell, it is an absolute crime that he was not voted in. Look, if voters want to get bent out of shape about steroid users, fine. But Bagwell never tested positive, has not been mentioned in the reports, and has largely not been suspected of use. He clearly has the numbers to merit inclusion otherwise.
January 5, 2011 at 12:57 PM
Paul,
Thanks for visiting.
I concur that Bagwell should have done a lot better. However, knowing how voters struggle in understanding players who are great but don't hit round number milestones, I'm not going to attribute his low vote total solely to unfounded rumors. Some are merely those that won't vote first ballot for anyone short of Ruth. He needs to increase his percentage a lot next year with no great players hitting the ballot. Sadly, some of the best articles I read supporting Bagwell were written after most ballots were submitted and thus unable to sway opinions.
I really think voters should be provided an information sheet detailing each players career.
January 5, 2011 at 1:32 PM
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