The winter baseball meetings yesterday were a flop as far as signing and trades went with no important trades or signings announced. So since there was little news there except for Greg Maddux making a very gracious retirement speech.

There was some news from Cooperstown, New York but it was only good news for the family of Joe Gordon who was voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Meanwhile in Arizona Ron Santo found out that once again that the veteran’s committee didn’t elect him into the Hall of Fame. How many more times are they going to ignore his accomplishments? I compared his stats with those of Hall of Fame third basemen and it is clear he belongs in the Hall of Fame.

There are eleven third basemen in the Hall of Fame. Eddie Mathews and Mike Schmidt are the only ones with more homers than Santo. Santo hit 342 homers and drove in 1331 runs. He has more runs batted in than all but four of the current Hall of Fame third basemen. Only Mathews, Schmidt and George Brett have a higher slugging percentage than Santo. His .277 lifetime batting average is higher than that of Brooks Robinson and Schmidt who both hit .267 lifetime and he hit better than Mathews who hit .271.

I believe that the player with the most votes should be elected every year. The way it is now there are too many votes being wasted on players that shouldn’t even be on the ballot. The voters couldn’t have been looking at Santo’s numbers since they only gave him 39 votes out of 213 votes cast. It is suspicious that two Twins Jim Kaat and Tony Oliva would receive 71 votes combined when neither compares with what Santo has done in his career.

Now we will look into the numbers of Harold Baines another player who has been overlooked by the Hall of Fame despite having deserving numbers.

Baseball-almanac.com doesn’t have a list of designated hitters who made the Hall of Fame so will use their list of right fielders instead.

There are 23 right fielders in the Hall of Fame. Baines had 384 homers which is more than sixteen of the current Hall of Fame rightfielders. With only seven players having more homers than Baines it makes me wonder why he isn’t already in the Hall of Fame. Only Hank Aaron, Mel Ott, Frank Robinson, Babe Ruth and Dave Winfield had more than his 1628 RBI’s. Baines missed having 3000 hits by only 134 hits. He played for the White Sox three times from 1980-1989, in 1997 and 2000 - 2001 ending his career with the White Sox.

The veteran’s committee proved again that they are not capable of electing a player to the Hall of Fame. There are too many players on the ballot who shouldn’t be on the ballot that are keeping players like Santo out of the Hall of Fame.

Have these voters no shame? How many times are they going to let Santo wait by the phone only to be disappointed again? It would have been better to let all players that haven’t been elected to be in one group instead of dividing them into the two groups. Santo had much better stats than Joe Gordon who was voted in among veterans before 1942 or whatever the dividing line is. So instead of Gordon going in the Hall of Fame yesterday it should have been Ron Santo.

Evidently, the voters indeed have no shame.

I still think voters should be held accountable for their votes. And if they are voting like idiots they need to be taken off the list of voters. Santo was clearly the best of the candidates so someone was voting foolishly.

I’m still trying to understand this tier business.

Santo is a HOFer. It is that simple.

tyrone briggs - 26 December 2008 06:13 PM

I’m still trying to understand this tier business.

Santo is a HOFer. It is that simple.

Okay- someone explain this to me- why do they vote no the first few times and then after the 5th time finally vote yes? Whaz up with that? to prove he isn’t a shoe in but a 2nd tier HOFer? (haaaa haaa- 2nd, 3rd, 4th tier...)- it’s almost like the always vote NO the first go around

Good question....A lot has to do with what new Hall of Fame candidates become eligible. Like this year Rickey Henderson should be a lock to go in and voters who would have voted for someone else first will now vote for Henderson first. If there are two real strong candidates becoming eligible the same year then they have a better chance to go in like Tony Gwynn and Cal Ripken.

This pseudo recognition for supposed “greats among the greats” of being a “first ballot HOFer” is bullshit.

They more or less go to the front of the line leaving players like Andre Dawson and Harold Baines waiting till the next year.

Baines and Dawson should have been in a long time ago.

Niteowl049 - 26 December 2008 07:10 PM

Baines and Dawson should have been in a long time ago.

Maybe the HOF should be re-built as a skyscraper building.

You know - first tier is the penthouse. Second tier the next top floor, and so on.

tyrone briggs - 26 December 2008 07:15 PM

Niteowl049 - 26 December 2008 07:10 PM

Baines and Dawson should have been in a long time ago.

Maybe the HOF should be re-built as a skyscraper building.

You know - first tier is the penthouse. Second tier the next top floor, and so on.

I agree 100 percent...if they are going to have tiers just as well let the first tier have penthouse apartments.

TomD - 26 December 2008 07:20 PM

There’s no such thing as a “first tier” or “second tier” HOFer. A player is either qualified for the HOF or he isn’t. And Santo, Baines and Dawson are qualified.

That is my opinion. And evidently, I am full of them.

Now we all cannot be oral gratifying Mr. Santo, can we? (read the HOF thread if confused)

Couldn’t believe the poster made that statement. That is what people do when they are losing an argument. They go for personal attacks.

Niteowl049 - 26 December 2008 07:25 PM

Couldn’t believe the poster made that statement. That is what people do when they are losing an argument. They go for personal attacks.

Yeah but tyrone is a dick

Plus that’s why I have a new signature- actually Nite you should recognize it- probably was said to you at one time

PS- penthouse is a good idea- I like that magazine