Hall of Shame

I'm going to be honest with you, for as much as we talk about football on this site, baseball is easily my favorite sport. I guess I just fall into that nostalgic American Pastime crap where baseball is on the same level as democracy, and the pursuit of happiness.

It is because of this love that I have for the great game of baseball, and the lore that follows it, that I have an absolute disdain for its Hall of Fame.

Monday, Rickey Henderson and Jim Rice were elected to the Hall of Fame, Henderson on his first year of eligibility, and Rice on his 15th and last.

Here's my issue: Rickey Henderson received a stellar percentage of the vote (94.8 percent), which as you can guess is very high. However, that means that 28 voters, 28 people whose job it is to follow baseball and decide who gets enshrined did not vote for Henderson.

In fact, no one has ever been named unanimously. Pick a name, any name: Ruth, Williams, Mays, Aaron, Gibson, DiMaggio, Mantle - nobody has ever entered unanimously. I'm going to let that settle for a moment.

Someone actually did not vote in Mickey Mantle.

Someone did not vote for then-Home Run King Henry Aaron.

Someone didn't vote for Willy Mays - a person many believe to be the best player ever.

Rickey Henderson is the greatest baserunner and run-scorer of all time, yet 28 people failed to see that.

Granted, he is IN, it's not like he was left out of the Hall, but it certainly doesn't look good for baseball when it's Hall of Fame voters contain people that don;t actually vote for the best players.


(Side Note: How Awesome will Rickey's Hall of Fame speech be? Will he invite Jon Olerud, or does he still not know who he is? Will he grab the mic walk right in front of Lou Brock and tell him he's better again? We'll find out in July)