Take a Peek at my Hall of Fame ballot

OK, gentlemen. I’m ready to mark my Hall of Fame ballot, and I promised that you’d hear my reasoning for each vote, so here goes. While the Baseball Writers Association of America allows 10 votes per ballot, only five players are getting mine (in alphabetical order): Bert Blyleven, Andre Dawson, Rickey Henderson, Jack Morris and Alan Trammell. Of those five, Henderson is on the ballot for the first time and the other four are holdovers.

Let’s address Henderson first because there is absolutely NO argument for leaving his name unchecked. He stole more bases, scored more runs and hit more lead-off home runs than any player in Major League Baseball history. He also collected over 3,000 hits, a “Go Directly to the Hall of Fame” card for every other player except Pete Rose – and that’s another story. Henderson had the perfect mix of speed and power. He was also a complete jerk, but since when did that keep anyone out of the Hall of Fame? With that said, Henderson will not be a unanimous selection because there are certain fossils out there who believe there is a distinction between “first ballot Hall of Famer” and “Hall of Famer.” That’s crap. Either a guy deserves to be in or he doesn’t. Period. Henderson’s numbers aren’t going to change. If you plan to vote for him next year, then he deserves your vote this year.

Blyleven is fifth on the all-time strikeouts list with 3,701 – behind only Nolan Ryan, Randy Johnson, Roger Clemens and Steve Carlton and ahead of Tom Seaver, Don Sutton, Gaylord Perry, Walter Johnson, Phil Neikro, Ferguson Jenkins and Bob Gibson, all Hall of Famers. I think Blyleven deserves to be in based on that stat alone. Strikeouts are the only out in baseball that a pitcher is solely responsible for, and only four guys ever did it better than the Dutchman did.

In addition, Blyleven is ninth in career shutouts with 60. Every pitcher with 50 or more is in the Hall of Fame – except Blyleven, of course.

Andre Dawson was the complete package – a five-tool player – before the artificial surface in Montreal took their toll on his knees. He was an excellent defensive outfielder with a strong arm, could hit for power and average (2,774 hits, .299 or better six times, 438 homers,1,591 RBIs) and swiped 314 bases (including 21 or more in seven straight seasons – 39 in 1982). Unfortunately, many of the voters remember the decrepit Dawson that hobbled around the Wrigley Field outfield later in his career. This guy is a Hall of Famer.

Finally, we come to two former Detroit Tigers. I’m going to pull out an old argument here, not because I’m whining but because it’s true (OK, I’m whining, too). If Jack Morris and Alan Trammell had worn pinstripes for as long as they wore Tiger stripes, they’d be in the Hall of Fame already. Anyone who watched the Tigers closely in the 1980s knows they both belong in Cooperstown.

Morris won 254 games, more than Hall of Famers Carl Hubbell, Sandy Koufax, Bob Gibson, Jim Bunning, Hal Newhouser and Bob Lemon, among others, and played for three World Series champions (Tigers, Twins, Jays). He was known as a pressure pitcher who was such a bulldog that he hurled 235+ innings 11 times. Hall of Fame baseball writer Peter Gammons, called Morris the “best of his time, especially when it counted.”

Morris was baseball’s winningest pitcher during a 14-year span from 1979-92, and the race wasn’t even close. Morris racked up 233 wins during that time, 41 better than Bob Welch, who was second-highest with 192. (That qualifies as “dominant.”) Morris also made 14 Opening Day starts. Only one pitcher made more than that – Tom Seaver, with 16. Much like Henderson, Morris was known for being cold and uncooperative with the media during his career, and he’s paying the price. If he had 300 wins it wouldn’t matter; but with 254, it does.

The exclusion of Trammell from the Hall – and the weak support he has received from the clueless BBWAA – drives me nuts me because I think he compares favorably with Ozzie Smith, who made it into the Hall on his first try. Trammell was the better hitter, Smith the better fielder – but the defensive gap is nowhere near the size of the offensive gap. Trammell had a better career average, more hits, more home runs and more RBIs – and those are supposedly the “glamour stats” when it comes to catching a voter's eye. But Tram didn’t do flips on the field or have a catchy nickname like “The Wizard of Oz.” So the voters have left him there – in Oz, that is. Put him in New York and he’d be spoken of with the same reverent tones as Derek Jeter. It’s a joke.

Among those that I didn’t vote for, I simply don’t think that Jim Rice and Lee Smith quite measure up – Rice wasn’t even the best outfielder in the Boston on many days (Fred Lynn and Dwight Evans stole the show many times) and Smith never struck me as one of the top relief pitchers in baseball. He blew a lot of saves, but he did manage to get the job done most of the time. Honestly, couldn’t we say the same thing about Todd Jones? And no one is claiming Jones belongs in the Hall.

Mark McGwire? That’s an entirely different can of worms. The stats are there, but because of the steroids cloud that hangs over his head, I’m hesitant. That may not be fair because nothing has ever been proven, but a friend of mine once reminded me that I’m voting for the Hall of Fame. So “maybe” means “no.” I agree.

What say you?