THE HALL OF FAME VOTING.

THE HALL OF FAME VOTING. I posted here just before the announcement of the results of this year’s voting for the baseball Hall of Fame. I noted there (link here) that one veteran sportswriter (Murray Chass) was so strongly opposed to “new-fangled” statistics that he had announced that he would vote only for Jack Morris until 75% of the sportswriters voting agreed with him that Morris should go in. (Statistics are not very kind to the case for Jack Morris). Each writer can vote for up to ten players. For the first time in years, no player was voted in by the writers. Looking at the voting results, there are two major divisions among the writers—the issue of the importance of statistics, especially “new-fangled” statistics, and the issue of whether players who had used steroids should be disqualified from the Hall. I could imagine that if voters who feel strongly insist on casting “bullet” ballots for their favorites, that it may be very difficult getting a 75% vote for any candidate in the near future.