The Hall of Fame balloting broken down Zealot-styleā¦
New Hall of Famer Andre Dawsonās most compelling statistic:
Heās one of three major league players who has 400 homeruns and 300 stolen bases. The other two? Willie Mays and Barry Bonds.
Andre Dawsonās least compelling statistic (and the one you hear cited by his detractors ad nauseum):
His lifetime .323 OBP. Enough said.
The 2010 HOF candidate most deserving to get into the Hall of Fame but didnāt:
My opinion?? Bert Blyleven. Iāve been on his bandwagon for a few years now. Come on, vote him in already! He has two more years of eligibility left. The good news is that since 1999, when he got 14.1% of the vote, his percentage has gone up every year with the exception of 2007. I predict that weāll see Bert in the Hall next summer.
The reason Roberto Alomar didnāt get in his first year:
Three-fold. 1) the spitting incident didnāt help especially among the old guard of the BBWAA 2) the fact that some donāt want to vote anyone but the cream of the crop in their first of eligibility especially with reason #1 hanging around their necks and 3) Iāve heard this factoid bandied aboutā¦ that Alomar was pretty much done by the time he was 35 or 36. Yes, I knowā¦ he started out (full time) in the bigs when he was 20 and subsequently put in a good 17 years of service in the majors but that kind of thing sticks with writers, I guess.
Craziest Hall of Fame vote:
Pat Hentgen 1 vote. To be fair, Hentgen won a Cy Young and won one World Series game but with 131 wins and a 4.32 ERA that can take you only so far.
The āItās not crazy if there are two of usā award:
Eric Karros 2 votes.
and finally,
The 2010 candidate I thought was dissed this year:
Harold Baines. Should he have gotten in? I donāt know. But I was surprised that he barely hung on for next yearās ballot. Yes, Iām a Cub fan but Baines deserved more. An interesting stat: Baines had more career hits and more career rbis than any other HOF candidate.