Baseball Hall of Fame

Cal Ripken Jr. and Tony Gwynn were elected into the Baseball HoF yesterday, much to no suprise. Mark McGwire finished much worse than any of us thought, due to the steroid controversey.

Several ballots were sent in blank. Had just 2 more voters voted for Cal Ripken, he would have had the largest vote total ever, exceding Tom Seaver.

Listening to the Jim Rome show yesterday afternoon, one Baseball writer talked about how he would never vote for first year eligible players as he feels NO ONE should be a unanimous choice.

Idiot.

Why not vote for Goose Gossage, Jack Morris, Bert Blyleven or another non-first year eligible player than?

In the army, I earned the Expert Infantryman's Badge on my first attempt. It's a grueling set of tasks over a 4-5 day period of time. Some evaluators were absolutely horrendous, with failure rates at a station reaching more than 50%. We called them "badge protectors".

No one like a badge protector, as a matter of fact...they suck. When I evaluated tasks as a young EIB holder, I held the standard in high regards and did not let anyone "slide". But I was not a badge protector.

Baseball writers who are so strongly filled with ego need to be stripped of their ballots. If you do not vote, you do not get a ballot. It should be that simple.

Hall of Fame protectors suck...more so than badge protectors.