Hall of Fame voting always makes for a lot of debate

The 2009 inductees for the Baseball Hall of Fame will be announced next week and, as always, there has been a lot of debate over who will make the grade.

The hall of fame has always been the subject of a lot of discussion, usually by people who feel their favourite players are ignored or passed over.

Most years, there tends to be at least one “sure thing” among those up for consideration; as a result, there has only been one year (1996) in the past 20 in which no players at all were inducted. Twice in the past 20 years, there have been three players inducted the same year: in 1999 (Nolan Ryan, George Brett and Robin Yount) and 1991 (Rod Carew, Gaylord Perry and Canada’s own Ferguson Jenkins).

Which brings us to 2009 voting. There is, in my opinion, one “no-brainer” this year in Rickey Henderson, the all-time career leader in runs scored, stolen bases and home runs by a leadoff hitter. At the time he retired as a player in 2003, Henderson was also the career leader in walks (a record since eclipsed by Barry Bonds). If Rickey doesn’t deserve to be in, no one does.

Some players who have come close in recent years might have a better chance of election this time: Jim Rice, for example – second in last year’s voting, just 16 votes short of enshrinement; Andre Dawson, Bert Blyleven and Lee Smith rounded out the top five a year ago, when Rich Gossage was the only player elected in the end. One might argue Rice, Dawson, Blyleven and Smith were all as worthy as Gossage, one of baseball’s first really dominant relief pitchers.

Rice in particular has garnered a lot of votes over the years – 2009 marks his 15th and final year on the regular ballot; if he isn’t elected this time, his fate will rest with the Veterans’ Committee. Rice was a feared hitter, not to mention a quiet team leader, for almost his entire career. His career stats are only diminished by the fact he only played 16 years.

Dawson has career numbers similar to Rice’s, but tailed off late in his career. Blyleven won 287 games, but had a subpar winning percentage and a shortage of “career highlights” such as 20-win seasons (one) and Cy Young awards (none). Smith was, for a number of years, the career leader in saves, and even though the criteria for saves has changed a bit since the days of Gossage and fellow hall of famers Rollie Fingers and Bruce Sutter, Smith was every bit as dominant a relief pitcher in his prime.

Personally – and not just because I’m a Boston Red Sox fan – I’d like to see Rice elected along with Henderson. I always enjoyed watching him play, I feel his career stats are certainly hall of fame worthy and, besides, it’s now or never for him.

Speaking of the hall of fame, voters will have a conundrum on their hands in the next few years. If neither of them play again, Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens (to name just two) will both be on the ballot in 2014. It will be interesting to see how the voters treat Bonds and Clemens, both of whom have undeniable hall of fame stats, but both of whose reputations have also been tainted by allegations of performance-enhancing substance use. Ditto for Rafael Palmeiro, with more than 3,000 career hits and 500 career home runs – normally a lock – but who also publicly failed a drug test.

This year’s voting hasn’t been announced yet, but the poor showing by Mark McGwire in his first two years on the ballot is cause to believe hall of fame voters don’t take too kindly to that sort of negative publicity among the immortals of the game.