On Monday we announced the results of our first ever SB Nation Baseball Hall-of-Fame voting. Bert Blyleven was the only person to appear on enough ballots -- at least 75% of them -- to secure enshrinement. Roberto Alomar fell just one vote short of the magic number, while should-be slam-dunk cases like Alan Trammell, Tim Raines, and Barry Larkin fell well short of the requisite number of votes.
Fortunately, the Amazin' Avenue community had an opportunity to succeed (in a fairly meaningless, token way) where our network of bloggers mostly failed (and where the BBWAA is almost sure to bungle things beyond comprehension). We opened the ballots to our readership and received 117 responses in a couple of days. Here are the results.
| Player | % of Ballots | # of Ballots |
|---|---|---|
| Roberto Alomar | 85.47 | 100 |
| Bert Blyleven | 82.05 | 96 |
| -- | -- | -- |
| Tim Raines | 71.79 | 84 |
| Barry Larkin | 68.38 | 80 |
| Mark McGwire | 58.97 | 69 |
| Alan Trammell | 57.26 | 67 |
| Edgar Martinez | 55.56 | 65 |
| Andre Dawson | 35.90 | 42 |
| Fred McGriff | 21.37 | 25 |
| Don Mattingly | 17.95 | 21 |
| Lee Smith | 17.95 | 21 |
| Jack Morris | 17.09 | 20 |
| Dale Murphy | 15.38 | 18 |
| Dave Parker | 7.69 | 9 |
| Robin Ventura | 7.69 | 9 |
| Andres Galarraga | 5.13 | 6 |
| Harold Baines | 5.13 | 6 |
| Todd Zeile | 4.27 | 5 |
| Kevin Appier | 2.56 | 3 |
| Ellis Burks | 0.85 | 1 |
| Eric Karros | 0.85 | 1 |
| Pat Hentgen | 0.85 | 1 |
Eighty-eight votes were required to reach the 75% mark. Raines fell just four votes shy; Larkin eight. Larkin and Trammell are among the half-dozen or so best shortstops ever to play, with 68.8 and 66.8 career WAR, respectively. These two -- along with Blyleven, Alomar, and Raines -- deserve to be counted among the best in the game's history and should be in the Hall of Fame. It's possible that none of them will be -- at least not this year -- when the BBWAA announces their 2010 selections later today.
Here are some BBWAA writers who get it and don't make vacuous statements like "those who truly watched jack morris know they were watching a hall of famer."
Uhh, I'm sure there are others, and I'll update this list as I find them.
12:45pm: Peter Gammons voted the same as me with one exception: Andre Dawson swapped in for Edgar Martinez.