A Look At The HoF Voting Results

Good morning Fackers. Yesterday we took a cursory look at the Hall of Fame voting results, noting Andre Dawson's election and the tantalizing near misses of Bert Blyleven and Roberto Alomar. The entire ballot spanned twenty six players who met the eligibility criteria. Here are some thoughts on those who weren't as lucky as The Hawk.

Byleven (74.2%) - He's a vitrual lock for next year after coming so close this year and seeing an 11.5% jump over last year. He has two more years of eligibility left and the next two classes aren't particularly strong.

Alomar (73.7%) - I'm not a big believer in drawing distinctions between a Hall of Famer and First Ballot Hall of Famer. Even so, I think Alomar's standing relative to the other men who have played his position make him worthy of first ballot induction. Obviously it will have to wait until next year. If waiting a year is Alomar's penance for the Hirschbeck spitting incident then so be it. I realize there are players in the Hall who have done worse, but waiting a year is a small price to pay for what's one of baseball's more despicable moments.

Jack Morris (52.3%) - Morris vs. Blyleven seems to be the next frontier of the old school vs. new school debate. Morris saw an 8.3% jump over last year, the second biggest gainer outside of Blyleven. He still ranks behind where Blyleven was in his 11th year of eligibility. It'll be interesting to see where this one goes in the year's to come. Does anyone remember when Morris nearly joined the '96 Yankees?

Barry Larkin (51.6%) - Larkin deserves enshrinement, but he clearly has a ways to go in the eyes of the voters. Still, it's encouraging to see him start out at 51.6%. For comparisons sake, Alan Trammell, a similar if inferior comparison, garnered just 15.7% of the vote in his first year of eligibility.

Lee Smith (47.3%) - Smith is the highest ranking former Yankee on the ballot. His continued languishing in the sub fifty percent range makes me wonder if the BBWAA is smarter than we give them credit for being. At the time of his retirement, Smith was the all-time leader in saves. He hasn't thrown a pitch in a dozen years, yet he's been passed only by Trevor Hoffman and Mariano Rivera. Normally, that's the sort of thing the writers would eat up: "This guy's the all-time saves leader, he's got to be a Hall of Famer!". Instead, Smith remains far from enshrinement, as he should. I'm just not sure it's because the writers realize the save is a relatively meaningless statistic. More likely, I think Smith serves as an example that the writer's aren't quite sure how to evaluate "closers". The relievers in the Hall - Wilhelm, Fingers, Sutter, Gossage - were "firemen", routinely accumulating 100+ IP per season. Smith accumulated 100 relief IP just twice, in his first two full seasons as a reliever. Smith was at the leading edge of the game-wide transition from firemen to closers. Dennis Eckersley is the only closer in the Hall, and Smith lacks both Eckersley's utter dominance as a closer as well as his years as a successful starter. Smith has seven more ballots for the writers to figure it out.

Edgar Martinez (36.2%) - If the voters don't know what to make of closers, then they have absolutely no idea what to do with designated hitters. The DH has been in existence for 37 seasons now, and it has evolved significantly in that time. What started as place to play the best bench player evolved as a spot to hide defensive liabilities, or to prolong the career of aging veterans, or to protect the health of those too fragile to handle the wear and tear of daily defense. While HoFers like Eddie Murray, George Brett, Rickey Henderson, Paul Molitor, Wade Boggs, Jim Rice, Dave Winfield, Carl Yastrzemski, and Dawson all spent significant time at DH, Martinez is an interesting case in that he's the first worthy candidate to have spent nearly his entire career as a DH. Offensively he has HoF numbers, and I think he's worthy of induction. I'll be interested to see how his candidacy is evaluated over the next several years.

Tim Raines (30.4%) - Far and away the gravest injustice in my opinion. Raines is worthy of his own post, and I hope to have that before the week is out.

Mark McGwire (23.7%) - After taking a slight dip in his percentage last year, McGwire's number returns to where it was in both of his first two years of eligibility - a long, long, long way from induction. Like Smith and Martinez, McGwire is an interesting test case. McGwire is probably the best pure power hitter in baseball history not named Babe Ruth (1st all time in AB/HR, 2nd all time in IsoP), but the problem is that he wasn't all that pure after all. I'm not sure yet how PED users should be judged, but McGwire's four years on the ballot don't bode well for Rafael Palmeiro next year or for Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens in 2013.

Alan Trammell (22.4%) - This was Trammell's ninth year on the ballot and his best showing yet. He's still so far off that it's unlikely he'll ever be elected. As a shortstop, Trammell is Hall of Famer. He's comparable, if slightly inferior, to contemporaries and Hall of Famers Cal Ripken Jr, Robin Yount, and Ozzie Smith. I think the problem for Trammell is that he was overshadowed by those three for most of his career, and in the years since the likes of Alex Rodriguez, Derek Jeter, Nomar Garciaparra, Miguel Tejada, and Hanley Ramirez have completely changed the concept of what a shortstop could do. Had Trammell begun his career 20 or 30 years earlier he'd likely already be in Cooperstown. At this point the Veterans' Committee looks like his best bet.

Fred McGriff (21.5%) - One of the worst trades the Yankees ever made. McGriff was a great player for a long time. But as a first baseman, his numbers don't really separate him from his contemporaries. It doesn't appear that another 7 HR to get to 500 would have made the difference for him either.

Don Mattingly (16.1%) - This is the best showing for our beloved Donnie Baseball since his second year on the ballot back in 2002. But it's still well off from his career best of 28.2%. As much as we'd all like to see it, Mattingly's not going to the Hall nor should he - his career nose dived way too soon. But I hope he continues to get the requisite 5% to stay on the ballot until his 15 years run out.

Dave Parker (15.2%) - The induction of borderline guys Jim Rice and Andre Dawson in back-to-back years lends itself to slippery-slope style arguments. I don't think The Cobra was as good as either one of those guys, but he wasn't off by too much.

Dale Murphy (11.7%) - Much like Mattingly, Murphy went from amongst the best in baseball to done seemingly overnight. Murphy was a contemporary of Dawson, and like Dawson is considered and all-around class act and good guy. The two make for an interesting comparison. Dawson had a longer and better career, and voters seem to favor players who decline gradually, like Dawson, to players who fall off a cliff, like Murphy. But if you look at their primes, Murphy was arguably the better player. And if you look at their peaks, Murphy was clearly the better player.

Harold Baines (6.1%) - The last player that will still be on next year's ballot. With the arrival of Edgar Martinez, Baines is no longer the best DH eligible for enshrinement.

Andres Galarraga (4.1%) - I'm surprised he didn't get the 5% necessary to stay on the ballot. Certainly not a HoFer, but a pretty good player during a rather lengthy career. I wonder if Galarraga dropping off after one year gives any insight as to how the voters will view the Coors Field effect. It'll be interesting to keep in mind as Larry Walker becomes eligibile next year and Todd Helton no fewer than six years from now. At 43 years old and stuck on 398 career HRs, Galarraga signed a minor league deal with the Angels in 2004. He spent a month in AAA and was given a token September call up. In the 160th game of the season, Galarraga pinch hit in the ninth inning of a game the Angels led 9-0. He homered to get to 399, and celebrated waaaaay too much for a player of his stature, particularly considering he was just hanging on to pad his numbers and had just hit a meaningless home run in garbage time of a late season game. I remember seeing the highlight and thinking it was a little below him. The again, Galarraga lost a season to lymphoma during the most productive stretch of his career and had suffered a relapse earlier that same year that may have cost him additional service time, so maybe I'm just a jerk for begrudging him a little celebration.

Robin Ventura (1.3%) - The second lowest ranking former Yankee on the ballot (Todd Zeile didn't get a single vote). In 1999, Nolan Ryan received 98.79% of the vote, the second highest percentage of all time. He was six votes short of being the only unanimous selection in history. Perhaps he'll beat Ventura up again, steal his seven votes, and add them to his own total to give him 100.2% of the vote.

Michael "Mike" Jackson (0.0%) - Listed only to give me an excuse to link to this. It probably wasn't particularly funny then; now it's neither funny nor timely.

The No-Hitter That Wasn't

Nineteen years ago today, the Yankees played their final game in old Comiskey Park, wrapping up a three game weekend series against the White Sox. The Yankees were in the midst of a historically bad season that was about to get worse.

Major League Baseball on the other hand was also in the midst of a good historic season. After zero no-hitters in 1989, and just one in both 1987 and 1988, no-hitters were growing on trees in 1990. Entering play that day, there had already been four, including Nolan Ryan's record sixth (he would add a seventh the following year) and two, from Dave Stewart and Fernando Valenzuela, just two days before on June 29th. Before the season ended, a modern record seven no-hitters were thrown. That mark would be tied the following year, but the events of July 1st would prevent 1990 from tying the 1884 record of eight no-hitters in a single year.

Andy Hawkins took the mound for the Yankees that day. Despite leading the team in wins with 15 the previous year (more than twice as many as any teammate), Hawkins was a bad pitcher. He had an ERA+ of just 80 to go with his 15 wins, and entered that July 1st game at 1-4 with a 6.49 ERA. He was surrendering a ghastly 10.85 H/9, but for that afternoon at least, he was able to put his troubles behind him.

Hawkins was perfect through four and two thirds, before surrendering back-to-back walks in the fifth. He induced a Sammy Sosa flyout to end the inning, then worked a perfect sixth. He allowed a leadoff walk in the seventh, but then retired the next two batters with a caught stealing sandwiched in between.

Meanwhile, the Yankee offense was as anemic as it would be that entire awful season. Chicago starter Greg Hibbard was perfect through five and a third, before surrendering consecutive infield singles to 8 and 9 hitters Bob Geren and Alvaro Espinoza. Hibbard then got Roberto Kelly and Steve Sax to end the threat.

In the seventh, the Yankees would get their final two hits of the afternoon, as Jesse Barfield and Jim Leyritz contributed two out singles. Mike Blowers then flew to center to end the inning. All three would figure prominently in the game's undoing in the bottom of the eighth.

Hawkins retired the first two batters before the wheels came off. Sosa bounced what should have been an inning-ending grounder to Blowers at third, but he reached when Blowers booted it. After Sosa stole second, Hawkins issued his fourth and fifth free passes of the afternoon, loading the bases.

Hawkins coaxed a flyball to left off the bat of future Yankee Robin Ventura. This too should have ended the inning, but Leyritz dropped it, clearing the bases and putting the Yankees in a 3-0 hole. The next batter, the late Ivan Calderon, flew to right, where Barfield dropped the ball, scoring Ventura and capping the scoring at 4-0. A pop to short off the bat of former Yankee Dan Pasqua ended the six out inning for the ChiSox.

The Yankees went quietly in the ninth, as Chicago managed to work around an error of their own. Hawkins' final line: 8 IP, 0 H, 4 R, 0 ER, 5 BB, 3 K. Because he didn't go nine innings and his team didn't win, he is not credited with an official no-hitter. Not nearly as unjust as Harvey Haddix' 12 perfect innings in a losing effort, yet perfectly indicative of the ineptitude that was the 1990 Yankees.

Less than two weeks later, the Yankees would be on the other end of a no-hitter that wasn't. On July 12th, facing the same White Sox at Yankee Stadium, Melido Perez, a future Yankee and brother of then-Yankee Pascual Perez, surrendered no hits in a complete game outing that was shortened to seven innings by rain. Again, because he didn't go nine innings, the game doesn't count as an official no-no.

Hawkins, by the way, took the loss in that one as well. But perhaps the start he made between the two White Sox games was the cruelest of all. Facing the Twins in the first game of a July 6 doubleheader at the Stadium, Hawkins threw nine shutout innings. Unfortunately, the Yankees' dead bats society couldn't push a single run across. Hawkins stayed in, throwing a scoreless tenth and eleventh. He had two outs in the twelfth when back-to-back singles scored the two men he'd previously walked. The Yankees lost 2-0. Over two starts Hawkins threw 19.2 innings, gave up just six hits and two earned runs, and had two losses to show for it. Such were the 1990 Yankees.

Tomorrow we'll be back with a look back at a more pleasant no-no.