So yeah, that was a long break. Part of that is I got a promotion that makes me a lot busier. Part of that is hungry joe is no longer able to help with plaques. If anyone else wants to take that on, let me know. Meanwhile, you get horrendous, barely able to read plaques made in Microsoft Paint.
We had a record low 17 voters this time around. But we managed to get a few people into the Hall, including one player who was on his 6th ballot.
Lefty Grove does get in unanimously. Considering he's often cited as one of the five best pitchers ever, yeah.
So that's sort of a smile. Best I could find. Meanwhile, Charlie finds himself into the Half-Baked Hall on the first ballot, storming in with 94% of the vote.
While most of his friends don't deserve nomination, Frankie Frisch easily does, making it in on his second ballot with 82% of the vote.
Don't mess with this guy. Stan Coveleski sneaks in on his final ballot with 77% of the vote.
Remaining On The Ballot (14 Players)
Faber and Hartnett fell one vote short, Gabby on his first ballot. Otherwise, not much movement except catcher Wally Schang who jumped up quite a bit.
Red Faber: 71% +3
Gabby Hartnett: 71%
Bill Terry: 65% -3
Joe Sewell: 47% -11
Sam Rice: 41% -12
Wally Schang: 41% +15
Hack Wilson: 41% +4
Earl Averill: 35%
Pie Traynor: 35% +3
Wes Ferrell: 29%
Waite Hoyt: 24% +3
Tony Lazzeri: 24% +8
Firpo Marberry: 24% +3
Heinie Manush: 18% +7
Falling Off The Ballot (12 Players)
Lots of hall of famers falling off here, including Kiki Cuyler, who falls off unceremoniously on his second ballot. Boy the 30's were sure a good time for offensive players, eh?
Zack Wheat: 53% -10
Urban Shocker: 35% -7
Earl Combs: 24% -2
Max Carey: 18% -19
Burleigh Grimes: 18% +2
Charlie Root: 12%
Wally Berger: 6%
Kiki Cuyler: 6% -10
Larry French: 6%
Bump Hadley: 0%
Buddy Myer: 0%
George Uhle: 0% -11
A break made even longer with not being recognized until three days later.
If/when a Veterans Committee (let's think of a better name for that) is ever convened, Zack Wheat & Urban Shocker are going to be two compelling candidates for consideration.
My thought is that it wouldn't be any special kind of exclusionary committee. Everyone who wanted to vote could vote. But I was thinking when we're caught up we would revisit players who had at least 40% or 50% of the vote at some point or something like that. I'm not sure how that would like, but we have a few years to figure that out.
Didn't mean to suggest it would be an exclusionary committee – just one that reexamined players who didn't quite make the cut. A minimum of 40-50% strikes me as fair since we haven't had any Lou Whitakers yet.
Everyone who wanted to vote could vote.
Everyone who chose to vote might have voted, but WGOM has a larger community...and some of them just might be veterans, so there's that
Whoa, man, that was a long break. I don't even remember voting in this one.
December 29th, at 9:28:35!
My first thought as well!
Beau posted when I voted at just the right time because I was about to go through my email to see if I got the invite. I'd have been sad if I had ruined my perfect voting record.
So ... spreadsheets. Before I was updating those on my big desktop setup at work, but this year has absolutely sucked away all of my free time at work. I will try and see if I can make this work on the home laptop with only a trackpad or not.
I think I can still continue to update these, I just have to do it. Consider this my commitment to doing just that.
Have the G man do it for you! 😉
Immortalized.
Voter Records spreadsheet updated. I think I know how to do the "votes for HBHOF enshrinees" stat, but haven't done it yet.
Voting Results coming up next.
Voting Results now complete.
Fun Fact: George Uhle was not the first candidate to lose all support and receive zero "Yes" votes on his third ballot. Will White and Ned Williamson had the same thing happen previously. (Guy Hecker is the only other player to survive the first ballot and receive zero "Yes" votes on a subsequent ballot - his happened on his second ballot).