This election ends Wednesday.
This year’s candidates:
4 Mel Allen
3 Roger Angell
3 Emmett Ashford
2 Jack Buck
1 Bob Creamer
3 Charles Denton
1 Charles Faber
2 Joe Garagiola
1 Pat Gillick
2 Doug Harvey
3 Ernie Harwell
1 Walt Hriniak
1 Frank Jobe
1 Roger Kahn
1 Charlie Lau
3 Lee MacPhail
1 Leo Mazzone
1 David Neft
1 Dave Neihaus
1 David Nemec
2 Sadaharu Oh
1 Pete Palmer
3 Max Patkin
3 Jimmy Reese
4 Allen Roth
3 Charles Schultz
2 Vince Scully
2 George Steinbrenner
3 Carl Stotz
2 Bob Uecker
Bob’s ballot:
1. Allen
2. Garagiola
3. Oh
4. Palmer
5. Nemec
6. Faber
7. Creamer
8. Stotz
9. Uecker
10. Reese
This has been the hardest and the easiest ballot so far for me. I won’t vote for anyone in management who was involved in colluding. These guys not only broke the law, what they did was not in the best interests of baseball, and they all knew that. I won’t vote for hometown announcers, because 1) I’ve likely never really heard them and 2) I have no clear idea of how to separate them. I haven’t voted for umpires, because frankly I haven’t a clue as to what makes one worthier than another. Was Ashford better than Harvey? I have no way of knowing. So that leaves me national announcers, coaches, statisticians/sabermetricians, authors, entertainers and various other contributors to pick from. It leaves me an interesting and eclectic group.
None were easy choices. But the first three and the bottom three seemed to have a large enough break between them that I could put 4 of my favorite people wedged in between. A little name dropping on my part, so excuse me if I go all sycophantic all of a sudden.
Pete Palmer I have met a couple times. After BillJ, the most influential sabermetrician on my thought process.
David Nemec is one of the original 19th century researchers who is still around. I am going to Cooperstown in a couple of weeks for the SABR 19th Century Committee Convention. Mindy is going with me this time (not to the meetings of course), and David is the one man I most want her to meet. If you guys have never read him, I heartily recommend his “The Great Encyclopedia Of 19th Century Major League Baseball”. His writing style is similar to BillJ, tho he’s more historian than analyst.
Charles Faber is a friend of mine, so this vote for him is entirely personal. A great sabermetrician? Hardly. His Faber Points have to be one of the (don’t tell him I said this) goofiest rating system I’ve ever seen. And yet it works for the most part. He gets some crazy rankings, but no crazier to me than WAR or Linear Weights or Win Shares. We e-mail back and forth half a dozen times a year. Right now we’re fussing (Charles and I always seem to be at odds with each other) about how the pitching rubber got put at 60’6″.
I met Bob Creamer for the first time last summer just before he passed. He was sitting alone at the SABR National Convention, so I sat down next to him, and we just started talking baseball and went on to other topics. Just the two of us sat there, as knowledgeable fans, and not once did the name Babe Ruth come up. Priceless.
Do any of these guys deserve enshrinement in the GOR or HOF? Palmer, maybe, but that’s a stretch, especially his first time on a ballot. The other three really aren’t worthy, but they’ll always be deserving contributors in my own personal HOF.
Terry’s ballot:
1: Frank Jobe
2: Pete Palmer
3: Sadaharo Oh
4: Allan Roth
5: Joe Garagiola
6: Vin Scully
7: Ernie Harwell
8: Charlie Lau
9: Mel Allen
10: Bob Uecker
Honorable mention:
Dave Neihaus
Results:
9 ballots; the results:
70 Joe Garagiola
63 Mel Allen
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49 Sadaharu Oh
48 Pete Palmer
36 Vin Scully
32 Allen Roth
27 Frank Jobe
26 Bob Creamer
22 Max Patkin
22 Charles Schultz
20 Charlie Lau
20 Carl Stotz
18 Roger Angell
15 David Neft
13 Emmett Ashford
10 Bob Uecker
9 David Nemec
8 Ernie Harwell
8 Jimmy Reese
8 Johnny Sain
6 Dave Niehaus
5 Charles Faber
5 Roger Kahn
3 Charles Denton
3 Walt Hriniak
3 Lee MacPhail
Bob Gregory's Gallery of Renown 