Fab Five Worthy of Hall

Stan McNeal - SportingNews.com

A tip for Roberto Alomar and Bert Blyleven: Do not stray far from your phones on Jan. 5. The call from the Hall of Fame will be coming that morning. I am sure of it. Well, pretty sure.

I was sure last year, too, and both came up a handful of votes shy. For them to be denied was as surprising as learning Andre Dawson would be the only player inducted in the class of 2010 by the Baseball Writers' Association of America.

That was my first year of voting, and I marked an "X "by the names of six players. Dawson was not one of them. A .279 career average didn't seem worthy, but the Hawk didn't need my vote. Good for him.

This year, five players got my "X": Alomar, Blyleven, Barry Larkin, Tim Raines and first-timer Jeff Bagwell. Explanations are in order:

• Alomar was the best all-around second baseman since Joe Morgan but somehow fell eight votes short on his first try. Let's hope the spitting incident -- ugly, indeed, but long ago forgiven by the umpire involved -- will not hold him back in turn two.

• Blyleven ranks fifth all-time in strikeouts and 14th in innings, and he won 287 games with a 3.31 ERA. Even more impressive was his presence. Says former manager Tom Kelly: "He was one of those players who raised the game when he was on the field. It's hard to describe, but players and managers understand. When he was pitching, the enthusiasm of the fans was different. He oozed competitiveness."

Also hard to explain is why Blyleven's vote totals have risen from 14.1 percent to 74.2 percent since 1999 even though he hasn't pitched in the majors since 1992. But let's try: Some voters vote for the maximum number (10) of players every year. Because ballots change every year, the 10th "most deserving" player one year might not be top 10 in another year.

That sort of leads to what was the toughest part of my voting this time. If I voted for six players last year, would not voting for all six this time be like admitting a mistake? It isn't like they have done anything on the field to hurt their candidacies in the past year. Or could I justify not voting for them again as having learned from my fellow voters? We're always learning, trying to improve. Right?

Well, two of the six didn't get my vote this time: Mark McGwire and Edgar Martinez. McGwire lost my vote in January when he admitted he used steroids. That erased any sliver of a doubt that he cheated. As for Martinez, I've changed my mind. Last year, his .418 on-base percentage, .312 career average and the fact he was one of the most productive righthanded hitters of his era wooed me. But this year, 2,247 hits, 309 homers and just one top-five MVP finish don't seem quite enough for a guy who was primarily a DH.

• Bagwell was the only one of 19 first-time candidates to warrant my support. As I previously wrote, Bagwell was much more than a slugger and he was a heck of a slugger. This stat is convincing enough: He was one of 12 players to hit at least 400 homers with at least a .408 on-base percentage, and all seven who are eligible are in the Hall of Fame (the others are Albert Pujols, Frank Thomas, Barry Bonds and Manny Ramirez).

• Larkin helped change the shortstop position because he was one of the first to dominate offensively as well as defensively. As his former teammate Eric Davis told Sporting News last year, Larkin was the Derek Jeter of his time, only he played in Cincinnati.

• Raines was the toughest call mainly because he doesn't pass the eye test. But he played 23 seasons, a plus in my book especially when you aren't a lefthanded reliever. More important, though overshadowed by Ricky Henderson, Raines was a dominant leadoff hitter. He is fifth all-time in stolen bases, and the four players ahead of him are in the Hall of Fame. Raines scored 100-plus runs six times and finished with a .294 batting average and .385 on-base percentage.

(Obligatory) steroids footnote: Rafael Palmeiro has Hall-worthy numbers but was caught using performance-enhancing drugs, and I will not vote for anyone who has admitted to or been caught using PEDs. That is cheating, and Hall voting guidelines include "character, integrity and sportsmanship" as considerations.

Final fun fact: If Blyleven or any other starter is elected, he will become the first starting pitcher voted in by the baseball writers since Nolan Ryan in the previous century. Or, to be more precise, 1999.

Photo: Rick Dikeman

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