The Hall of Fame voting is fine
With a few unfortunate exceptions, the Hall of Fame voting process is the best option we have
Congrats to Ichiro Suzuki, CC Sabathia and Billy Wagner on their election to the National Baseball Hall of Fame. They join Dave Parker and Dick Allen in the Class of 2025. While the majority of the discussion is correctly on the playing careers of these legends, once again there is an outrage over some of the voting results (this year, a player needed to be selected on 75% of 394 returned ballots, or 296 votes.
In his 10th and final year on the ballot, closer Billy Wagner got 82.5% of the vote after getting 10.5% in his first year.
Starting pitcher CC Sabathia earned induction on the first ballot with 86.8% of the vote.
Outfielder Dave Parker was a Veterans Committee Selection. He was on the writer’s ballot from 1997 to 2011 but topped out at 24.5% of the vote in 1998. His Veterans Era ballot was the 4th time he’d been considered by that committee.
1B/3B/OF Dick Allen was also a Veterans Committee Selection. He was on the writer’s ballot from 1983 to 1997 and had a high water mark of 18.9% in 1996. His Veterans Era selection was on his 7th nomination by that committee.
Outfield Ichiro Suzuki was a near-unanimous first-ballot choice, falling one vote shy with 393/394 votes, or 99.7%. UHOH
So now the full weight of baseball outrage is centered on the one person who didn’t vote for Ichiro. But you’re wasting your breath. For all its flaws, the voting process for the National Baseball Hall of Fame is still the best of all the major sports. Have you met baseball fans? Or sports fans in particular? They can’t agree on anything. Batting average matters! No it doesn’t! The pitch clock saved baseball! No, it’s hurting pitchers! The DH is not real baseball! Pitchers hitting is so boring!
Hell, we can’t even get 100% of humans to agree the Earth is round. People, who can easily go see the curvature of the Earth on a simple hot air balloon ride, will claim it’s all some great NASA conspiracy to… I don't know what their reason is exactly, and I don’t rightly care.
Should Ichiro be a hall of famer? Yes. Is he a hall of famer? Yes. End of discussion. I don’t know who didn’t vote for them. I don’t know his motivations for doing so. How he saw something different than 393 of his peers did is something only he can explain. But a hall of famer is a hall of famer. When they hang your plaque up in the gallery, they don’t put the 75% guys at knee height and the 95% guys at eye level. They don’t make the Era Committee guys sit in a side section off stage at the induction ceremony. You get voted into the hall of fame, you are 100% in regardless of how many voters disagree with that idea.
But the idea with the BBWAA is that you get a large pool of experienced individuals (minimum of 10 years actively covering baseball) to make their selections from a pool of players that become eligible every year, plus any holdovers from previous ballots. Unlike American voters, it’s clear that each generation of baseball writer is more educated and better equipped for this task than the generation before. They have more information available to them (including advanced statistics and, more importantly, the significance of what those numbers mean). They have 100 years of past votes as a guide for their own choices.
They represent a more and more diverse population with each new voter. In 1936, the 226 voters who chose the first class were a bunch of tobacco stained, stubborn white men from east of the Mississippi River, some of whom were born when Abe Lincoln was president. Now we have millennials and boomers, Gen X and soon Gen Z will be joining the ranks. Women vote. Minorities vote. East coasters, west coasters, people born outside of the US. We have talented writers and media members who can present a coherent case for or against a wide array of baseball players. There’s things like the JAWS score, WAR, Peak Years vs Overall Comparisons.
Like anything relying on voting, especially with such a high bar to clear to earn induction, it’s not perfect. Human bias is always there. There are high profile examples of writers holding a grudge against certain players based purely on their personal interactions with said player. Racism was once a major impediment to players getting higher vote totals. The Negro Leagues were alive and well into the 1940s, yet no Negro League alumni were enshrined until 1971 with Satchel Paige. In 1962, 36 voters did not see Jackie Robinson as a hall of famer. Martin Luther King, Jr. was just starting the Civil Rights Movement then. Of course a no-doubt decision like putting Jackie Robinson in the hall of fame wasn’t going to have unanimous support in 1962.
And what about the loud group of fans who want Pete Rose in? My question on that is… what would the general feeling be if he had been eligible and inducted on the first ballot in 1992 when he was 5 years retired because of his amazing playing career. And then everything comes out, the gambling on his team’s games, the sexual relationship with a minor, and I’m sure I’m forgetting something. Would that make the hall and BBWAA look worse or better than how it looks now with his indefinite ban now keeping him out even posthumously? It’s an imperfect exercise with no concrete right answer.
But a Hall of Famer is not a mathematic equation. There’s no formula for automatic induction. It’s an inexact science of statistical analysis, eye test and personal criteria. The fact we agree on anyone getting 75% is impressive, especially with this new era of voters. From 1985 to 2013, there were only 3 instances of three players getting voted in. Since 2014, 7 classes have had 3 or more, including 3 classes with 4 inductees. That’s 21% of writer-inducted hall of famers in the Hall of Fame coming in the past decade. Things are going well.
But yes, the 50% guys, the 40% guys, by very nature are the ones that drive the most passionate arguments. You’re talking half on one side, half on the other. Today’s lightning rods, aside from PED guys, were Andruw Jones (66.2%) and Chase Utley (39.8%). You know how I know people are arguing with their hearts as much as their brains? Because I would too. If it were up to me, Will Clark and Tim Hudson would be in. They aren’t. No amount of statistical analysis, contemporary comparisons with other Hall of Famers or social media smugness will change that. I accept that they’re in the Graig Mantle Hall of Fame, but not the national one.
So let’s put away the pitchforks. The voting is working as intended. While I can’t think of a reason anyone would not vote for Ichiro, I also know 393/394 voters of a diverse group of writers did vote for him. And if one guy wants to make some kind of statement about group think, or small hall, or whatever, that’s his right. He has the same credentials to qualify for a vote as all the other voters. I don’t agree with him. But I can’t take his vote away for it. Where’s the line? We can agree Ichiro should be unanimous, and Randy Johnson and Greg Maddux and Hank Aaron. Duh. What if someone didn’t vote for Craig Biggio or Billy Wagner? Do we take their vote away since they didn’t see a man voted into the hall as a hall of famer?
With hindsight comes clarity. Dick Allen and Dave Parker are deserving hall of famers, even if they weren’t appreciated in their first run on ballots. Those are oversights that have been corrected. Hopefully one day Lou Whitaker is added to that list. But we can’t change what’s done. We can only look to be better going forward. And I’d say we’re doing a pretty damn good job these days. Calm down and enjoy some highlights of these brand new immortals.