The Hall of Fame

I hab a code...

I'm tired and cranky and I don't feel like working, so...

The Hall of Fame balloting results will be announced this afternoon. There were 27 names on the ballot. The voters (members of the Baseball Writers Assn. of a certain seniority) can vote for up to ten players. A player needs to be picked on 75% of the ballots for election, and if he's not on 5% of the ballots, or if he's used up his 15 years of eligibility, he's taken off. Here's the list, and who I'd vote for (in bold) if they gave me a ballot. ( Long baseball post follows... )

And the Winners Are...

Wade Boggs and Ryne Sandberg.

( The complete list... )

Otis Nixon didn't get a vote, as is right and proper, but neither did Mark Langston, and the only reason I can think of for that is that he must've pissed off a lot of reporters.

One More Baseball Item...

Over at dodger_thoughts, they were discussing a LA Times column about Shawn Green by Tim Brown, not so much about the content, but about the writing itself. There was one line that I liked a lot:

He [Green] is a good man whose price got too high, whose swing got too measured, whose bat got too unpredictable. The best players in the game, Beltre, for one, were getting $13 million a year, and Green, sadly for everyone, hasn't been one of them for a while.

Yeah, it looks like Green is gone, traded for two prospects who won't even be ready for prime time for at least another year, and the Dodgers will be picking up $8M dollars of Green's salary next season. My first thought is WTF? I'm sure Doogie views it as freeing up the other $8M of Green's salary for acquisitions, but most of the quality players are gone. Yeah, We picked up Kent and J.D. Drew, and Kent will likely be playing out of position. Drew has talent. He's also a dick. An injury prone dick. (Drew was originally drafted by the Phillies, but refused to sign with them, saying some very unflattering things about the organization and the team in the process. He later signed with the Cardinals. The first time the Cards came in to play the Phillies, Curt Schilling, then with the Phils, offered to welcome Drew to Philadelphia, with particular emphasis on giving him a worm's eye tour of the dirt in the batters box.) We still have no catcher, at least none that can hit major league pitching. We're putting a guy at first (Choi) who has was absolutely terrible once he put on the Blue. The pitching rotation consists of Penny, Weaver, and Pray for Rain. Color me unimpressed.

Sigh.