My latest piece for Sporting News went live a little while ago. I wrote about Ken Griffey Jr.’s chances of becoming the first unanimous selection in Hall of Fame history. My friend Ryan Thibodaux keeps track of BBWAA ballots made public. So far, with about 1/4 of ballots known, Griffey’s been named on every one.
Anyhow, feedback and suggestions are as always welcome.
In other news, voting on my project on the 25 best players not in the Hall of Fame officially wrapped yesterday afternoon. Thanks to the 468 people who voted, which is close to the number of voters we had combined the previous four years this project has run. Results will be out January 4 at Sporting News, though I’ll definitely note it here and elsewhere.
Tom Seaver and Nolan Ryan are numbers one and two in the Hall of Fame balloting with the highest percentages. Seaver had the highest with 98.839% and Ryan had 98.79%. All of the balloting for all inductees by the BBWAAA from 1936 through 2010 is in my book, “Induction Day at Cooperstown A History of the Baseball Hall of Fame Ceremony.”
I don’t expect Ken Griffey , Jr to become the first unanimous selection because no one has ever done it, including the greats like Cobb , Ruth, Aaron, Mays, etc. I don’t expect that one voter who hasn’t voted for anyone from the steroid era to change.
“All of the balloting for all inductees by the BBWAAA from 1936 through 2010 is in my book, ‘Induction Day at Cooperstown A History of the Baseball Hall of Fame Ceremony.'”
Right. Voting info is available free and current on Baseball-Reference.com. Why would I recommend that my readers pay for something they can get for free?
I understood also as I wrote my piece that if I went through and divided vote totals for Seaver and Ryan, they’d be separated if I carried it out more than one decimal place. I wrote in my piece that Seaver and Ryan tied since their totals both round to 98.8 percent. A less than .05% difference seems like splitting hairs to me, at least on this.