1 Happy St

I wrote a rather lengthy (by our standards) entry last Thursday about which players I would vote for if I was a member of the BBWAA and I was given a Hall of Fame ballot. The whole thing was written in jest partly because I know I’ll never be allowed to vote for something like that, and also because I was trying to be funny. But on Monday, I read a column from Paul Ladewski, who is an actual member of the BBWAA. His column focused on his reasoning for who he voted for, and by all accounts, it was not in jest.

(Click here for the article).

Who did he vote for, you ask? Nobody. He turned in his ballot and it was completely blank. Remember, this guy’s vote counted, meaning baseball players who are currently eligible for the Hall of Fame were directly affected by his vote, and he voted for nobody. If I was Cal Ripken Jr. or Tony Gwynn, I’d be pissed. Better yet, if I was a fringe HOF’er who was counting on every vote possible, I’d try to find this guy. Anyway, here are his 3 reasons (as well as my responses to how insane they are) for handing in a blank ballot.

"I don't have nearly enough information [about who took steroids] to make a value judgment of this magnitude."

In other words, Paul is a journalist who gets paid to make value judgments based on information he has gathered to make said judgment, but admittedly, he’s not very good at his job.

"Let's suppose a player is voted into the Hall of Fame, then a short time later, a former teammate steps forward to Canseco him. And another. What to do then? Keep him there? Take him out? Drape black crepe over his plaque?"

Using this logic, Paul probably shouldn't have a job because a few years ago, one of his colleagues from the Chicago Tribune was charged with statutory rape and subsequently fired from his job. How do we know that one day in the future, we won't find out the same thing about Paul?

"Walter Johnson, Cy Young and Honus Wagner didn't receive
[unanimous selections]. Neither did Lou Gehrig, Babe Ruth and Ted Williams. In fact, nobody has in the history of the game."

In other words, the people who vote for this thing have been doing it wrong for 70 years, so why stop now?

Paul Ladewski is a pompous jackass!