Another Hall of Fame ballot revealed. Here's how T.R. Sullivan voted.
The veteran Texas Rangers beat man checked off 10 names this year, including three in their 10th and final year of eligibility.
Editor’s Note: T.R. Sullivan covered the Rangers for 32 years and has been a Hall of Fame voter since 1998. The first Hall of Fame vote he ever cast was for Nolan Ryan. T.R. is the third voter to reveal his ballot at the Texas Rangers Newsletter, along with Anthony Andro and Jeff Wilson.
This year’s Hall of Fame voting could be the most suspenseful of any ballot in recent memory.
Curt Schilling, steroid suspicion and an impressive list of borderline candidates are responsible for this development. Then there is Ryan Thibodaux, an industrious man from the San Francisco Bay Area who is not a sports writer but works in the medical profession.
In 2014, Thibodaux began “tracking” Hall of Fame votes, tabulating the results and posting them online. He updates the votes each time a writer feels compelled to reveal their vote publicly, either through a column in their news outlet, on Twitter or other social media or in some other public forum.
Thus, we can follow the drama almost daily as votes are slowly revealed leading up to the official announcement on Jan. 25. This would seem to ruin the suspense of the announcement, but that is not necessarily the case.
For example, in 2017 Ivan Rodriguez was at 79.3% in the Thibodaux Tracker right before the official announcement. Rangers executive vice president John Blake was on edge because he knew one simple rule.
A player’s final vote total is generally 3-6% less than what they are tracking with Thibodaux.
We know now that Rodriguez was elected at 76%, receiving 336 of the 442 votes cast. That was four more than the 332 votes needed for induction. Five less votes and Rodriguez would have fallen below the necessary 75% of BBWAA votes needed for induction. Larry Walker was tracking at 79% in 2020 and sneaked in at 76.6%, or six votes more than necessary.
So right now, David Ortiz is tracking at 82.5%, while Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens are at 80%. Next comes Scott Rolen at 70% and Schilling at 62.5. Alex Rodriguez is at 47.5%.
Bonds, Clemens and Schilling are in their 10th and final year of eligibility in the BBWAA voting. It used to be 15 years, but the Hall of Fame reduced it to 10. Any player who fails to get in through the BBWAA will presumably get another chance in the future through consideration by the Veteran’s Committee.
The drama around Schilling concerns his “political” views than his baseball credentials. Some don’t see it as being political as much as an intense aversion to the toxic manner in which he presents those views. Either way, that’s why his candidacy continues to fall short.
Thibodaux has been able to make a name for himself simply because some Hall of Fame voters have an overwhelming urge to reveal their ballots. I am one of them. I feel a strong obligation if you vote for the Hall of Fame — or the annual awards — you should make your ballot public.
With privilege comes responsibility and transparency.
So, here goes.
1. Roger Clemens
2. Barry Bonds
We all know they are two the best players in baseball history. Clemens has seven Cy Young awards and Bonds has seven MVP awards. We also know they are not in the Hall of Fame because they have been implicated in the possible use of steroids. A large number of voters refuse to vote for any player who has any taint — real or alleged — of using steroids.
I have voted for both players every year and am getting tired of it. Ten years is enough. Either get in or get off the ballot.
There is no denying Rodriguez has overwhelming Hall of Fame credentials. There is no denying he used steroids. He admitted it. He got nailed not once but twice.
So why do I vote for him? Because I refuse to sit in judgment of the Steroid Era.
What does that bullshit mean? It means I believe way far more players were using some kind of performance-enhancing drugs than has been revealed through the Mitchell Report, other media outlets or sanctioned drug testing.
That high-minded crap having been said, there are a lot of players on the balloting who didn’t get my vote. Guys who had the credentials and were stained by steroid implication. Gary Sheffield, Sammy Sosa, Manny Ramirez. But until Bonds and Clemens get in, these guys have no chance.
4. David Ortiz
Ortiz led the Red Sox to three World Series titles, and I am a big believer in “to the victor go the spoils,” which is a political proverb that goes back some 200 years.
Here it means teams that win World Series — especially multiple titles — have the best players. And the Hall of Fame is about electing the best players.
5. Scott Rolen
6. Billy Wagner
Both are legitimate Hall of Famers to me, the best of a group of borderline candidates that also include Andruw Jones, Jimmy Rollins, Todd Helton, Jeff Kent and Omar Vizquel. All deserve strong consideration.
Vizquel has received my support in the past, but now he faces his own issues concerning domestic violence accusations. I am holding off my support this year until that plays out.
7. Curt Schilling
I really don’t want to vote for him. It is not the politics. It’s just the pure toxic venom he enjoys using to express his views. The hate he spews is just disgusting.
That’s why I have withheld my support for him the last few years. And anybody who thinks it’s because I am a liberal, well, whatever.
But he was a Hall of Fame pitcher and beneath all that toxicity, there once existed — and probably still does — a really good person. He has won the Roberto Clemente, Lou Gehrig and other community/character awards. If he would just drop the attention-getting performance artist act.
I am voting for him this year, and thankful it’s the last time I have to worry about it.
8. Torii Hunter
All right, if votes are going to subtract for character, well, this is one vote for a player whose character is outstanding. His career accomplishments may be borderline at best. But if character is being considered, then he easily crosses the finish line.
If Fred McGriff — who built his career honestly — didn’t make the Hall of Fame, then Teixeira has no chance either. He still doesn’t deserve to slip into Hall of Fame ignominy with at least token recognition as to what he accomplished without any shadow on his career.
10. A.J. Pierzynski
Until I actually saw his name on the ballot, I never ever even once thought about A.J. Pierzynski as a Hall of Famer. Never. And I never heard or read anything from another writer about Pierzynski being a Hall of Famer.
White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen once said, "If you play against him, you hate him. If you play with him, you hate him a little less."
The DFW beat writers disliked Pierzynski so much, we voted him the winner of the Harold McKinney Good Guy Award in 2013 in his only year with the Rangers. I might have had something to do with that.
Pierzynski was Yadier Molina’s equal as an offensive player. Molina was far better defensively, which is why he will one day go into the Hall of Fame. This figures to be one and done for Pierzynski, even if he was one of the best catchers of his generation. However, that he was right there alone ought to merit at least a little Hall of Fame consideration.
There was something else. Pierzynski was a fierce competitor, and could also be a bit devious. He was a smart player and a stand-up guy in the clubhouse.
There is just something strangely irresistible about that combination, so I voted for him.
Happy to see the Pierzynski vote. He always bothered me, always doing something against the team I was rooting for. When an opposing player is repeatedly a problem, the only thing left is to respect his game. No, he does not deserve HOF induction, but glad to see him get recognized.
Cooperstown is full of characters, both good and bad, who were voted in when transparency of their ives was at a low point. How many were alcoholics, adulterers, gamblers, drug users, baseball doctoring pitchers, arrogant and other assorted sinners. Athletes are not different than the rest of the population except they have a special ability. Let us consider what they did on the field and forgo the judgment of whether they get into Heaven to the Ultimate Judge.