{"id":615,"date":"2015-07-26T16:44:57","date_gmt":"2015-07-26T20:44:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sullyonsports.com\/?p=615"},"modified":"2019-06-26T16:52:13","modified_gmt":"2019-06-26T20:52:13","slug":"how-to-fix-the-baseball-hall-of-fames-voting-problem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sullyonsports.com\/?p=615","title":{"rendered":"How To Fix the Baseball Hall of Fame’s Voting Problem"},"content":{"rendered":"

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It’s that time of year; the time where we pay homage to baseball’s best all-time players with a Hall of Fame ceremony. \u00a0Sunday will mark the 80th Hall of Fame class in the establishment’s history, and the second year in a row in which there were at least three player inductees. This season, the honorees will include all-time greats Pedro Martinez, Randy Johnson, Craig Biggio, and John Smoltz. \u00a0Each year, the BBWAA’s (Baseball Writers Association of America) 549 voting members vote on the ballot, and while they get it right more often than they don’t, that doesn’t mean that the voting process is necessarily effective.<\/p>\n

For those who are unaware, here are some of the rules for Baseball Hall of Fame voting. \u00a0The 549 members of the BBWAA are allowed to vote for 10 former players\u00a0per year for the Hall of Fame, and those players need to have played in Major League Baseball for at least 10 years and been retired for at least five years. \u00a0If a former player has been deceased for at least six months, he can also be eligible for induction. \u00a0Players need 75% of the BBWAA vote for induction, and those who receive less than 5% of the vote are eliminated from induction.<\/p>\n

If a player is not disqualified but does not receive the 75% necessary for enshrinement after ten years on the ballot, he can be considered by something that was called the Veterans Committee every third year. \u00a0Notable former players inducted by the Veterans Committee include Ron Santo (2012), Orlando Cepeda (1999) and Jim Bunning (1996). \u00a0The Veterans Committee can also elect managers, umpires and executives, as it did with Joe Torre, Tony La Russa, and Bobby Cox last year. \u00a0However, this committee was broken into three committees in 2010: the pre-Integration Era Committee (1876-1946), the Golden Era Committee (1947-1972) and the Expansion Era Committee (1973-present).<\/p>\n

But this process doesn’t work. \u00a0You may have heard the stories about how a sizable portion of the voters simply do not follow the game, and have not followed the game for a long period of time. \u00a0Here’s an example I found: ESPN’s Dan Graziano. \u00a0Graziano reached his 10-year requirement by covering the then-Florida Marlins from 1996-1999 for The Palm Beach Post and the Yankees from 2000-2008 for The Star-Ledger. \u00a0After that, he spent two years as an NFL writer for AOL Fan House and, since 2011, has been ESPN.com’s NFC East Blogger.<\/p>\n

He hasn’t covered the game in seven years.<\/p>\n

In light of this story, here are some proposals to fix the issues with the Hall of Fame voting in baseball.<\/p>\n

1. Let the Writers Do What They Want with Their Ballots<\/p>\n

I thought of this in light of something that happened last year. \u00a0ESPN’s Dan Le Batard, who had a Hall of Fame vote in 2014, did not decide to use it himself. \u00a0Instead, he gave it to Deadspin<\/a>, a site that has had many a tussle with ESPN over the years<\/a>. \u00a0Deadspin then let its readers vote yes or no for a player to be in the Hall of Fame, with the top 10 vote-getters being submitted on Le Batard’s, and Deadspin’s, ballot.<\/p>\n