Before we begin, I'd like to mention to those reading that if you're not yet a voter and would like to be, please let me know. You can join any time!
Also, if you haven't been following Coffeyville Whirlwind, Scot continues to do bios for our electees.
22 voters plunked down ballot this time around. 17 votes were needed for election, and 6 votes were needed to avoid eternal shame. Three players had one final chance to get elected.
As you all know, for our second anniversary (after the cruise) I decided to do five minutes of stand-up at Rick Bronson's House of Comedy. I don't think I would have had the courage to do this without my wife. My entire family (including my parents) also came to watch. I'm blessed that they gave me my adult sense of humor and appreciate it.
The video is below, but first, a few highlights:
1. There were 13 guest comedians for open mic. The closer (Chris Knutson, who was pretty good) was actually the headliner the entire week. I was supposed to go second, which was great. Have someone open, then get up and off the stage before I get too nervous. Well, the first person didn't show. So I was surprisingly called right away. Yikes.
2. The first few guys who followed me were horrendous. One guy was about 70 and just told dirty internet jokes (and he had a lisp). One guy just sadly talked about how awful he was sexually. No jokes, just him berating himself. One guy I'm sure was higher than a kite and kept having to read his cheat sheet to remember his jokes.
3. As mentioned, Fancy Ray was there. For those who don't know who he is, he's a sort-of local celebrity who used to do late night commercials for local sex shops. He also had his own cable show where he interviewed people like Oprah (!). His entire act is him being famous for being famous. He was pretty obnoxious, but then he spent two minutes picking on my dad in the front row. He asked my dad if he had seen him on TV. My dad shook his head, and Fancy said it's probably because he watches too much internet porn. He then said my Dad looked like a 70's swinger who never got laid. Lots of laughs at our table for that.
4. Funniest guy of the night was Brandon Riddley. He had a five-minute bit on how awful his aunt's peanut butter was when he was a kid, and how it almost ruined his life.
5. Favorite one-liner of the night. "So last weekend I hosted a party. The theme was Alien vs. Predator. Only it had a twist. It was Illegal Aliens and Sexual Predators. Wound up just being a mustache party."
6. There was one obnoxious drunk kid in the crowd. He volunteered that he had just had a DWI and his ex-girlfriend's mother was there driving him around. Unfortunately, comedians kept egging him on and this weird relationship and the kid wound up heckling later comedians.
6. The emcee, Greg Coleman, was fantastic. He's in the picture above. He made everyone feel welcome and was pretty funny. He opened the evening with a few jokes, including one where he was convinced he had HIV as a kid, because he misinterpreted some lyrics from an Ice Cube song. I tell you this because it explain my opening joke. Enjoy. (Slightly NSFW due to adult humor and one four letter word)
For the first time since the initial election, we will be looking at more than three years this go round, as the 1903-1905 classes were pretty weak. We have 16 players from the previous ballot and 16 new players.
Due Date: Monday, August 4. I'll extend this if there's demand.
Players On Their Final Ballot
Candy Cummings
Dave Orr
Deacon White
Before we get to the results, I want to shout out to Scot at Coffeyville Whirlwind for profiling our electorate. Awesome stuff.
We had an excellent turnout this time with 24 voters chiming in. Let's welcome AMR and Can of Corn to the ranks! And I'm confident in saying that their presence affected the outcomes. We'll leave it up to you to decide whether or not that's a good thing.
So after some discussion we decided that we do not want the same players on the ballot indefinitely, even if they don't fall below 25%. Here are the reasons:
1. Some players likely will not change much. For example, it appears about 35% of voters feel that Comiskey deserves to go in because of what he did outside of his playing days. This will likely stay rather static.
2. For players close to the 75% threshold, the pressure of falling off the ballot will likely generate more discussion.
3. We felt it will be more fun if players are judged against their contemporaries.
Therefore, the MAXIMUM number of times a player can be on the ballot is SIX. This is ballot number five. When it's a player's last turn on the ballot, it will be made clear.
Three years per ballot isn't standard, but so far it's how things are falling. 1903-1905 only has seven eligible players, so there may be more years on the next ballot if we have the regular amount of people fall off.
Due Date: July 7. I'm going on my honeymoon on July 11, so I hope to post results on July 10.
Once again we had 21 voters. Not the same 21 voters as last time, so it's nice to know others step up when some can't make it. Did we elect anyone in our final ballot of the 19th century?
I don't know about you, but I felt the last ballot was a huge success. Not only did we elect two new members (including our first hitter!), it seems the voters are getting a bit more confident with their voting. We were able to drop plenty of also-rans and are able to add 14 new players to the ballot without topping 30! There are only five players remaining from the original ballot (White, McCormick, Cummings, Orr, Jones). That's a great turnover and should keep things fresh.
Half of the new crop (including most of the superstars) comes from 1897 alone. Had they had a Hall of Fame back then, 1902 would have been an interesting year for the BBWAA. This ballot is lopsided towards the hitters with 20 to choose from.
BALLOTS DUE: June 9
Returning Players to the Ballot
New Pitchers
Frank Dwyer
Bill Hutchinson
Silver King
Sadie McMahon
Jack Stivetts
New Hitters
Cap Anson
Roger Connor
Buck Ewing
Mike Griffin
Bill Joyce
Denny Lyons
Ed McKean
Bid McPhee
Mike Tiernan
First triathlon of the year tomorrow in Simsbury (kayak, hill-run, then bike). They sent out a possible flood warning, so the river part of the event could be iffy. Supposed to do nothing today but I'll probably do an easy ride on the bike portion of the course.
Next weekend NBBW and I are doing the Cooperstown Sprint Triathlon. We will incorporate visit to HOF and an olde-tymers game on the same weekend - should be fun.
Here is a clip on the Tarahumara: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnwIKZhrdt4.
Also I am getting addicted to the TED series: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0byYFXjRJM
At page 572 in Gravity's Rainbow. I was carrying it when I went to the beer cave earlier this week - dude at the counter was raving about it and other Pynchon works.
We had 21 voters this time around, including bhiggum, who decided to join the party. It appears the changes made this time around were worthwhile. Proof below the jump.
Continue reading WGOM Half-Baked Hall: 1896 Election Results
