MLB Haul of Fame

the results of the most recent hall of fame voting were released earlier today with reliever goose gossage the only player who earned an induction. like always, there were quite a few notable players who were not elected. jim rice fell 16 votes short in his second to last year of eligibility. andre dawson and bert blyleven also received a healthy share of votes but ultimately missed the cut. mark mcgwire's stay in baseball purgatory is extended thanks in part to steroid use and not being here to talk about the past. and in his first year of candidacy, tim raines only gained a quarter of the votes. i don't have any vested interest in any of the other players but as a huge fan of tim raines and fair weather fan of crack, i'm hopeful he eventually gets in.

anyways, i enjoy baseball hall of fame voting because it always elicits spirited debate, prolonged arguments, and some good old-fashioned outrage. since i desperately strive to fit in, i found two things particularly distressing about this year's hall of fame voting. first, frank thomas conspicuously did not receive a single vote. and second, chuck knoblauch received a single vote. since frank thomas is still an active player, i can excuse those voters who decided not to bend the rules even for humanity's greatest baseball player. although i'm sure cooperstown would have let it slide this one time, i understand. however, the lone voter who cast a hall of fame vote for chuck knoblauch will receive no such empathy. but instead of complaining further about this farce, i decided to wait until this voter had a chance to explain themself. as such, i sent an email politely asking for the reasoning they used and the following was their insightful response.


all right, this is obviously not a real letter. i actually have no idea who voted for chuck knoblauch, but i assume it was someone who mistakenly thought it was a ballot for the 1991 american league rookie of the year and not the baseball hall of fame. because otherwise, it just makes no sense. at best, chuck knoblauch was an average baseball player over his career. and according to both the mitchell report and jason grimsley, he cheated just to be average. and despite this, somewhere there is a card carrying member of the baseball writers association of america running and writing amok who legitimately thinks chuck knoblauch is a hall of famer. unfortunately, we'll probably never know who cast this vote or what warped logic was behind it. maybe it's for the best. well, it's for the best if you like amok being run and written. i do not.