Crowded 2013 Hall Of Fame ballot produces no Hall of Famers
Jack Morris and Jeff Bagwell were the top holdovers on the 2013 ballot, and they were joined by Roger Clemens, Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa, Craig Biggio, Mike Piazza and Curt Schilling. No one made it.
StoryStream
Live
28Total Updates since January 10, 2012
Important19
Updates2
Articles26
All Updates28
Do you want major updates to this story in your Facebook News Feed?
The former Giants outfielder was outspoken in a recent interview, almost daring writers not to elect him to the Hall of Fame. What would you do if you had a Hall ballot?
Don't get too cocky, though, Mike. Apparently you were big and someone -- probably a reporter who was also a medical doctor, like Dr. Sanjay Gupta -- noticed that you had acne on your back. That might diminish your status as best hitting catcher to play baseball.
But if he does get in, he would like to pass on his recommendation to the Hall. From MetsBlog:
When asked what hat he wants to wear if elected to the Hall of Fame, he responded:
Now, Piazza was asked in front of the crowd at a Knicks game, which probably wouldn't be a great time to say ...
The Marlins. Easy. Those five games defined me. The people here in New York have a weird smell about them. Ruined the whole experience. I like teal.
No, he probably wasn't going to give an honest answer if it wasn't the Mets, and the Hall of Fame chooses anyway. But it's an interesting question. Over at Baseball Think Factory, the conversation naturally went to a discussion about the WAR he accrued for both teams (24.6 with the Mets, 33.6 with the Dodgers), but there are other factors too. The Mets paid Piazza about $80 million more -- a bronze cap seems like a nice perk for that kind of money. It's why Barry Zito will go into the Hall as a Giant.
Most important, though, might be the visibility factor. Piazza's biggest moments on the national stage came with the Mets -- his post-9/11 home run, as well as the playoffs and World Series runs.
It might be that your opinion on this has to do with the team you root for -- as a Giants fan, Piazza seems inextricably linked to the Dodgers. I think of him as a Dodger first. If you follow an NL East team, you surely think differently.
But Piazza isn't conflicted. He says Mets, "no question." Now we just have to convince some writers to vote in the greatest hitting catcher ever. It's a long road ahead.
I'm pretty sure that nobody thinks about Hall of Fame voting more than Chris Jaffe. And he, like some others, has been wondering if the huge backlog of terrific Hall of Fame candidates might lead to a bizarrely counter-intuitive happening: nobody getting elected by the BBWAA in one more years in the near future.
Biggio should go in next year. No one else should. If Fisk couldn’t get elected as the fourth-best new guy in 1999, Piazza won’t in 2012. Schilling will finish further down, and Sosa may be under 10 percent. As for the backloggers, Morris probably won’t move up enough because it is such a strong batch of new guys. I think he’ll get close but ultimately have to go to the VC.
In other words, the Hall of Fame's nightmare scenario -- a summer without a BBWAA enshrinee -- will not happen.
Still, the Hall -- hey, thanks BBWAA! -- is going to have sort of a problem in 2016; just check out Jaffe's article to see how jammed the ballot's going to be that year. Some really excellent candidates might get less than five percent on that ballot, and fall off forever.
A whole generation of Hall of Fame candidates is being subjected to judgments of "integrity" ... and many of them are found wanting by the voters. Of course, this is almost entirely unprecedented.
MLB.com's Hall of Fame voters have already given us a preview of their 2013 ballots, and there's pretty good news for Astros second baseman Craig Biggio.
Jack Morris will be the top holdover on next year's Hall of Fame ballot, which bodes well for his candidacy. But what about all those superstars who will join Morris on the ballot?
