Hall of Fame Unveils New Plaque for Jackie Robinson

Robinson's old plaque read:

Jack Roosevelt Robinson
Brooklyn NL, 1947 to 1956

Leading N.L. batter in 1949. Holds fielding mark for second basemen playing in 150 or more games with .992. Led N.L. in stolen bases in 1947 and 1949. Most Valuable Player in 1949. Lifetime batting average .311. Joint record holder for most double plays by second baseman, 137 in 1951. Led second basemen in double plays 1949-50-51-52.

photo by Milo Stewart Jr.

Poll: Sometimes Bad Is Bad

Who will end the season with the lowest batting average?
	Mark Sweeney (currently 0.113 in 53 AB's)
	Angel Berroa (0.154 in 26 AB's)
	Chin-Lung Hu (0.159 in 107 AB's)
	Andruw Jones (0.165 in 133 AB's)
	Gary Bennett (0.190 in 21 AB's)
Free polls from Pollhost.com

Walter O'Malley Elected to Hall of Fame

Veterans elect O'Malley to Hall of Fame (Dodgers.com)

Bonds Fights Punctuation Symbols: "Asterisk or Me"

Teamless "victim" Barry Bonds has challenged the Baseball Hall of Fame to deny his asterisk-laced home-run ball, or he will boycott the Hall of Fame. Assuming he gets voted in, of course:

NEW YORK (AP) -- Barry Bonds would boycott Cooperstown if the Hall of Fame displays his record-breaking home run ball with an asterisk.

That includes skipping his potential induction ceremony.

"I won't go. I won't be part of it," Bonds said in an interview with MSNBC that aired Thursday night. "You can call me, but I won't be there."

The ball Bonds hit for home run No. 756 this season will be branded with an asterisk and sent to the Hall. Fashion designer Marc Ecko bought the ball in an online auction and set up a Web site for fans to vote on its fate. In late September, he announced fans voted to send the ball to Cooperstown with an asterisk.

Of course, the asterisk suggests Bonds' record is tainted by alleged steroid use. The slugger has denied knowingly using performance-enhancing drugs. Fans brought signs with asterisks to ballparks this season as he neared Hank Aaron's career home run mark.

Bonds has called Ecko "an idiot."

"I don't think you can put an asterisk in the game of baseball, and I don't think that the Hall of Fame can accept an asterisk," Bonds said. "You cannot give people the freedom, the right to alter history. You can't do it. There's no such thing as an asterisk in baseball."

Ecko may indeed be a self-promoting idiot. But Barry clearly doesn't know baseball history, or he would be aware of Roger Maris and the asterisk he lived with for so many years. Barry, there is indeed such a thing as an asterisk in baseball--and according to the fans, you've earned one. Enjoy.

The Power of Branding: 756 Ball To Get Asterisk

Mark Ecko's publicity stunt worked, as the people voted to brand the 756th HR ball with an asterisk before it goes to Cooperstown:

Over 10 million people voted and were given the options of banishing it into space, bestowing it to the Hall of Fame or branding it with an asterisk, due to the popular thought that Bonds used performance-enhancing drugs to accomplish the feat.

The decision was a landslide as 47 percent of voters put their support behind branding it while 34 percent voted to bestow it to the Hall of Fame.

"We're going to be working with the folks at the Hall of Fame. It is a historical museum. We want to treat this ball as such, as an artifact with respect," Ecko said on the Today Show.

"You bet we're happy to get it," Hall of Fame president Dale Petroskey said. "This ball wouldn't be coming to Cooperstown without Mark Ecko buying it from the fan who caught it and then putting it up to the vote of the fans."

I don't know if I would have voted to brand the ball, but now that the decision has been made, I hope the HOF puts the ball in a prominent exhibit, such that it raises the specter of impropriety on Bonds for all who see the artifact. Or, they could put the ball in a basement closet.

Barry Opts Not To Share, Instead Takes Bats and Goes Home

Barry Bonds has announced that all the mementos from his home run chase will be stockpiled with him, and potentially not offered to Cooperstown's Baseball Hall of Fame. Said Barry, "I'm not worried about the Hall. I take care of me."

NEW YORK -- As Barry Bonds nears his record 756th home run, he's stockpiling quite a collection of souvenirs -- bats, balls, helmets and spikes, pieces of baseball history perfectly suited for the Hall of Fame. Whether he'll donate any of them to Cooperstown, however, is in doubt.

"I'm not worried about the Hall," the San Francisco slugger said during a recent homer drought. "I take care of me."

No wonder those at the museum are getting concerned, especially with Bonds only 10 homers shy of breaking Hank Aaron's career mark.

"There's uncertainty," Hall vice president Jeff Idelson acknowledged.

Around 35,000 artifacts are shown and stored at the shrine, and about a dozen pertain to Bonds.

There is a bat from his rookie year and cleats from him becoming the first player in the 400-homer/400-steal club. Unsolicited, he sent the bat and ball from his 2,000th hit. A batting practice bat from the 2002 World Series was the last thing Bonds provided.

"Doesn't everybody have the right to decide to do it or not do it?" he said last week.

The most prized items, the ones that fans would really want to see, are missing.

Two comments. First, it's not like he is hoarding them for a Barry Bonds Museum, since no one would attend. So it's clear that he's only doing this to sell the items down the line. His avarice knows no bounds.

Second, its is hilariously ironic that Bonds adds fuel to the movement to keep Bonds out of the Hall of Fame. Irrespective of his achievements on the field, if he doesn't want any of his stuff commemorated in the Hall, why should he be admitted to the Hall in the first place?

Hershiser Off Hall of Fame Ballot; SoSG Orel Disconsolate

From "No good reason for voters' capriciousness" by Jayson Stark at ESPN.com:

It's time for my annual rant on how illogical it is for players to zig-zag up and down in the voting every year. I always thought it was our job, as voters, just to ask ourselves, "Was this player a Hall of Famer, or not?" And if we decide he is, shouldn't we vote for him every year, unless something happens to change our perspective?

That sounds logical to me, but apparently, I'll never understand how this voting works. So here are the five players who lost the most votes since last year -- without playing a single game: Orel Hershiser minus-32 (and off the ballot after receiving less than five percent of the vote), Tommy John minus-29, Belle minus-21 (and off the ballot after receiving less than five percent of the vote), Steve Garvey (in his final year under the writers' vote) minus-20, and Trammell minus-19.

First the Garv, now Bulldog. Not a good year for 70's- and 80's-era Dodger heroes.

Dear Mssrs. Garvey and Hershiser: Although the BBWAA has spurned you, please know you will always be first-ballot electees—in the hall of fame of our hearts.

Comment of the Week

The latest Comment of the Week is from our very own "Alex Cora," responding to the two blank Hall of Fame ballots submitted as a protest of steroid use:

Well, due to the plagiarism that occurs in newspapers (NY Times), I will not read any newspapers at all as a protest of the plagiarism era.

This comment nicely sums up the slippery slope of sportswriters and morals, also discussed at True Blue L.A.

The Baseball Hall of Fame 2007 Election and the Wisdom of Crowds

In his book, The Wisdom of Crowds, James Surowiecki (a New Yorker business columnist) posited the counter-intuitive theory that "under the right circumstances, groups are remarkably intelligent, and are often smarter than the smartest people in them." The premise was supported in cases of economics (market predictions), politics (voting for candidates), and even logistics (traffic patterns or walking on sidewalks). It’s the kind of premise that underpins sites like Yahoo! Answers (besides, of course, the underpinning of 11-year-old kids with too much time on their hands after school).

Surowiecki admits that the theory breaks down in a number of situations, namely when the crowd is too emotional, imitative, or centralized. Which is exactly why it was interesting to me that, this year, the ESPN fans, with their well-known hometown (and east-coast) biases and herd mentalities, were reasonably predictive in predicting the votes of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America’s votes for the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Let’s look at the Top Eleven vote-getters in the Baseball Hall of Fame election, whose results were announced today:

Player	BBWA rank	BBWA %	ESPN fans' rank	ESPN %
Cal Ripken, Jr.	1	98%	1	76%
Tony Gwynn	2	98%	2	75%
Rich Gossage	3	71%	4	42%
Jim Rice	4	64%	6	39%
Andre Dawson	5	57%	3	50%
Bert Blyleven	6	48%	7	36%
Lee Smith	7	40%	5	40%
Jack Morris	8	37%	12	23%
Mark McGwire	9	24%	10	28%
Tommy John	10	23%	9	29%
Steve Garvey	11	21%	15	14%

Don Mattingly came in 15th in the BBWA voting with a scant 10% of the vote. The BBWW put Alan Trammell, Dave Concepcion, and Dave Parker ahead of Mattingly, the only other player in the ESPN fans’ top ten. With the exception of Mattingly, though, the fans nailed the rest of the top ten vote-getters, with minimal differences in rank order.

Just as the fans overvalued Mattingly, they undervalued Jack Morris and our namesake Steve Garvey, the latter of whom will have his fate decided by a Veterans Committee from here on out. Sorry, Steve.

Also, on the one “judgment call” on the ballot, the referendum on the steroid era proxied by Mark McGwire’s candidacy, the fans (28%) came pretty darn close to reflecting the writers (24%).

The ESPN fans had over 200,000 votes, relative to the BBWA’s 545 votes. Wisdom of crowds, indeed.

SI.com Has a Really Mean Art Department

I mean, were the arrows really necessary?

One Last Hall of Fame Hurrah for Steve Garvey

I know this may be heresy, but the name of our blog notwithstanding, I can't fully justify Steve Garvey getting into the Baseball Hall of Fame in this, the 15th and final year he is on the ballot. Besides the fait accompli that is Tony Gwynn and Cal Ripken's coronations (announced tomorrow at 11am PST), I can see the argument for Jim Rice, and maybe Goose Gossage and Andre Dawson.

But I find it interesting that even Dodger beat writer Ken Gurnick of mlb.com can't even promote Garvey's candidacy with a straight face (not that you can tell whether he's smirking from his writing; but you get the idea):

"I don't see why Rice, Gossage or Dawson -- each having received more than 60 percent of the vote last year -- aren't already in. Gwynn and Ripken are easy picks. This will be my 15th and last vote for Garvey -- he'll come off the ballot next year -- but you don't make 10 All-Star Games without being one of the premier (and most famous) players of your generation."

Ten All-Star appearances is nothing to slouch at, true--the only non-Hall of Famer-caliber players with more All-Star appearances that I could find are Roberto Alomar (12), Barry Larkin (12), and Bill Freehan (11); everyone else is either an active player, pending admission or at least consideration, or banned due to gambling on the game. But All-Star Game selections are a by-product of fame, given the fan-voting element, and shouldn't be the strongest factor for Hall admission--or Kirk Gibson would be up there, as would Darryl Strawberry, and you could even make cases for Bob Uecker and Mookie Wilson.

In Bill James' book Whatever Happened to the Hall of Fame?, James illustrates how capricious the election process is (and I can imagine it is only worse with the dawn of the internet campaigning for Hall candidates), but he distills election away from the fundamentally flawed comparative argument (i.e., "if X is in the Hall of Fame, then Y needs to be there too"), and toward the simple position that Hall of Fame members should reflect players who were dominant at their position for a decade. (I do hope I got the takeaway correct here, as it's been a while since I've read this book.)

Garvey's playing time of 1969-1987 overlaps at the end with Keith Hernandez, a five-time All-Star, who overshadowed Garvey defensively. Both players have one NL MVP award (Garvey 1974; Hernandez 1979). And offensively, their career batting averages are close (though to be fair Garvey was much more productive in HRs and RBI). However, Garvey, as a Dodger, never even led his own team in OPS (which was led by Dusty Baker, Ron Cey, and Reggie Smith). Garvey was in the top 10 in batting average six seasons and top 10 in home runs for three seasons. In short, he was a hit machine and solid, but not exactly "dominant" in his era.

Where the Garv' does elevate among others' status, however, is exactly what Gurnick references--fame. I suppose this word is in the very name of the institution, so maybe that's an accurate criterion. But James also mentions in his book how fame, through playing with famous teammates in a big-city, was exactly what got Phil Rizzuto in the Hall as well, despite also being less than dominant. Scooter is a nice guy, sure. But so is Garvey--heck, he is (or at least, was) a role model! (And this is coming from one of his sons.)

I'm pretty borderline on this one but I think Garvey falls short once again, and maybe gets in later off the Veterans' Committee. I can't put Garvey in the same echelon as Ripken or Gwynn, or even maybe Rice (eight-time All-Star, also 1 MVP award and comparable BA, but far superior HR and RBI totals). But even if I can't fully support it, I guess I'll be rooting for Garvey tomorrow (sort of like the guy at the Eagles games who doesn't want to cheer too loudly for the opposing team for fear of getting batteries thrown at him).

And once Garvey gets there, he can bring Dusty, Reggie, Davey Lopes, Bill Russell, and the Penguin in with him.

Lasorda Calls Garvey a Role Model

From "Garvey takes one last shot at Hall: Former Dodger, Padre on BBWAA Ballot for final time" by Ken Gurnick at Dodgers.com:

"Steve Garvey is a Hall of Famer in all ways, as far as I'm concerned," said Hall of Fame manager Tom Lasorda, who managed Garvey in the Major and Minor Leagues. "He exemplified the words 'role model,' he was a great hitter, a great ballplayer."

Is it too cynical of me to note Tommy used "exemplify" in the past tense? (We are an ironically named blog, after all.)

AP photo

Orel Stays Classy

From "For Hershiser, the journey is enough: After an award-filled career, is the Hall call next?" by Ken Gurnick at Dodgers.com:

Orel Hershiser won't say if he deserves to be voted into the Hall of Fame.

"I'm excited just to be considered," said Hershiser. "I've had an amazing journey in baseball, from suspect to prospect to the Major Leagues to the success I had. And now being on the Hall of Fame ballot....

"Being on the ballot is a lot different than getting in," Hershiser said. "Only the cream of the crop gets in, and that's the way it should be. It's a special place for special accomplishments. It's one of those places -- like Augusta, with the Masters, or the Indy 500 Speedway -- when you walk in, you can cut the air with a knife. You know there's greatness in those places. I'm humbled and honored. It's the kind of thing you can't believe has happened to you."

Does Hershiser belong in the Hall of Fame? We'll find out, for this year—balloting results are announced January 9.

(And we'll conveniently overlook Orel spending two years as a Giant near his career's end. He atoned for that by returning to the Dodgers and getting his last win at Dodger Stadium.)

The Garv Scores at Least One Hall of Fame Vote

SI.com writer John Heyman details which players did and didn't receive his Hall of Fame votes his year. Among the former Dodgers mentioned:

My Hall of Famers

Steve Garvey. A consummate winner, at least during his playing days.

Close but not quite

Tommy John. The man lasted forever....He was not among the best often enough during those 26 years, though.

Orel Hershiser. An excellent pitcher who was the best in the world in 1988.

Nice careers, small consideration

Devon White. One of the greatest center fielders ever....He only received MVP votes one time in 17 seasons, however.

Eric Davis. A great talent who just wasn't a star long enough.

Obvious one-and-outs

Bobby Bonilla. His status as the highest-paid player at one time is testament to timing and former superagent Dennis Gilbert's skill, not Bonilla's.

Love that last line. As for "at least during his playing days"...ouch.

Tommy John Still Trying to Elbow His Way Into the Hall

Check out this informative article on Tommy John's chances of making the Hall of Fame.

Sounds like he has a lot working against him. If the Veterans Committee has been keeping Gil Hodges out, are John's chances much better?