Wednesday, January 05, 2011

Barry Stanton? Explain Yourself.

Hall of Fame voting will be announced later on Wednesday. I try not not get too riled up over this, because there will be some votes that make little sense. But this... is awful. Barry Stanton, listed as an ESPN News Editor, submitted the worst Hall of Fame Ballot of all time.

ESPN released the votes of those who are in their employ here. It's a little bit hard to follow who voted for whom, so a fellow named Jason at IIATMS was nice enough to make a grid of it.

At this point, anyone voting for Jack Morris and not Bert Blyleven is just being difficult. But that's hardly the worst of the Barry Stanton ballot. Yes votes on Jack Morris, Edgar Martinez, Don Mattingly, Tino Martinez, and BJ Surhoff. You read that correctly, Tino Martinez and BJ Surhoff.

No votes on Jeff Bagwell, Roberto Alomar, Blyleven, Barry Larkin, Alan Trammell,, not to mention the steroid issue with Mark McGwire and Rafael Palmeiro. McGwire and Palmeiro have been discussed in depth, but the rest of this is just silly. This isn't simply a difference of opinion - voting for the Hall of Fame is something that most voters take very seriously. Stanton either does NOT take his duty seriously, or he isn't competent to judge baseball players. Either way, ESPN should be embarrassed to have someone like this on their payroll.

Before tonight, I'd never heard of Stanton - Craig Calcaterra gives some background here - but he should be run through the wringer for his gross negligence.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

How many Hall of Fame voters are there? How do they get this position?