The 5 For The Hall!

I have to say, I wasn’t thrilled with the way the voting went, but they have all been tallied up and I am ready to officially induct 5 new members in to cyber-Cooperstown. Of the 5 players I voted for, only one made it. We had 41 different people vote and only 1 player even got half the votes. A lot of the overlooked players from the 40s, 50s, 60s and seventies remain overlooked and no Negro League Players will get into the Blog-O-Fame. I would like to make y’all wonder a little bit more, but I am going to announce the top 5 in the voting. These are the guys that all of you want enshrined into the Blog-O-Sphere-Hall-of-Fame Class of 2009 and a half…
First, these are the 3 guys who got a lot of support, but it came too late. They are all left tied for 6th place with 14 votes a piece. In my opinion all 3 of these are 100% Hall-worthy, but Andre “Hawk” Dawson, Barry “Did He Have a Nickname?” Larkin and Tim “Rock” Raines will all have to wait until next year, close but no cigar…
Coming in tied for 4th place overall with 15 votes each are the spitter, Roberto Alomar and the Crime Dog Fred McGriff!
Tied for second place with 19 votes each are two guys whose only hope is the Blog Hall, they are Shoeless Jackson and Pete “Charlie Hustle” Rose. One I feel belongs there, the other I don’t know because not only have I never seen him play, and I don’t know anyone who has. From what I have read, the dude can hit, but it’s hard for me to back him without a visual or a trusted source…
That leaves one man; the top vote getter with a very impressive 22 votes (54%) is the Flying Dutchmen, Bert Blyleven. The guy is fifth All Time in strikeouts with 3,701; he’s 9th in shutouts and has 287 wins to go along with his two World Series rings. This guy belongs if anyone does!
There ya have it folks. This was our vote, this is our Hall.
Go Rays! Troll out.

The Vote for the Hall of Fame!

Not a single vote for Joe Torre, only 1 vote for Donnie Baseball. Only one former Negro League player has been brought up. Two votes for Mike Jackson (62-67 career), a vote for Dave Burba (115-87)? Those are only some of the surprises so far in this early 2010 Hall of Fame vote. The contest has 5 more days for people to enter and hopefully we will receive many more votes. Here is how voting is shaping up so far and who will go to the Hall if voting were to cease today. The Top 5 so far are:
1. Bert Blyleven (16)
2. Shoeless Joe Jackson (15)
3. Fred McGriff (14)
3. Pete Rose (14)
5. Barry Larkin (11)
Hot on their spikes are Roberto Alomar (10) and the trio of Andre “Hawk” Dawson, JJ “Buck” O’Neill and Tim “Rock” Raines all with 8 votes each. Rounding out the top ten are Gil Hodges, Ron Santo and Dale Murphy-each with 4 votes. Closer Lee Smith has 3.
Allen Trammell, Edgar Martinez, Harold Baines, Minnie Minoso and Mike Jackson each have 2 votes a piece. There are 13 others who have at least one man or woman in their corners for blogosphere immortality consideration, they are: Jim Kaat, Robin Ventura, Artie Wilson, Maury Wills, Mark McGwire, Ellis Burks, Charlie Hough, Will Clark, Andres Galaragga, Bowie Kuhn, Andy Ashby, Vern Stephens and Dave Burba.
One can make a solid case for at least ¾ of the players mentioned. Everyone is so very thoughtful, very knowledgeable, very informed and very creative. There were a few names that I hadn’t thought of myself, but they definitely have a case. Makes me proud to be a blogger! Now we just need to push for more votes. 18 hardly seem like enough votes to put someone in the Hall of Fame (even if it isn’t real)! Please encourage folks to vote. I’ve decided that people CAN vote even if they don’t follow this blog (but they can’t win) and if you aren’t voting because you don’t want to be overloaded with a bunch of cards you don’t want-vote anyway and specify that you don’t want to be entered to win. I would really like to get 50 people to vote for this thing. You can vote on this comment thread now, I have archived the votes from the other one. I will repeat my first entry as a sample (but my dupe vote will not count). Also, the cards shown in this post (of potential HOFers) will be added to the prize pack. The prize is now guaranteed to have at least 40 cards, plus 3 HOF autographs and at least one bonus auto, plus magazines, postcards and other HOF related stuff. Please vote for the next 5 guys to head to (internet) Cooperstown! Link this post to your blog and you will get a bonus entry, too. Go Rays! Rock the vote baby! Troll out.