Baseball election process is an imperfect game
Tommy Lasorda chortles at the thought that Joe DiMaggio wasn't voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame on the first ballot.
"What were those sportswriters drinking?" said Lasorda, one of 16 managers in the Hall of Fame. "How in the [expletive] can you leave DiMaggio off in the first ballot? He only hit in 56 straight games and hit .325 for his career. Are you kidding me? Some of the stuff makes you scratch your head. Crazy, I say."
DiMaggio wasn't elected until his third year of eligibility, but there's more to that story, and we'll get back to it later.
The bottom line is that there have been quirks in the voting through the years, and nobody ever said that voters always got it right. But they usually do. "I think we've done a very honorable job," said a longtime voter and past officer of the Baseball Writers Association of America.
Lasorda, Dennis Eckersley, Jim Rice, and many players will tell you that not enough people have been enshrined. Rice, though his candidacy has picked up steam, is still struggling for the elusive honor, which might came today when the latest voting results are announced, though competing with Tony Gwynn and Cal Ripken might prolong his wait another year.
A reason Rice is picking up steam is that this is the first year voters are faced with an otherwise strong candidate suspected of using steroids, Mark McGwire. Rice might have gotten votes that would have gone to McGwire. Polls by ESPN and the Associated Press indicate McGwire won't garner more than 25-30 percent, far short of the 75 percent required for induction.
McGwire retired after the 2001 season, averaging a homer every 10.61 at-bats, a record pace. But he played before there was steroid testing. McGwire has admitted to using androstenedione, an over-the-counter supplement that was not banned by Major League Baseball. He was tainted by his appearance at a House Government Reform Committee in 2005 when he refused to answer questions about whether he'd taken steroids.
A former teammate who has admitted his use of steroids, Jose Canseco, is also on the Hall ballot for the first time. He wrote in his book "Juiced" that he injected McGwire with a steroid while they were with the A's.
The McGwire case will be the first major controversy involving Hall of Fame voting since Pete Rose, the all-time hit leader who was banned from the sport because he bet on baseball and can't even appear on the ballot.
Asked whether McGwire should be voted in, Lasorda responded the same way McGwire did a couple of years ago: "I have no comment on that."
It also will be interesting to see whether any votes are cast for Canseco. He hit 462 home runs, was the first 40-40 player in baseball history, and won the 1988 American League MVP award. His athleticism never was questioned. He could do things that McGwire couldn't. But he admitted using. McGwire never has fessed up to it.
"I haven't talked to Mark for a long time," said one of his former A's teammates, "but from what I hear from our mutual friends, Mark doesn't care whether he's in the Hall or not. He just wants this first year to happen, let the controversy take its course, and then fly under the radar. He's a very private person and he has no intention of ever making this a big part of his life."
But Rice said simply, "If you cheated, you don't belong in the Hall of Fame."
While there are BBWAA voters who never will vote for McGwire, others don't go so far as to say he'll never get in. Under the voting guidelines, a player can stay on the ballot for up to 15 years as long as he garners 5 percent of the vote. Thereafter, a Veterans Committee made up of living Hall of Famers, winners of the J.G. Taylor Spink Award (sportswriters), and winners of the Ford C. Frick Award (broadcasters) can vote players in on a second-chance basis.
With the federal steroid investigations, and the probe being led by former Senator George Mitchell on behalf of Major League Baseball, information eventually will trickle out on current players and those from the 1980s and 1990s who performed with illegal enhancement. At least that's the hope.
If McGwire weren't under suspicion -- and voters didn't have to consider the "character" aspect, as specified by the voting guidelines -- most agree he'd be a first-ballot Hall of Famer.
That brings us back to DiMaggio's quirky case.
The story goes that after DiMaggio retired at age 37 in 1951, some writers believed that he might return to the game. In fact, the Yankees offered him a big contract for 1952, but he declined.
At the time, players who had put in 10 years in the majors were eligible for the ballot just one year after leaving the game.
While many thought DiMaggio would get in on the first ballot, the sentiment expressed by Joe Williams of the World-Telegram in 1953 caught on. He wrote, "My vote will make small difference, but as a protest to putting him ahead of others I deem equally deserving, and menaced by the calendar, I'm not joining in the landslide for DiMaggio. His ultimate position is secure, he is young and a few years away won't hurt."
DiMaggio received only 117 votes (43.3 percent) when he would have needed 198 for election. Bill Roeder of The
It's obvious DiMaggio must have ticked off some scribes. Writers instead voted for players who had been on the ballot much longer. Dizzy Dean and Al Simmons were elected in 1953.
In '54, DiMaggio garnered 175 votes (69.44 percent), but watched as Rabbit Maranville, Bill Dickey, and Bill Terry were inducted.
The third time was a charm, however. DiMaggio got 88.84 percent of the vote in 1955 (223 of 251 ballots cast) and went in with Ted Lyons, Dazzy Vance, and Gabby Hartnett.
In '53, the BBWAA changed the eligibility rules to require that players be retired for five seasons, but players who had received at least 100 votes were grandfathered in.
There's the case of Tom Seaver, who had the highest percentage ever: 98.84 in 1992. Seaver was named on all but five ballots that year. According to Hall of Fame publicist Jeff Idelson, three voters handed in blank ballots to protest Rose's disqualification. Another writer didn't cast his ballot because he had heart surgery, and the fifth indicated he was against voting for first-time eligibles.
Nolan Ryan has garnered the highest vote total, 491, and is second to Seaver in percentage with 98.79. Some think Ripken could exceed Seaver and/or Ryan this time.
Former Dodgers first baseman and Mets manager Gil Hodges stands as the man who has garnered the most total votes (3,010) in his 15 years of eligibility and didn't get in. Jim Bunning had held that distinction (3,213 votes) until the Veterans Committee elected him.
While Hall voters are sometimes criticized by ex-players for being too tough, the Veterans Committee has not elected anyone in its last two votes, which are taken every two years. Leading candidates for the veterans this time are Hodges, Cubs third baseman Ron Santo, Twins outfielder Tony Oliva, and lefthander Jim Kaat. Those results will be announced Feb. 27. Also making a surge is Joe Torre, who is still eligible as a player though not as a manager. Managers Dick Williams and Whitey Herzog are also up for consideration by the veterans.
While Luis Tiant is considered one of the biggest money pitchers of his era, he didn't get a lot of support from the Veterans Committee in the first year he was eligible for its ballot, 2005. He was named on only 25 percent of the ballots.
"It's supposed to be difficult to get in," said Lasorda. "It's supposed to be the best of the best. But I think there are guys who in my opinion were the best, and haven't got in."
Eckersley, who earned induction in 2004, said, "It's too hard. There are players who had great careers and put up great numbers who haven't gotten a sniff. I'm hoping some guys get there through the Veterans Committee."
Lasorda puts Rice and his former Dodgers first baseman, Steve Garvey, who enters his final year of eligibility, in that category.
The voting in most professional sports has its flaws. And if McGwire is not elected, his omission certainly will be a curiosity years from now. But the Steroid Era itself will have its own quirky place in history, too.
