Many thanks to the record 518 participants in this ninth edition of the
STATLG-L Hall of Fame voting. The results are in the book … and nobody
won. None of the 30 players on this year’s Baseball Writers Association of
America ballot were named on the requisite 75% of the submitted votes.
Fact is, no one even came close. Only one player, Gary Carter, drew votes
from more than half the people who cast ballots, and fellow catcher Carlton
Fisk was the only other player named by even one-third of the
voters. Although the number of voters was appreciably higher than in any
of the previous (non-Web) elections, the number of players selected on each
ballot was much lower than ever before. The 518 voters placed their
checkmarks 1384 times, an average of just 2.67 selections per ballot. By
comparison, last season’s strong slate averaged 6.96 names per ballot, and
there were 5.55 names per ballot the previous year (another weak year in
which STATLG-L elected no one).
So the STATLG-L voters didn’t elect anyone to the Hall of Fame this year,
and the number of names per ballot was exceedingly low. Even so, the
rank-order of players, shown below, reveals some interesting contrasts to
the media hype and hoopla surrounding the "real" HOF vote. Media darling
Tony Perez finished fifth in our vote, drawing support from fewer than one
of every six participants. Jack Morris finished far behind another
first-timer, as Goose Gossage was one of just four players to receive as
many as a quarter of the votes. And a mere ten, count ’em, ten people
thought All-American boy Steve Garvey merited a plaque in
Cooperstown. Five of this year’s newcomers failed to draw the attention of
even one STATLG-L Hall of Fame voter.
I’m already looking forward to next year, when the STATLG-L HOF vote
celebrates its tenth anniversary with Dave Winfield, Don Mattingly, Lou Whitaker,
Dave Stewart, and Kirby Puckett looming on the horizon…
Player Name Votes Percent (389 required for election) Gary Carter 321 62.0% Carlton Fisk 221 42.7% Bert Blyleven 139 26.8% Rich Gossage 135 26.1% Tony Perez 80 15.4% Jim Rice 60 11.6% Jim Kaat 56 10.8% Luis Tiant 56 10.8% Tommy John 54 10.4% Bruce Sutter 47 9.1% Jack Morris 46 8.9% Dale Murphy 37 7.1% Keith Hernandez 33 6.4% Dave Concepcion 22 4.2% Ron Guidry 21 4.1% Dave Parker 20 3.9% Steve Garvey 10 1.9% Jeff Reardon 10 1.9% Bob Boone 4 0.8% Dave Henderson 3 0.6% Willie Wilson 3 0.6% Charlie Hough 2 0.4% Rick Sutcliffe 2 0.4% Hubie Brooks 1 0.2% Kent Hrbek 1 0.2% Bill Gullickson 0 0.0% Bruce Hurst 0 0.0% Steve Sax 0 0.0% Lonnie Smith 0 0.0% Bob Welch 0 0.0%
Neal Traven is the co-chair of the Statistical Analysis Committee of the
Society for American Baseball Research (SABR).
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