The calm before the Hall of Fame storm

I hope you enjoyed the Hall of Fame ceremony yesterday. Pat Gillick, Roberto Alomar and Bert Blyleven all deserved to be voted in. I have supported Tim Raines, Jack Morris, Barry Larkin and Dave Parker in the past.

With the Cobra off of the ballot, there is good news for Raines, Morris and Larkin:
Next year's first time Hall of Fame ballot stinks.

I'm not kidding.
My dad and I went down the list of all the players who will be on the ballot for the very first time.

Heads and shoulders above all the other first time candidates is Bernie Williams.

Look, Bernie was a terrific player and a Red Sox killer. He was a champion who wore the pinstripes with honor and had clutch post season moments in the 1990s and the 2000s.

Nobody is denying that his #51 deserves to be retired at Yankee Stadium and he should get standing ovations in the Bronx for the rest of his life.

The only reason he should be at the Hall of Fame induction is if he is hired to be the musical act.

And he's BY FAR the best new candidate.

The other new candidates?
Vinny Castilla
Javy Lopez
Ruben Sierra
Jeff Nelson
Jeromy Burnitz
Tim Salmon
Mike Matheny
Edgardo Alfonzo
Danny Graves
Scott Erickson
Tony Womack
Jeff Fassero
Phil Nevin
Carl Everett
Brian Jordan
Eric Young
Tim Worrell
Bill Mueller
Joe Randa
Jose Lima
Matt Lawton
Terry Mulholland
Brad Radke
Rick Helling
Mike Remlinger
Felix Rodriguez

Wow.
Not a valid argument for one of them. Other than Bernie Williams, what player deserves 5% of the vote to keep them on the ballot a second year?

Williams is the only person on that list that I think has a prayer of being on the ballot in 2013, and that will probably be because a lot of sports writers think he is a nice guy.

So with writers feeling like they should put SOMEONE on their ballots, Larkin, Morris, Raines and maybe even Lee Smith will get some more love than usual. Maybe 1 or 2 of them will be pushed over the top.

And I hope they do because next year will be the last normal voting year before the dreaded 2013 ballot.

Sure there were juicers on last year's ballot and Mark McGwire, Juan Gonzalez and Rafael Palmeiro will return for more (or less) votes next January. (So will Jeff Bagwell, a slender hitter with limited power who packed on muscle fast, hung out with Ken Caminiti and became a Hall of Famer. Not saying anything except facts.)

But the two big fish are eligible in 2013.

Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens.

(Throw in Sammy Sosa too for good measure.)

2013 will be the LEAST FUN Hall of Fame vote in history. The feats of Bonds and Clemens will be staring at us all in the face... and nobody will know what to do.


It's great news for Craig Biggio, whose 3,000 hits will get him in automatically (just ask Rafael Palmeiro and Pete Rose.)

And it will probably be great news for Mike Piazza (although there have been louder whispers about Piazza's physique than for Bagwell.)

Voters won't know what the hell to do. So the borderline cases might ALL get in as a way to procrastinate or put off the inevitable.

All I know is this:

The next few years of Hall of Fame voting will be so NOT fun that you will become nostalgic for debating over Robbie Alomar spitting in an umpire's face.

Tom Glavine... Future Hall of Famer (I don't want any questions on that)

Nobody will ever wear #47 for the Braves again... and rightfully so.

The Braves aren't lenient in terms of retiring numbers (I'm looking at YOU, White Sox).

Most are Hall of Famers. Warren Spahn, Eddie Mathews, Phil Niekro and some guy named Henry Aaron all have their numbers retired.

Dale Murphy wasn't a Hall of Famer but he was such an important part of the Braves franchise for so long, was their lone superstar when they emerged in 1982 and throughout the 80s and had the horrible luck of leaving RIGHT BEFORE the great run of the 1990s.

And of course Greg Maddux isn't in the Hall of Fame yet, but it is only a matter of time for him.

As it will be for Tom Glavine.

As I wrote back in February, there should be no question about it.

And as I also wrote, I have no stomach for any of the stupid arguments against his admission to the Hall.

The Braves know it... his teammates know it... the batters he faced know it...

He's a Hall of Famer.

Just ask the equipment manager in Atlanta the next time someone requests #47.

I dare any writer to NOT vote Griffey into the Hall of Fame

On January, 2016, Ken Griffey Jr, the era's greatest player without a whiff of scandal to his name, will be elected to the Hall of Fame on the first ballot.

He was the best player of the 1990s and even with a decade riddled with injuries, he finished his amazing career with 10 Gold Gloves, 7 Silver Sluggers, the 1997 AL MVP and oh yeah, only Barry Bonds, Hank Aaron, Babe Ruth and Willie Mays hit more homers.

He'll be in on the first ballot.
But he won't be on EVERY ballot.

And that will be a disgrace.

I wrote before the fact that nobody has gotten in unanimously is literally insane. Babe Ruth didn't get in with every ballot in an earlier generation?

So a bunch of boneheaded sports writers didn't vote for Cy Young?
Some morons left Joe DiMaggio off the ballot?
Some racists (what other excuse can there be?) didn't vote for Jackie Robinson, Willie Mays, Bob Gibson or Hank Aaron?

Guess what? That doesn't mean YOU need to make their mistakes. You can actually help CORRECT those mstakes.

Part of how a society grows is they take what worked from the previous generation and try to fix what didn't work.

That's how there is growth... that's how there is progress... that's why we are more civilized now than we were 1,000 years ago!

Voting in Ken Griffey Jr. with 100% of the ballot doesn't mean you are saying he was better than Babe Ruth or Willie Mays or Hank Aaron or Ted Williams.

It means that YOU are a better voter than the ones who voted back then!

So I challenge ANYONE out there to tell me why Ken Griffey Jr. should NOT be voted in with 100% of the ballot!

Seriously... write your reasons to info@sullybaseball.com.

I am DROOLING to hear why Ken Griffey Jr. shouldn't be unanimous.

If you vote for the Hall of Fame and do NOT put him on the ballot, you should be forced to defend yourself in front of a Krypton court like General Zod.

And if you can't defend yourself... then your Hall of Fame voting rights will be stripped.

Voting in a player unanimously shouldn't be a problem by 2016.

2 years earlier, Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine and Frank Thomas will all be on the ballot, and as I stated in February, if you don't vote for THEM, I am stripping your voting rights.

KNEEEEEEEL Before Sully!

Let the stupidity begin regarding Tom Glavine

I wrote yesterday about how Tom Glavine should be among three unanimous Hall of Fame inductees in 2014.

There is no logical argument to keep Glavine out of the Hall.
But guess what?

That won't stop some people from making some illogical arguments!

Harold Friend wrote an article that sure looked well researched until you actually read what he said.

He claims that Tom Glavine never dominated. Really? You mean when he won his two Cy Youngs he wasn't a dominating pitcher? When he consistently lead the league in games started and would be among the league leaders in complete games and shutouts, he wasn't dominating.

He would have won at least two more Cy Youngs if not for Greg Maddux and Randy Johnson, who are two of the great pitchers of all time.

And he claims Glavine was the third best pitcher on his own team.
Um... not in 1991 when they won their first pennant.
Not in 1992 when they won their second pennant.

Sure he was the #2 starter with Maddux on the team. That's not exactly a dishonor. (I am sure Don Drysdale didn't mind being the #2 starter behind Sandy Koufax.)

And a quick glance at John Smoltz's regular seasons would reveal that he put up better numbers than Glavine during the 1991-1999 run exactly once. (That would be Smoltz's 1996 Cy Young season.)

And oh yeah, Smoltz is a Hall of Famer as well.

Please. (Then again the same article he says the fact that Mike Mussina never won a World Series game goes against HIS candidacy. Of course Mike Mussina won Game 3 of the 2003 World Series. He out dueled Josh Beckett. That took 3 seconds to find the box score on Google.)

I am starting to hear other moronic arguments against Tom Glavine.

"He was the beneficiary of playing on great teams."

Um... why were they great teams?
Did they have a murderers row line up?
Did they have a lock down bullpen?

No... they were great teams BECAUSE THEY HAD GLAVINE-SMOLTZ and later MADDUX!

"Look at his ERA+ and break down his stats compared to other Hall of Fame pitchers."

HE PITCHED IN THE STEROID ERA!

In 1998, the year of the great Sammy Sosa/Mark McGwire home run chase, Glavine went 20-6, posted a 2.47 ERA over 229 1/3 innings pitched. He was among the league leaders in hits per 9 innings and adjusted ERA+ and won the Cy Young Award. I think he held his own while batters were injecting God knows what into their system.

"He wasn't a great Post Season pitcher."



Sure. All he did was win the WORLD SERIES MVP!!!!

And 3 of his first 4 World Series starts were complete games.

And in 10 post season series he posted an ERA of under 2.00.

Try again!



In an era of batter dominance and offensive numbers that were nothing short of obscene, he was an ace year in and year out, posting numbers and winning awards that would get him into the Hall in ANY era.

He's a Hall of Famer.

Get the stupidity out now.

I expect Tom to get 100% of the Cooperstown ballot in 2014.
If you say "No" then thou art a moron.