Death From Above Posted January 9, 2014 Share Posted January 9, 2014 I'm going to bring all of this up the next time people in the Canadian hockey media (who want more attention for themselves) whine again that the hockey hall of fame should work more like baseball. Self-serving nonsense. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OSJ Posted January 9, 2014 Share Posted January 9, 2014 "It works"? Which of these two knuckleheads said that? Any voting system that omits the greatest hitter of all-time is seriously flawed. Personally, Bonds was very nice when I met him (a complete opposite of what I'd been told to expect), Roger Clemens was and is a complete douchenozzle, but to keep him out of the HOF is ludicrous. Randy Johnson will likely go in on the first ballot and he deliberately threw away half a season because he was "disrespected". To me, that's far more heinous an offense than sticking a needle in your ass. I don't care what you're using, you hit over 600 HRs you go in the HOF. For that matter, despite being a complete douche, Raffy still should go in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
muhammedboehm Posted January 9, 2014 Share Posted January 9, 2014 The funny thing is Wilbon has changed his tone so much over the last 24 hours listen to him on Dans radio show and we find out that Wilbon didn't know Dan filled out the ballet he just took the opion of the people into account Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OSJ Posted January 9, 2014 Share Posted January 9, 2014 Le Batard loses his ballot for life and is barred from the BBWAA for a year. On a related note (courtesy of Yahoo's Dave Brown): YOU'RE NOT ALLOWED TO RENT HERE ANYMORE! YEAHHHHHHHHHHHH! Good riddance to bad rubbish. Now, kicking out any writer that makes a sweeping generalization such as "I won't vote for anyone that played in the steroid era." would be an excellent next step. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cristobal Posted January 9, 2014 Share Posted January 9, 2014 Grew up 2 blocks from Wrigley. I never took an ounce of pleasure watching him hit for the Sux. Two blocks from Wrigley? How cool... Don't suppose you were in one of those apartments where you could watch the games from the upper floors? I personally can't think of anything cooler than watching a live MLB game from my bedroom window... Would've been amazing, but no. The neighborhood was less gentrified back then (the 80s) but even then, those apartments cost oodles, and we weren't rich. On another note, at least you never had to worry about Big Frank killing your team in the WS... ;-) Expect a goat's head in your mailbox... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe Lucia Posted January 9, 2014 Share Posted January 9, 2014 It's somewhat coincidental that on the day everyone was smashing the BBWAA's hypocrisy, Bill Conlin (who the BBWAA defended when molestation charges were brought against him) died. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jrag Posted January 9, 2014 Share Posted January 9, 2014 LeBatard's fellow voters are... nonplussed.... with his decision to give his ballot to Deadspin. Read here for some truly cringe-inducing statements, like: All in all, it just seems to me by undermining the process, Dan, you sold out your fellow members of the sportswriting fraternity. The top comment is golden. "Listen, I’m a rules guy too. But technically there aren’t any rules against turning over your Hall of Fame vote to the fans. And quite frankly it made the whole voting process a lot more exciting. Look at all the attention the Hall of Fame is getting right now. If somewhere down the road they change the rules and penalize guys for turning their votes over to the fans then I think it will be fair to completely discount and diminish anything Dan Le Batard ever did as a professional writer. But until that day comes I think it's safe to consider Dan one of the all-time greats." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
odessasteps Posted January 9, 2014 Share Posted January 9, 2014 It's somewhat coincidental that on the day everyone was smashing the BBWAA's hypocrisy, Bill Conlin (who the BBWAA defended when molestation charges were brought against him) died. Conlin didnt vote for some big name HOF on the first ballot. I think Nolan Ryan. I hold my hand over my coffee cup in his honor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cristobal Posted January 9, 2014 Share Posted January 9, 2014 Nolan Ryan is a guy who had a shit-ton of counting stats because he was a good pitcher for an exceedingly long career, but there's real arguments against him as an HOFer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
odessasteps Posted January 9, 2014 Share Posted January 9, 2014 Nolan Ryan is a guy who had a shit-ton of counting stats because he was a good pitcher for an exceedingly long career, but there's real arguments against him as an HOFer. Oh, i agree with that. You could say ryan was like a pitching Dave Kingman, given the K number coupled with the BB numbers. Tou could argue also that Ryan could be one of th HOFers already enshrined that is a PED user. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OSJ Posted January 9, 2014 Share Posted January 9, 2014 Nolan Ryan is a guy who had a shit-ton of counting stats because he was a good pitcher for an exceedingly long career, but there's real arguments against him as an HOFer. Oh, i agree with that. You could say ryan was like a pitching Dave Kingman, given the K number coupled with the BB numbers. Tou could argue also that Ryan could be one of th HOFers already enshrined that is a PED user. The pitching version of Dave Kingman? That's a bit harsh, but point taken. One thing you have to take into account with Ryan is that he spent at least 50% of his career pitching for teams that were not all that good. As far as the PRD using, nothing's been proven, and he may well be a genetic freak of some sort, but even if he were a user, Ryan was pretty much beloved by all throughout his career. I personally don't think that a player's personality should have a damn thing to do with whether or not they belong in the HOF, after all, everyone (myself included) loved Kirby Puckett until we found out what he was really like. Funny anecdote apropos of nothing, way back in the very early seventies a bunch of buddies and I were going to go to a game at the Kingdome for the first time. We had a choice of seeing one of the two Angels aces, and of course we opted to go the night Frank Tananna was pitching as he was obviously way better than Nolan Ryan was ever going to be... BTW: The Kingdome was the worst place in the world to watch a baseball game, absolutely awful in every respect. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OSJ Posted January 9, 2014 Share Posted January 9, 2014 Nolan Ryan is a guy who had a shit-ton of counting stats because he was a good pitcher for an exceedingly long career, but there's real arguments against him as an HOFer. I'm assuming that the "real arguments" would be Ks to Ws and W-L? His WAR puts him at 20th all-time and I think we can all agree that W-L is probably the worst single stat to evaluate a pitcher. Ryan played an extraordinarily long time and about half of his career was on fairly mediocre teams. Yes, he did allow a ton of walks, but when you get out of the inning with no damage, those walks really don't mean a lot. Is he a top-5 of all-time? Certainly not. Are there really legit arguments against him being in the HOF? Not really, when you look at the numbers closely. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ryan Posted January 10, 2014 Share Posted January 10, 2014 I tend to assume anyone who ever loved going to the Kingdome had one of the tiles fall off and hit them in the head. Edit: Holy shit, I didn't realize two people got killed fixing that monstrosity. Miller Parkesque sounding. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kuetsar Posted January 10, 2014 Share Posted January 10, 2014 Nolan Ryan is a guy who had a shit-ton of counting stats because he was a good pitcher for an exceedingly long career, but there's real arguments against him as an HOFer. I'm assuming that the "real arguments" would be Ks to Ws and W-L? His WAR puts him at 20th all-time and I think we can all agree that W-L is probably the worst single stat to evaluate a pitcher. Ryan played an extraordinarily long time and about half of his career was on fairly mediocre teams. Yes, he did allow a ton of walks, but when you get out of the inning with no damage, those walks really don't mean a lot. Is he a top-5 of all-time? Certainly not. Are there really legit arguments against him being in the HOF? Not really, when you look at the numbers closely. I agree, credible arguments against him top fifteen/twenty of all time, and if your a snobbish purist who insists that the HOF be Ruth/Cobb level only(depending on the player I fallen into that trap; lol we probably all have) there's a small case, but 300 wins and all time strikeouts leader is to impressive to keep out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OSJ Posted January 10, 2014 Share Posted January 10, 2014 I tend to assume anyone who ever loved going to the Kingdome had one of the tiles fall off and hit them in the head. Edit: Holy shit, I didn't realize two people got killed fixing that monstrosity. Miller Parkesque sounding. I can't imagine that ANYONE ever loved going to the Kingdome. Despite the hype, Seattle actually has less rain during baseball season than New York or Boston. Playing the game in a concrete box is an abomination. Fun fact, Dave Kingman lodged a ball in the ceiling that never came down. When they tore the thing down I was hoping someone would find it... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tabe Posted January 10, 2014 Share Posted January 10, 2014 I only went to the Kingdome once - for the final regular season Seahawks game - and, well, it was certainly an experience. My main memory, besides how loud it was and that it wasn't too bad for football, is how it felt like you needed rock climbing equipment to get to the upper levels. Thems were the steepest staircases of all-time, good grief. The main knock on Nolan Ryan is his ERA. Career 3.19 ERA, ERA+ of 112. The "he pitched for bad teams" thing is a bit overblown with him, just like it was waaaaaay overblown with Blyleven. His W/L isn't great - some of that his fault, some of it not. He won an ERA title while having an 8-16 record, for example and osted double digit loss totals for 12 straight full seasons (1981 excepted) while never having an ERA over 4.00. To me, he was a no-doubt HOFer but his greatness has certainly been overstated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OSJ Posted January 10, 2014 Share Posted January 10, 2014 I only went to the Kingdome once - for the final regular season Seahawks game - and, well, it was certainly an experience. My main memory, besides how loud it was and that it wasn't too bad for football, is how it felt like you needed rock climbing equipment to get to the upper levels. Thems were the steepest staircases of all-time, good grief. The main knock on Nolan Ryan is his ERA. Career 3.19 ERA, ERA+ of 112. The "he pitched for bad teams" thing is a bit overblown with him, just like it was waaaaaay overblown with Blyleven. His W/L isn't great - some of that his fault, some of it not. He won an ERA title while having an 8-16 record, for example and osted double digit loss totals for 12 straight full seasons (1981 excepted) while never having an ERA over 4.00. To me, he was a no-doubt HOFer but his greatness has certainly been overstated. Well, for one, strikeouts are greatly overrated. An out is an out and if you can get the batter to dribble a first pitch weakly to short you are likely going to be more useful in the long haul than the guy that has to work a full count and finally get the K. In terms of HOF pitchers, I don't think Ryan even makes the top 10, but he certainly belongs. Extra points for kicking Robin Ventura's ass... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SorceressKnight Posted January 13, 2014 Share Posted January 13, 2014 Nolan Ryan is a guy who had a shit-ton of counting stats because he was a good pitcher for an exceedingly long career, but there's real arguments against him as an HOFer. Oh, i agree with that. You could say ryan was like a pitching Dave Kingman, given the K number coupled with the BB numbers. Tou could argue also that Ryan could be one of th HOFers already enshrined that is a PED user. I didn't hear much about PED user- but supposedly, in the late-'80s, Ryan was apparently known around the league as...having learned from Mike Scott in the Astros' staff, shall we say. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tabe Posted January 13, 2014 Share Posted January 13, 2014 I didn't hear much about PED user- but supposedly, in the late-'80s, Ryan was apparently known around the league as...having learned from Mike Scott in the Astros' staff, shall we say. I don't buy that. Ryan threw basically two pitches - fastball and curveball, neither of which is helped by the scuffing that Scott practiced. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RIPPA Posted January 23, 2014 Share Posted January 23, 2014 So umm... In conjunction with the Hall of Fame, the six members of the class of 2014 have made their selections for the logo inclusion on their Hall of Fame plaque: Bobby Cox – Atlanta; Tom Glavine – Atlanta; Tony La Russa – no logo; Greg Maddux – no logo; Frank Thomas – Chicago White Sox; and Joe Torre –New York Yankees. I can kinda see La Russa capless since you can argue between his As and Cards stints. But Maddux not being a Brave is wacky. The only thing I can think of is he didn't want to offend the Cubs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ryan Posted January 24, 2014 Share Posted January 24, 2014 He was in Chicago 10 seasons and Atlanta 11, so it's pretty close. A bunch of those were after the Braves. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Posted January 24, 2014 Share Posted January 24, 2014 Reading this article, I was shocked that Yogi didn't go in as a Yankee (he's logo-less). Can only assume he snubbed them because of his heat with Steinbrenner. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EdA Posted January 24, 2014 Share Posted January 24, 2014 Reading this article, I was shocked that Yogi didn't go in as a Yankee (he's logo-less). Can only assume he snubbed them because of his heat with Steinbrenner. Yogi was elected to the HOF before Steinbrenner even bought the Yankees, so no. But Yogi was a coach with the Mets when he was elected so odds are good he went in with no logo to make nice with both teams. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
odessasteps Posted July 26, 2014 Share Posted July 26, 2014 New voting procedures https://baseballhall.org/news/press-releases/hall-fame-announces-changes-voting-process-recently-retired-players-effective Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
muhammedboehm Posted July 26, 2014 Share Posted July 26, 2014 Story isn't loading for me anyone else having troubles? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts