For the baseball fans

Earlier this week, Goose Gossage was elected to baseball's Hall of Fame in his ninth year of eligibility. Mostly, he was elected because the class was weak. Partly, he was elected because the Hall of Fame schedules a big celebration at the end of July, and if they don't have anyone to induct into the Hall, the weekend is kind of pointless.

In order to be inducted, a player needed 75% of the votes, and Gossage got 85.8% - suddenly - after missing out for almost a decade. Chances are, it's because this year's class was so pathetic, since he hasn't pitched a game in almost 15 years, and I'm sure his career numbers are the same as they were last year and the year before.

Maybe Gossage should have been elected earlier or maybe not. Either way, one wonders why it took him so long, and if you have to debate it, perhaps he isn't worthy to begin with. I won't bore you with statistics and numbers. Suffice it to say that Hall of Famers are like great art - you know it when you see it. The fact that Gossage has been overlooked while players like Cal Ripken, Tony Gwynn, Wade Boggs and Eddie Murray got elected over him doesn't change his accomplishments, it only changes the players he is up against for election. For some reason, that matters to voters, who I believe need to examine their motives.

It shouldn't be necessary to vote for a player merely because they need to elect someone, and it shouldn't be necessary to vote for someone merely because his name is on the ballot. For instance, this year Todd Stottlemyre, Chuck Knoblauch (named in the Mitchell Report) and Chuck Finley got one vote each. "Hall of Famer Chuck Finley" just rolls off the tongue, doesn't it? Let's find out who cast a vote for these guys and revoke his voting privileges. It strikes me as odd that such nondescript players would get one vote. Is there some clandestine agreement among the voters where they agree that one of them will vote for each player? Suppose, by some quirk of fate that the voters got confused and Rod Beck emerged with 75%. Do we get a mulligan?

It's time for the Hall to think long and hard about the requirements and the votes that are cast by the sportswriters. Why do sportswriters get to vote and no one else does? Is it some sort of conflict of interest that the guys who are covering the teams vote for the players to go into the Hall?

In the meantime, here is a list of the players who will be eligible for election in the coming years. Don't confuse any of them with Walter Johnson or Stan Musial...

2009: Steve Avery, Jay Bell, Mike Bordick, John Burkett, David Cone, Ron Gant, Mark Grace, Rickey Henderson, Charles Nagy, Denny Neagle, Jesse Orosco, Dean Palmer, Dan Plesac, Rick Reed, Greg Vaughn, Mo Vaughn, Matt Williams, Mike Williams.
2010: Roberto Alomar, Kevin Appier, Andy Ashby, Ellis Burks, Andres Galarraga, Pat Hentgen, Mike Jackson, Eric Karros, Ray Lankford, Barry Larkin, Edgar Martinez, Fred McGriff, Shane Reynolds, Robin Ventura, Todd Zeile.
2011: Wilson Alvarez, Carlos Baerga, Jeff Bagwell, Bret Boone, Kevin Brown, John Franco, Juan Gonzalez, Marquis Grissom, Al Leiter, Tino Martinez, Raul Mondesi, Hideo Nomo, John Olerud, Rafael Palmeiro, Benito Santiago, Ugueth Urbina, Larry Walker.
2012: Vinny Castilla, Bill Mueller, Brad Radke, Tim Salmon, Ruben Sierra, Bernie Williams, Tim Worrell.

The 2011 class is particularly interesting. Palmeiro is still wagging his finger and Ugueth Urbina is still in jail. If Andy Ashby gets a vote - one vote - in 2010, I will personally drive to the voters house and smack him on the back of his head.

From the looks of the upcoming players, if I were Dave Conception, Andre Dawson or Alan Trammell, I'd start writing my induction speech and thinking about a week off in July. The pickings are getting slim, and the Cooperstown Chamber of Commerce doesn't want to have an empty town during the summer.

I know what you're saying. I do. "Why is he so worked-up about this?" Well, if you don't have principles, you have nothing. Like so many things, what was once special is now a watered-down shell of itself, and I get worked-up when standards slip in anything. This just happens to be about baseball. When they voted players like Phil Rizzuto in, it opened up the door (in a bad way) to other above average players, and the reasoning would start, "Well, Rizzuto's in, so why not ..."

If it isn't a Hall of Fame, it's a Hall of Above Average, and what's the point of that?