My 2021 Baseball HOF Ballot

Before I begin, as I was preparing and researching for this column, I noticed that I screwed up last years baseline. The reason I use a baseline is to stack the players I am putting on my ballot against the others on the ballot and simply saying: are they better than this group? If the answer is yes, they are a HOF’er (simple right? I even screwed it up!), if no, they are either an honorable mention, on the baseline itself, or in a white void in between the baseline and immortality. Where my mistake happened was electing three players that were on my baseline (Pettitte, Jeff Kent, and Larry Walker), by electing them, I messed with the baseline (I’ll blame it on 2020…), so apologies. I’ll be better!  

Looking over this years’ ballot, while continuing to realize that voting for the Hall of Fame should be as objective as possible (difficult task, but at least I’m making progress compared to some of the BBWAA), and sorting out the 2021 baseline, I’ve come to the conclusion that this years’ class could be monumental. For the steroid era, for sabermetrics, for every fan, and for the game moving forward. The Hall of Fame is at a crossroads with this years’ ballot. I explained this in great detail on this episode of my podcast.

The more I look at the ballot, look at the times the country and baseball world has faced recently, it continues to be a difficult task to come to a conclusion as to who should be immortalized this July. Do you through caution to the wind and forget everything that has happened with Bonds, Clemmons, and Schilling just focusing on their baseball careers? Do you make a statement like Bill Madden and Ken Rosenthal questioning your vote entirely? Or do you continue to try to walk the imaginary line picking and choosing where you personally draw the line? 

It is next to impossible to come up with the right answer. For me, I’m somewhere in the middle of only using a players baseball career and like Madden and Rosenthal throwing the ballot in the garbage and rethinking the voting process entirely. There is a problem with the system or lack there of when voting for the Hall. It’s a paradox. The outcome is completely subjective when the people voting for the baseball immortality are objective baseball writers. Everyone who thinks about putting out a ballot or who has an actual ballot are completely subjective and we draw our lines whether we chose like a kindergartener holding an expo marker. There is no rhyme or reason for it, (even if we truly believe there is) it’s all made up from how we came into the game, and the way we think the game should be played and represented.

I say all of this to make a point of this being the last year the BBWAA and the rest of the baseball world use the current voting system in place. Take 2021 to make a new system that factors in all of the clauses that have plagued writers when choosing who to put on the ballot so we can clearly address those in question, and if need be, hold them accountable. 2022 will have even more problems with the arrival of A-Rod and Big Papi, along with Schilling with two years to go, and Bonds/Clemmons last year. Make a stand if you want to this year, I’m still going to vote because I do enjoy having that conversation and being a little kid again arguing about the game I love and my viewpoint on it. Call that outlook elementary if you want, check the color of the lines your marker leaves behind before you!