Another season, another postseason prediction contest. Spoiler your predictions below. They are due by first pitch of tomorrow's game.
ALWC: MIN at NYY
NLWC: COL at ARI
ALDS: BOS at HOU
ALDS: MIN/NYY at CLE
NLDS: CHC at WSH
NLDS: ARI/COL at LAD
ALCS:
NLCS:
World Series:
We're now entering the part of the ballot that gets perhaps somewhat trickier, as a lot of the players lost time due to being in the Negro Leagues, being at war, or both. So when you look at Ted Williams and debating whether or not he qualifies, remember he lost five years to war.
We've also got our first Negro League only player on a ballot. Dread Pirate will do the honors this time.
Negro Leaguer
Buck Leonard (DPWY)
Final Ballot
Nobody
Returning Players
Lou Boudreau (2nd), Ralph Kiner (2nd), Ted Lyons, Joe Gordon (3rd), Wes Ferrell (5th), Joe Medwick (3rd), Red Ruffing (3rd), Dizzy Dean (3rd), Ernie Lombardi (3rd), Lefty Gomez (3rd), Bobby Doerr (2nd)
New Hitters
George Kell (New Britain Bo)
Roy Campanella (yickit)
Pee Wee Reese (nibbish)
Enos Slaughter (freealonzo)
Larry Doby (yickit)
Ted Williams (freealonzo)
Al Dark (canofcorn)
Gil McDougald (nibbish)
Richie Ashburn (Scot)
Stan Musial (New Britain Bo)
Gil Hodges (DPWY)
Red Schoendienst (bhiggum)
New Pitchers
Dizzy Trout (Beau)
Bob Lemon (Beau)
Virgil Trucks (canofcorn)
Murry Dickson (philosofer)
Don Newcombe (bhiggum)
Ned Garver (philosofer)
Early Wynn (Scot)
Now that Jackie Robinson has been elected, I wanted to check in with you guys on your interest in considering Negro League players. If people were interested they could volunteer to do a write-up on a player (that they would want to vote for) and they could be added to the ballot. Either a special Negro League ballot or we could just add them sporadically as we go along.
Are you interested in voting on Negro League Players?
Total Voters: 6
Loading ...Are you interested in doing a write up on a Negro League Player?
Total Voters: 6
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It's been pretty white up in here until now. Not only did Jackie Robinson do good, he is our only unanimous inductee for this ballot.
Dimaggio skates in with 94% of the vote. Hey, he wasn't Ted Williams.
Steak, brown rice, black beans, guacamole, cheese, hot salsa, and 94% of the vote.
With 83% of the vote, I would say that's game, set, match.
The electorate was clearly on the side of clearly very talented. At least 83% of us were.
Is that Joseph Gordon-Levitt with 83% of the vote? Anyway, Gabby gets in on his fourth ballot.
Below you'll find plaques for those votes in last time. Thanks hungry joe!
Staying On The Ballot
Boudreau and Kiner have nice debuts which will likely get them elected. Joe Gordon makes the biggest leap, crossing that coveted 50% line. Nearly everyone else drops.
Lou Boudreau (67%)
Ralph Kiner (67%)
Ted Lyons (67%) +2
Joe Gordon (56%) +11
Wes Ferrell (44%) -6
Joe Medwick (44%) -11
Red Ruffing (44%) -6
Dizzy Dean (39%) -11
Ernie Lombardi (39%) -1
Lefty Gomez (33%) -12
Bobby Doerr (28%)
Falling off the Ballot
Bill Terry came close at times and made his final ballot push but just didn't impress enough of us to get in. Meanwhile Bob Johnson who I have a soft spot for sputtered out, as did Stan Hack.
The legendary Phil Rizzuto did not impress and is promptly booted before anyone even had a chance to do a write-up on him.
Bill Terry (61%) +11
Bob Johnson (33%) -7
Stan Hack (22%) -13
Dutch Leonard (17%)
Charlie Keller (11%)
Bobo Newsom (11%)
Phil Rizzuto (11%)
Bob Elliott (6%)
Eddie Stanky (6%)
Harry Brecheen (0%)
Bill Nichsolon (0%)
Vern Stephens (0%)
My latest trip to Marcus Theater was for The Lego Batman movie, which was hilarious. Otherwise, TV has been the order of the day when I've had the chance to waste time on a screen.
The topic of "Time and Place" songs and albums has come up around these parts a couple of times, but today it struck me that certain books fall into this category as well.
When I think of A Four-Sided Bed by Elizabeth Searle, I recall eating Reese's Pieces while sprawled my bed--a mattress on the floor of an unair-conditioned* apartment--in the summer of 1999.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows brings to mind a trip up north in the summer of 2007 when I could hardly tear myself away from the book to do anything else (including speaking to my family) until I'd finished it.
I love those books read during long hours in the summer when I could read with barely an interruption. There's little opportunity for that at the moment, but I trust that someday I'll be able to read that way again.
Are there books that take you back to a certain time and place? And what are you currently reading?
*I had no idea how that word was spelled until I looked it up just now.
So you may have heard recently about this guy in the news named Jackie Robinson. As it turns out, he was a pretty decent player and shows up on this ballot. And philosofer was randomly assigned to finding something to write about the guy. Good luck, dude.
Also, last chance to vote for...
Final Ballot
Bill Terry
Returning Players
Wes Ferrell (4th), Gabby Hartnett (4th), Bob Johnson (3rd), Ted Lyons (2nd), Joe Medwick (2nd), Dizzy Dean (2nd), Red Ruffing (2nd), Joe Gordon (2nd), Ernie Lombardi (2nd), Lefty Gomez (2nd), Stan Hack (2nd)
New Hitters
Lou Boudreau (Beau)
Joe Dimaggio (daneekasghost)
Bobby Doerr (CanofCorn)
Bob Elliott (DPWY)
Charlie Keller (CanofCorn)
Ralph Kiner (freealonzo)
Johnny Mize (yickit)
Bill Nicholson (nibbish)
Phil Rizzuto (yickit)
Jackie Robinson (philosofer)
Eddie Stanky (daneekasghost)
Vern Stephens (Beau)
New Pitchers
Harry Breechen (Scot)
Bob Feller (freealonzo)
Dutch Leonard (nibbish)
Hal Newhouser (bhiggum)
Bobo Newsom (New Britain Bo)
You've waited long enough, and you'll wait even longer to get plaques. But for now, here are your results. I'll have the next ballot up within a week. And a certain someone who was celebrated this weekend will be on it! Color barrier broken.
And we're back at it! Due to the rule changes this time around, I first have to break some sad news about players who were on the ballot who have been unceremoniously cut off.
Sam Rice: Fell to 33% on his 5th ballot after starting out with 56% of the vote. That sound you hear is Scot weeping.
Hack Wilson: Fell to 28% on his 5th ballot after starting out with 44%. Who knew WGOMers weren't impressed with RBIs?
Earl Averill: Fell to 28% (+ 11 maybe) on his 2nd ballot.
Pie Traynor: Fell to 39% on his third ballot. Sorry Pepper.
Waite Hoyt: Actually increased his vote total to 33% (+ 6 maybe) on his third ballot, but it wasn't enough.
Tony Lazzeri: Started out with 16% of the vote but with 42% giving him a maybe. Once people realized that it was okay not to vote for a Yankee, they backed off. He fell to 28% with 0% maybe on his third ballot.
Also, these players were going to be on the last ballot before we took a break, but no longer meet the threshold. Hal Trosky, Billy Jurges, Ben Chapman, Roy Cullenbine, Curt Davis, and Freddie Fitzsimmons. We hardly knew ye.
Now for what you've been waiting for. Below is your ballot. For write-ups, I gave everyone two people this time around. If you no longer want to do write-ups, please let me know.
Final Ballot
Nobody
Returning Players
Earl Averill (3rd), Wes Ferrell (3rd), Gabby Hartnett (3rd), Bob Johnson (2nd), Chuck Klein (2nd), Bill Terry (5th)
New Hitters
Luke Appling (nibbish)
Dick Bartell (Scot)
Bill Dickey (philosopher)
Rick Ferrell (daneekasghost)
Augie Galan (bhiggum)
Joe Gordon (New Britain Bo)
Hank Greenberg (yickit)
Stan Hack (nibbish)
Babe Herman (nibbish)
Ernie Lombardi (freealonzo)
Joe Medwick (Can of Corn)
Mel Ott (freealonzo)
Arky Vaughan (New Britain Bo)
Dixie Walker (Beau)
New Pitchers
Tommy Bridges (Scot)
Dizzy Dean (philosopher)
Lefty Gomez (Can of Corn)
Mel Harder (yickit)
Carl Hubbell (DPWY)
Ted Lyons (DPWY)
Claude Passeau (freealonzo)
Schoolboy Rowe (Beau)
Red Ruffing (daneekasghost)
Bucky Walters (bhiggum)
Ballots will be sent out February 17th. Please don't stress about the write-ups. Even a passing comment or two is welcome if you're feeling stressed for time.
I've been watching all the Marvel movies this month for some reason. You?
Hello, folks.
How are you doing? I understand that there's a fundraiser going on. This is a humble little site, but even humble little sites need $$$ to keep on keeping on. Hungryjoe asked that I say a few words about this. Open up your wallets, folks and shake out a few nickels.
I've been away for a while. In fact, I'd been gone so long that at first that I'd forgotten my login password. Then I remembered: THEWARRIORSBLEWA3-1LEADINTHENBAFINALS (all caps).
The reason I took a hiatus was that someone suggested, when I wished everyone a Happy 2016 on New Years Eve and announced that I'd be off the grid for a week that my being off the grid would make 2016 a truly Happy New Year. This is exactly the type of care and concern that I tried to foster at the site over the years, so I stayed off the grid in the hopes of everyone having a Happy New Year.
Turns out, though, that it's nearly unanimous that 2016 has been, all things considered, pretty crappy. Is it because I haven't been around? Well you can decide that. I thought about swooping in before the election and announcing that I was back to save us all from Trump. I didn't do that, of course, and now we have the most deplorable person to ever hold the office ready to disgrace our country. I'm not sure, but I think that this is the first time in the history of our country that a President-Elect settled a fraud case for $25 million and then headed to twitter to brag that the settlement was a fraction of the potential damage award. Oh. Mr. President-Elect, did you defraud those people of $50 million? $100 million? Or more? Did I say all this out loud? I can say that out loud and not break the politics ban because, well, I'm not talking about politics. Remember when red trucker hats used to be cool?
Personally, I've been doing pretty well, thanks for asking. My little baby girl is now 9 1/2 years old. Some of you may remember that I asked ubelmann to write for the site when she was born because I could no longer write every day with her around. She's now over five feet tall and headed to six feet, I think. (If only she'd pick up a basketball. She does willingly watch basketball with me, but play? Not a chance.) She's skating almost every day and working on her Axel. She plays piano very well for the amount of time she's been playing. I tell her every day, pretty much, that she's got more talent there than I did and that she can really be a good pianist. In other words, I have to motivate her to practice. I used to have to motivate her to skate, but she's doing pretty well there now and doesn't need my motivation.
I'm still working out of state a lot, but not as much as I used to. Plus, I do fly there now, so I've gone from driving about 35,000 miles a year to under 10,000. That makes life a lot… easier. I do spend a fair amount of time away from my family and sometimes that gets to be lonely, but I'm used to it and my time home has gone up quite a bit. Still though, when make that monthly trek, there are days. I've been doing this commute now for almost 6 1/2 years.
In January, we'll be heading out for our fourth Disney cruise. I consider this to be my one real indulgence. Miss SBG and I really love it. Lucy likes it. I can't wait to get on the boat, unplug, and enjoy a week of escaping from all that concerns me.
I'm so old that I remember when we had a banner at the site referring to the Twins saying, "Is It 2014 Yet?" That 2016 campaign was one for the ages. 2016 was necessary. The Twins needed to clean house a long, long time ago. One thing this long period of craptacular baseball has done for me is uncouple me from watching. I gotta go to the rink and watch Miss SBG twirl and jump -- I ain't got no time for watching Ricky Nolasco or some other stiff give the other club 6 runs in the first three innings. I've been a fan for over 40 years, but I'm more of a fair weather fan now. If they win, great. If they lose, I'm outta here. Good job, Twins, you've started to chip away at your most ardent supporters.
One club that never seems to fall on hard times will be gunning for their sixth consecutive FCS Title, entering the playoffs as the number 1 seed. I'm a little less than completely confident that they'll get that sixth one, but even if they don't, man, what a run. In this, what is no doubt the weakest of the six teams, they've gone 10-1 and beat a middle of the pack B1G team. Plus, they are extremely young… very few seniors and they didn't pull a single redshirt. So, all's good there.
Speaking of all being good, how about LeBron? Turns out he's a once in a generation player who carried his club to almost unimaginable heights. Turns out he's pretty woke, too. Heard the Warriors had a pretty good season though, congrats on the 73 wins. To lose a 3-1 lead in the NBA Finals after setting the all-time regular season win record… That's a… that's a real kick in the nuts.
Blah, blah, blah. I'm still the same old guy. It's just that my favorite sport is figure skating now.
Back to the fund raiser. This site and its previous incarnations have meant a lot to me and I'm reasonably sure to a lot of you, too. I can think of a lot worse ways to spend your hard earned dough than to kick a few bucks toward the maintenance of this site. For example, paying to watch Ricky Nolasco stink out the joint (I'm aware he was traded… and promptly started pitching better). Money is a resource and a fairly scarce one for most of us. That's why we shouldn't waste it. A dollar a month or two dollars a month to support a site where you can talk about just about anything is a fine allocation of resources. Please keep the site going. Thanks. And remember, the Warriors (best team, evah!!!!11!!eleventy!!!!) blew a 3-1 lead in the NBA Finals.
