The results of the voting for the Major league Baseball Hall Of Fame in Cooperstown are in. The Baseball Writers Association of America elected Braves third-base great Chipper Jones, slugger Jim Thome , relief pitcher Trevor Hoffman and Montreal Expo legend Vladimir Guerrero, excellent ad deserving choices all.
Joe Morgan is happy tonight. The writers did not elect Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Manny Ramirez, Sammy Sosa or Gary Sheffield, steroid cheats all. Nor did any of them come particularly close to the 75% of ballots cast (a voter can select up to ten) necessary for enshrinement.
Ethics Alarms 
Cheaters never prosper. Hopefully, this will continue to be true of MLB, as it is as close as we come to an ethical professional sport.
Detroit’s Jack Morris and Alan Trammell were selected about a month ago by one of the Hall’s myriad veterans’ committees. It seems that this will be just the second time (1955) that six living players will be inducted, and all of them young enough to enjoy the honor for quite a few years.
And poor Edgar Martinez missed by just 20 votes, with some of them being withheld by idiots who voted for Bonds instead, showing more objections to the DH than to the Uber Cheaat who trashed baseball’s home run records beyond repair.
Good news indeed. If steroid players can be kept out, especially with so many older voters retiring, or being retired due to writing inactivity, the integrity of baseball will be all the better for it..
It would be even better if Edgar Martinez had made it in this year, but there is still next year for him. Those who disagree with the DH rule in the American League can bite me. Clue to all: If MLB names an annual playing award after a player, like “The Edgar Martinez Award” for example, you might want to seriously look at that player for the HOF. Whether you like the position he (mostly) played, or not.
Vlad the Warrior. First Russian first name in the HOF? I hope they have a case big enough to hold that huge bat he waved so menacingly at pitchers. Maybe they can have it wagging around inside the case in perpetuity.
I’ve always wondered about Trevor Hoffman. Did he juice or was he just genetically gifted with a super human body he took good care of. Given the era, I lean toward the former.
I’m still waiting for golf to look into Tiger Woods. He hasn’t been able to win much of anything since the tour began steroid testing. But I guess there was no doping policy in golf at the time.
Ivan Rodriguez just went in last yesr.
Hah. But Ivan is a standard issue Iberian name. Vladimir. Straight off the Steppes. Besides, i Spanish it sounds like Yvonne. Not Eyevan, as in Ivan the Terrible.
Jack this is offtopic and slightly irrational, but I dreamed that we went to lunch and with the meal you were drinking, like a lot. I know this is unlikely but if you could please just reassure me that you’re not getting wasted at lunchtime?
Be reassured. In fact, I can’t remember the last time I had an alcoholic beverage at lunch, and my guess is that my total consumption of alcoholic drinks in 2017 totaled maybe five beers and three or four gin and tonics. We don’t keep alcohol in the house.
I’ve done a lot worse things in people’s dreams than THAT.
thank you
But really it’s the lines of coke you snort at lunch that you need to cut back on.
But you rarely ever touch the devil’s liquid.
I heard a disturbing thing on the radio this morning, about the NBA making a deal to get a cut of GAMBLING revenues (or some money related to gambling). The voice said something about the NFL “already” having made such a deal (whatever it is, if it’s a deal concerning gambling, it’s a BAD deal). Now I am alarmed and worried that MLB will make their “deal.” I hope that I only imagined that I heard something on the radio.
Found a link more quickly than I expected – yes, VERY disturbing:
https://www.axios.com/nba-reveals-asking-price-for-lega-1516820664-7265cd56-1e48-4f73-b6c5-1922b7ecc67f.html
It’s worse than I first thought:
https://www.legalsportsreport.com/11651/nba-sportradar-sports-betting-deal/