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
I'll let you all in on a little secret. After the last vote I commissioned a focus group to try and tweak the rules to make this process a little more enjoyable long-term. I'm sure the tweaking isn't finished, as we want this process to be fun, not laborious. We're hopeful that the changes will make each new ballot more interesting as well as allowing us to speed through the years a bit faster.
Changes Now In Effect
1. Name change! This was unanimous and suggested by CarterHayes. Perhaps it will also put less pressure on people to vote "correctly." Big thanks to hungry joe for making the changes.
2. Daneeka's Ghost has created a voting history spreadsheet. A link to it is below. It's pretty amazing. Hopefully this spreadsheet along with Brian's will help people with their voting process.
3. Threshold to remain on the ballot has risen to 25%. If this had been in effect for the previous two elections, we'd already have seven fewer people around.
4. You can only use your Maybe vote on 25% of the ballot. For each ballot I will provide you with a max number.
5. After three times on a ballot, players will no longer have a Maybe option next to their name. They deserve a firm answer after 2-3 months of thinking about it.
Other Discussion Points
Some proposed limiting the number of times someone can be on a ballot. Majority decided that it's too early to place such a restriction, but this may be revisited if some players stay on for a while with little movement.
Discussion occurred regarding skipping around eras. Majority decided to keep things going chronologically for the sake of continuity and keeping the ballot more of an organic process.
Some thought that once we reach the 20th century, there will be fewer people remaining on the ballot year after year. Some felt the opposite, as views will be more entrenched as voters will be more confident, forcing us to kick people off after a while. We shall see.
1894-1896 Ballot
I am only listing the new people below. I went just over 30 people for this ballot to keep things moving. I'm hopeful we'll have many people fall off after this one and things will become a little saner. There are 24 returning players and 9 new ones.
Returning Players to the Ballot
New Pitchers
Ice Box Chamberlain
John Clarkson
Tony Mullane
New Batters
Pete Browning
Oyster Burns
Charlie Comiskey
Jack Glasscock
Tommy McCarthy
Monte Ward
The second election cycle sparked less interest than the first go-round, though we did wind up with 23 voters, including two new voters (FTLT and UncleWalt, welcome!). I understand it was a crazy few weeks for a lot of you, and I understand there could be some changes to how we do this to make the experience more fun for everybody.
Personally, I found 30 people on the ballot to be a bit overwhelming, especially since I didn't just copy/paste my votes from last time. It is definitely harder to judge 19th century players, which could be part of the problem. While some people dropped off after this ballot, a lot of them remain, and I fear they could remain indefinitely. For example, some people want Candy Cummings in for inventing the curveball. Some don't think that's HOF worthy. Is that ever going to change? Will he be stuck around 30% forever? Or will it just take more discussion to see which way that needle ticks?
It appears there was a glitch with the ballot where people who wanted to abstain weren't allowed to do so (except bhiggum, who abstained before the glitch occurred). I'll make sure to fix this for the next ballot.
Okay, onto the results. Did we elect anybody this go round?
Continue reading WGOM Half-Baked Hall: 1891-1893 Election Results
The first ballot of the esteemed WGOM electorate resulted in one Al Spalding reaching the hallowed halls of our Hall of Fame. Who will join him next?
The previous voting and enshrinement cycle lasted about two weeks. (For those wondering, if we keep to that pace, this project will end in about two years.) I will be taking Philosofer's suggestion and allow for more discussion pre-vote. I pulled the trigger last time because discussion had died for one day, but then it picked back up again as people had more time to research. However, if you know you're going to be out of town for a while and would like a ballot early, that should not be a problem.
I will also be asking people to use the Google form that yickit created for us, as it makes compiling so much easier.
There are 33 people on this ballot. Sixteen are returning from the previous ballot. This seems like a lot, but I think the "maybe" vote was used liberally because voters were unfamiliar with the players and because it was the first time. I suspect this will decrease as time goes forward, and if we allow for more discussion pre-vote.
There are four players who retired in 1891 and six each from 1892 and 1893. We also have added one player from the 1890 ballot that AMR requested. Again, if you want to advocate for an addition to the ballot that I missed, please do so in the comments. I typically add people who have over 30 WAR or have other notable careers, including all those in the real Hall of Fame.
Ballot is below the jump. I have italicized players new to the ballot.
