Another Red Sox in the Hall!

Ok, so he won’t exactly be wearing a Red Sox hat on his plaque. But, Congratulations to Andre Dawson on his enshrinement!
As I mentioned earlier, and I’m sure you all already know, Andre played for two seasons in Boston at the end of his career. Unfortunately, I never got to see him play live, so I don’t get to add another Hall of Famer to my personal list (currently at seven). As I mentioned the other day, since his prime was a bit before my time, I can’t really argue or defend his election. He certainly put up some good numbers during his career. I don’t know whether he had the five dominant years I like, or not. As I said, I would have expected him to be elected by now if he had. But, the voters have spoken, and Andre deserves all the accolades he can be given.
Now, for the guys who didn’t get in? Bert Blyleven is the obvious “snub.” Getting this close almost guarantees he’ll make in next year. Nobody wants him to run out his eligibility having peaked at within a percent of making the cut. Frankly, I wouldn’t be shocked if he made it next year with a percentage in the eighties. He’ll be getting so much positive press in the next year, he’s be an easy call. Like Dawson, I don’t know that he deserves it. If he did, this would have been his year. There wasn’t a list of other people to take his votes away (a concept I don’t get). He had been getting some good press leading up, and still fell short. But, I’ll be happy to defer to people who saw him play.
Roberto Alomar was a little surprising to me. As I said the other day, he was the only guy of the ballot that would have gotten my vote. Like Blyleven, I assume he’ll get in next year. Alomar probably lost a few votes because people didn’t consider him a “first ballot” guy. Yet another concept that baffles me. If the guy’s not good enough to be a first-ballott Hall of Famer, why does he deserve to be in the Hall at all? I took a quick look at the Hall-of-Famers. Other than the Negro League guys, and some problems with the early voting, I would have no problem eliminating everyone from the Hall that didn’t get in on the first ballot. Are they baseball immortals or not? In any case, Alomar looks poised to make it in during his second try.
The rest of the ballot fell of quite a bit from the top three. Again, I probably wouldn’t have voted for any of the others myself. I was surprised that Edgar Martinez didn’t get more votes, but was fine with his results. Lee Smith was another mild surprise. If Mariano Rivera is supposed to be this mortal lock first balloter, Lee Smith can’t get 70%? Where’s the disconnect? (Not that I’d vote for either of them) I wouldn’t expect anyone else on the ballot to sneak their way in over the rest of their eligibility. We’ll have to see.
Notice how I turned the HOF announcement into two posts?