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No New Hall of Famers for Baseball
Dodger Stadium (Photo by intellichick via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr)
The Baseball Writers Association of America elected no one into the Hall of Fame. Enshrinement requires 75% of the vote of which first-time nominee Craig Biggio came closest with 68.2% of the vote. This is the eighth time that the BBWAA did not elect anyone, the first time since 1996.
So it looks like the writers really made their stand against the steroid users. Mind you this is the same organization that awarded Barry Bonds seven MVP Awards and Roger Clemens seven Cy Young Awards. Also never mind that the hall is filled with players who used greenies (amphetemines) that have since been banned by MLB.
Then again, the Internet Baseball Writers Association of America didn't do any better. IBWAA announced on Monday that it selected Mike Piazza to its Hall of Fame with 79.10% of the vote. Like the real vote, 75% of the vote is needed to be selected. So it's not the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. There's no plaque, induction ceremony or anything like that. All it means is that those of us who write about baseball in an online forum elected Piazza to our not-so-sacred hall.
In his 16 years in the Majors, Piazza continued to help usher a change of how we think offensive output from a catcher. The Rookie of the Year in 1993, Piazza went on to average .308 with 427 homers with the Dodgers, Marlins, Mets, Padres and A's. He was a 12-time All Star winning 10 Silver Slugger awards and an MVP runner-up in 1996 and 1997.
Piazza garnered 57.8% of the vote from the BBWAA.
No other player or "special consideration" candidates got the required 75% threshold to be fake enshrined. Craig Biggio got 64.18% of the vote, Roger Clemens got 52.24% and Jeff Bagwell and Barry Bonds both got 50.75%.
Other Dodgers notables on the ballot who got votes included Gil Hodges with 40.30%, Mark McGwire with 23.88%, Buzzie Bavasi with 19.40%, Don Mattingly with 8.96% and Steve Finley with 1.49%.
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As a voting member of the IBWAA who did I vote for?
Mike Piazza, Craig Biggio, Roger Clemens, Barry Bonds, Jack Morris and Marvin Miller.
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