1997

Only two players of note drop off, Bill Freehan and Tony Oliva.

Make sure when you vote to differentiate between Darrell and Dwight Evans.

11 Sal Bando
3 Buddy Bell
11 Bobby Bonds
2 Bill Buckner
6 Cesar Cedeno
5 Ron Cey
4 Dave Concepcion
4 Jose Cruz
13 Willie Davis
13 Dock Ellis
3 Darrell Evans 5th
1 Dwight Evans
7 Rollie Fingers
6 George Foster
5 Steve Garvey
1 Ken Griffey
4 Ron Guidry
13 Jim Hunter 9th
3 Tommy John
9 Jim Kaat
1 Terry Kennedy
7 Jerry Koosman
10 Bill Lee
2 Chet Lemon
2 Fred Lynn
13 Thurman Munson
4 Graig Nettles 4th
7 Al Oliver
8 Amos Otis
1 Dave Parker
6 Tony Perez
1 Terry Puhl
2 Dan Quisenberry 7th
1 Rick Reuschel
3 Jim Rice
6 Pete Rose 3rd
1 Mike Scott
8 Ken Singleton
10 Reggie Smith 10th
7 Rusty Staub
4 Bruce Sutter
1 Garry Templeton
9 Gene Tenace
15 Jim Wynn

Bob’s ballot:

1. Hunter
2. Perez
3. Quisenberry
4. Fingers
5. Dwight Evans
6. Nettles
7. Rice
8. John
9. Darrell Evans
10. Smith

Terry’s ballot:

1: Dan Quisenberry
2: Graig Nettles
3: Darrell Evans
4: Catfish Hunter
5: Tommy John
6: Dwight Evans
7: Dave Parker
8: Steve Garvey
9: Tony Perez
10: Thurman Munson

HM
Rick Reuschel– If you ask me it’s insane to talk about him as a Hall of Famer, but I didn’t vote for Grich either. He was better than a good portion of the Hall of Fame’s pitchers, as Grich was better than a good portion of the Hall of Fame’s infielders. If that’s what it takes to get your vote, you get no argument from me. You won’t get agreement either, but it’s a free country.

My take on the Reuschel/Catfish debate is that the Hall is a museum, and being elected to the Hall is an award. I’m sure that there were dozens, if not hundreds, if not millions of soldiers who were smarter than General Patton, but guess who got the movie? Reuschel’s case isn’t to get in a museum. It’s to be on the all time “can I try this over?” careers list.

Results:

My first tabulation crisis. Bear has a non-corforming-to-the-rules ballot, having Ted Simmons, a winner in the 1996 election, in the 3rd spot. Do I think of his ballot as a Floridian chad and not count it? Or do I count it? If I count it, do I just leave the 3rd spot vacant? Or do I move everybody up a spot leaving the 10th spot empty? I couldn’t decide, so I went to a higher authority: my wife. She suggested (I considered it a “decree”) to count it “as is”, leaving the 3rd spot open. So that is what I did.

15 ballots; the results:

102 Pete Rose
91 Graig Nettles
*************
88 Darrell Evans
77 Jim Hunter
69 Dwight Evans
48 Rick Reuschel
47 Reggie Smith
45 Dan Quisenberry
35 Tommy John
35 Dave Parker
34 Tony Perez
31 Bobby Bonds
26 Buddy Bell
25 Jim Wynn
21 Rollie Fingers
21 Jim Rice
19 Thurman Munson
16 Sal Bando
12 Steve Garvey
12 Ron Guidry
12 Jim Kaat
8 Ron Cey
8 Jose Cruz
6 Bruce Sutter
5 Fred Lynn
4 Cesar Cedeno
4 Ken Singleton
3 Al Oliver
1 Bob Boone
1 Dave Concepcion
1 Gene Tenace