Run into some old friends from another group or board? Want to do a little schmoozing, talk over old times? Or just some off topic stuff, then this is the place.
On his 14th time on the ballot, Bert Blyleven has been elected to baseball's Hall of Fame. Blyleven received 79.7 percent of the votes cast by baseball writers, meaning that he will become the fourth Twins player to be enshrined.
From what I've been reading, there seems to be a pretty vocal group of baseball fans that don't like this year's inductees. Most admit that Alomar played like a HOFer but seem to think that he shouldn't get in because he wasn't exactly Mr. Personality (some would even call him a scumbag). Stupid.
There seems to be a lot of trash talking about Blyleven getting in. I'm not an intense hardcore baseball fan and Blyleven played before I really started paying attention, but his stats don't lie. He put up HOF-caliber numbers. So why in the hell didn't he get in sooner, and why are so many people #### on him now?
HornedMessiah wrote:There seems to be a lot of trash talking about Blyleven getting in. I'm not an intense hardcore baseball fan and Blyleven played before I really started paying attention, but his stats don't lie. He put up HOF-caliber numbers. So why in the hell didn't he get in sooner, and why are so many people #### on him now?
Blyleven misses a lot of the criteria that have traditionally been used. Not enough wins, not enough all star teams, etc. Where he has benefited is from the newer advanced stats that show that he was really good, just not always on good teams.
glg wrote:
Blyleven misses a lot of the criteria that have traditionally been used. Not enough wins, not enough all star teams, etc. Where he has benefited is from the newer advanced stats that show that he was really good, just not always on good teams.
And that's how it should be for every HoF. Certain stats don't tell the whole truth unless put into context. Bert played for some really bad teams and didn't get very good run support. He did his job in that he kept his team in the game. But he had no control over how many runs his team mates got for him. Should he -- or any other pitcher -- be punished for that? I heard this week that if Bert'd had the run support that Jack Morris had, he would have won 331 games.
As for Mr Personality types, who cares? It's their performance on the field that should determine whether they get in or not. Anyone remember Ty Cobb? He was rather surly and played a bit dirty, but he's in the Hall and he's considered one of the best players of all time.
