HOF Class of 2013: Modern Players Shut Out Including
Jeff Bagwell, Craig Biggio

For just the eighth time since voting began, the Baseball Writers Association did not elect a single person to the Hall of Fame in the 2013 class. That means both Craig Biggio and Jeff Bagwell will have to wait another year.

Biggio led all vote-getters with 68.2 percent of the vote, failing to make the hallowed ground by a mere 39 votes. That means all those silly people who believe in this "first-ballot" guy meant Biggio has to wait another year.

Jack Morris finished second with 67.7 percent, not going up or down from last year, while Bagwell once again made gains up to 59.6 percent this year. Mike Piazza trailed Bagwell at 57.8 percent and looks like he should get in eventually. Tim Raines rounded out the top five with 52.2 percent of the vote.

The biggest travesties are Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens falling short of 40 percent of the vote. Two of the greatest players in the history of the game shut out? That's a travishamockery if I've ever seen one.

It appears that Sammy Sosa will never get in, which I'm also not okay with. The man hit 600 home runs. Curt Schilling got more votes than Sosa, and I think he's got a much weaker HOF case. Was Fred McGriff a better hitter than Sosa just because he hit 30 home runs each year? Was he ever as breathtaking as Sosa?

I think that Sosa is now in with McGwire and even Roger Maris as men who will be famous in baseball history but not be Hall of Famers. Except I'm not sure that Sosa fits with those other two. Maybe I'm being too soft on the steroids guys, and you can certainly disagree with me.

Next year, though, Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine go on the ballot. Everyone today said there are no questions about either of them, but how long did they play? Shouldn't we suspect them if they're going to shut out everyone else?

The answer is no. Maddux is as much a Hall of Famer as Roger Clemens, Barry Bonds, Mike Piazza, Jeff Bagwell and Craig Biggio. Glavine is there too. The writers will not elect 10 men next summer, which means guys will have to unfairly wait year after year for a call that they should have gotten this time around.

It's a shame. It's a shame we knew was coming though, so there's no surprise to it. Maybe when I get a vote in 10 years, I can help rectify that. If Bonds and Clemens are still on the ballot then, I'm going to be even more incensed than I am now.

Here's the complete list of vote-getters from BBWAA.

Name Votes (Pct.) Yrs on ballotCraig Biggio388 (68.2%)1Jack Morris385 (67.7%)14Jeff Bagwell339 (59.6%)3Mike Piazza329 (57.8%)1Tim Raines297 (52.2%)6Lee Smith272 (47.8%)11Curt Schilling221 (38.8%)1Roger Clemens214 (37.6%)1Barry Bonds206 (36.2%)1Edgar Martinez204 (35.9%)4Alan Trammell191 (33.6%)12Larry Walker123 (21.6%)3Fred McGriff118 (20.7%)4Dale Murphy106 (18.6%)15Mark McGwire96 (16.9%)7Don Mattingly75 (13.2%)13Sammy Sosa71 (12.5%)1Rafael Palmeiro50 (8.8%)3Bernie Williams19 (3.3%)2Kenny Lofton18 (3.2%)1Sandy Alomar Jr.16 (2.8%)1Julio Franco6 (1.1%)1David Wells5 (0.9%)1Steve Finley4 (0.7%)1Shawn Green2 (0.4%)1Aaron Sele1 (0.2%)1Jeff Cirillo0 (0%)1Royce Clayton0 (0%)1Jeff Conine0 (0%)1Roberto Hernandez0 (0%)1Ryan Klesko0 (0%)1Jose Mesa0 (0%)1Reggie Sanders0 (0%)1Mike Stanton0 (0%)1Todd Walker0 (0%)1Rondell White0 (0%)1Woody Williams0 (0%)1

Read The Full Article:
http://www.crawfishboxes.com/2013/1/9/3855936/hof-class-of-2013-modern-players-sh
ut-out-including-jeff-bagwell

Add to del.icio.us   Digg this   Post to Furl   Add to reddit   Add to myYahoo!