One and done.
I placed an X next to Jack Morris on my Hall of Fame ballot, and I was finished voting. If Morris is elected, I will most likely be finished voting period. If Morris is not elected this time, I will vote for him next year in his final year of eligibility and then be done.
Barring a change in my thinking, which I don’t expect, I believe the time has come to relinquish my right as a 10-year (actually 50-year) member of the Baseball Writers Association of America to vote in the Hall of Fame election.
You mean you'll really stop? This is a great late Christmas present. I mean sure you are going to vote for about the 18th most qualified man on the ballot, but then go away? Thanks!
I offer two reasons for my decision.
Though I don’t believe there is a more qualified set of electors, certainly not the new-age stats guys who are envious of the writers and believe they should determine Hall of Famers, I don’t think reporters and columnists who cover and comment on baseball news should be making baseball news.
Only grizzled veteran writers are allowed to make news. What the hell does this even mean? How is a writer different than a columnist who covers baseball anyway? All reporters should stick to telling me what Yadier Molilna batting average is (.315 by the way).
The steroids issue has made it impossible to conduct a rational vote and cast a reasonable ballot. No matter how a writer votes or on what he bases his decision whom to vote for or not to vote for, his reasoning has to be flawed and open to challenge.
Agreed. We don't know who cheated or not. Come to think of it, some people may have cheated in the past. Let's kick them out instead. Why do we even need a Hall of Fame. Let's just have a Hall of Jack Morris and call it done.
I have read and heard all sorts of explanations for voting or not voting for players listed on the ballot, the focus falling on players known to have used performance-enhancing substances (i.e. those who tested positive) or those who were suspected or having used them (especially those cases where circumstantial evidence e of use was strong).
There are the writers who say they will not vote for anyone who cheated. There are writers who say they will vote for players who established Hall of Fame credentials before they became cheaters.
There are writers who say they will ignore steroids use, even in obvious cases, and vote as if the stuff didn’t exist because it’s impossible to know for sure who used and who didn’t use. And anyway Major League Baseball ignored all of the cheating so why shouldn’t they, the last group argues.
A. Bartlett Giamatti, the late commissioner, used to say in applicable situations, “You could use a higher standard,” and that suggestion would apply here for the writers who throw up their hands and say, “How am I supposed to know who cheated and who didn’t?”
Steroids are bad. They shouldn't have used them. Baseball should have banned them before, but didn't. If you want to make this argument for Raffy or Manny Ramirez when he comes up, fine. They failed the drug test after it became illegal. I don't necessarily agree with even that, but I could buy that argument at least. I'm so glad the Hall of Jack Morris won't contain spitballers or players who used amphetamines before testing either.
It’s a perfectly good and fair question to ask, but it shouldn’t be answered by voting for known or suspected cheaters. The most logical answer is don’t vote. I have not made a study of the matter, but I noticed the other day a column on ESPN.com by T.J. Quinn, who declared an end to his voting. Good for him. Are there any other sensible writers in the house?
Don't vote. Unless it's for Jack Morris. Everyone may have cheated. Who knows? I heard one time Dale Murphy stole a sign while on second base. Even if you think his numbers stack up, how could you vote for such a cheating cheater? Better to just not let anyone in the Hall of Fame.
Now, you might ask and reasonably so, if I plan to stop voting, why did I vote this year? I voted in the hope that my vote would contribute to Morris’ election. I didn’t vote for anyone else because anyone I might have considered was a known or suspected cheater, and I didn’t want to aid and abet a cheater.
You are making such great points. Screw the Hall of Jack Morris idea. Let's have a Hall of Clean players instead. Has it been 5 years yet since Eckstein retired? Screw it, he's in anyway. Have you seen how small and scrappy he was? No way that dude used steroids.
I think I am safe in concluding that Morris did not cheat. I know the stats zealots don’t think Morris is a Hall of Famer because his rankings in their new-fangled ratings fall below their standards. But they don‘t have a formula for intestinal fortitude or determination.
Not true. Morris' intestinal fortitude was 35.7 for his career and determination was -10.4. I know. I was surprised too. His final season in Cleveland really brought down the latter number. Screw all these sciency proven type numbers like WARPFJAGNWER. They tell us nothing about Jack Morris or any other player. You know who should get to vote for the Hall of Fame? X-Ray machines. They know intestinal fortitude.
Morris willed the Minnesota Twins to win Game 7 of the 1991 World Series, refusing to leave as long as the game was scoreless.
Single game intestinal fortitude rating of 165.3 an all time high.
The stats zealots are tired of hearing about that game, but it is symbolic of the fatal flaw in their way of viewing players. Numbers simply don’t tell the whole story.
True. They tell a lot of the story though. I'm fine with using big moments or character issues as tie breakers, but numbers kind of tell you how good a player was at playing baseball. This seems like an important thing for determing how good someone was at playing baseball.
“They seem to have formed a band those fellows, and I don’t know if you’re ever going to change their mind,” Tom Kelly said in a telephone interview Wednesday evening. Kelly managed Morris with the Twins and managed against him when he played for Detroit and Toronto.
Dude, I love this band especially this song. Saw them live twice!
Coincidentally, Kelly had watched a replay of the 10-inning 1-0 Game 7 earlier in the day. “It was snowing and I sat there and flipped the channels,” he said. The game naturally brought back memories.
I was snowed in last week too. Watched several episodes of Breaking Bad. You know who belongs in the Hall of Fame? Walter White! His determination rating is off the charts.
“I remember saying to myself in the dugout I gotta find a way to get a run,” Kelly recalled. “I was starting to get concerned that I couldn’t help the boys get a run.”
Morris pitched all 10 innings. John Smoltz, the Atlanta starter, left in the eighth.
John Smoltz isn't on the ballot yet. Leaving in the 8th inning of one game is cause enough to not get my vote though.
“To me,” Kelly said, “the hardest part of the game for those two guys was their teams had opportunities to score and they didn’t. Other pitchers would have crumbled. Those two fellows kept going out there and being nasty.”
Like Roger Clemens. Definitely would've stumbled. Can you imagine pitching 10 innings without receiving a steroid injection by at least the 7th?
Morris, Kelly added, “did that quite often through the ‘80s and ‘90s. He shut down the other team. If he had the split-finger thing going you felt sorry for the other team. Through the ‘80s and ‘90s if you had a pitcher you had to pick out whom you didn’t want to face Morris had to be in the conversation.
The conversation:
Guy #1: Who is the pitcher whom you don't want to face in the 80's or 90's?
Guy #2: That's a random question to ask while at a funeral, but well ok. I guess Pedro Martinez, Roger Clemens, Greg Maddux, Randy Johnson, Dwight Gooden off the top of my head.
Guy #1: What about Jack Morris?
Guy #2: He was pretty good, but no. Not really
Guy #1: Yeah me either. Sorry for your loss.
Yep in the conversation.
“People just don’t know what it was like to sit there and watch from either side of the field. I got to do both.”
My uncle once had seats to consecutive games on the 1st base AND 3rd base side of the field.
Lest anyone think Kelly was praising Morris because he managed him, I note that they were together only one year in Morris’ 18-year career.
“I sure hope it goes his way,” Kelly said. “It seems absurd that he’s not in. How many rings does he have? Three? I wish those young guys would look at that.”
A few players with six rings
Joe Collins
Jerry Coleman
Tommy Byrne
Charlie Silvera
I've never heard of any of them, but let's go ahead and give them 1.5 plaques in Cooperstown.
In case those “young guys” don’t know what Kelly is talking about, he was referring to the three World Series championship rings Morris won with three different teams. That was no accident or coincidence, Kelly would tell them. Morris was instrumental in the success the Tigers, the Twins and the Blue Jays had in their championship seasons.
I am too young to remember the Tigers championship so I suppose he's talking about me.
Other players instrumental to these championships
Kirk Gibson '84 Tigers .282/.363/.516
Shane Mack '91 Twins .310/.363/.529
Pat Hentgen '92 Jays 19-9 3.87 ERA
Who's to say the 6 games Tom Edens started for the Twins didn't propel them there either
Hall of Fame plaques for everyone!
For what it's worth Morris' stats in the 92 WS
0-2 8.44 ERA in 10.2 innings
[redacted long rambling diatribe about Gil Hodges]
Morris could be hurt or helped by how writers vote on the cheaters. If they go big for the big names, they will very likely not include Morris. If they choose to reject the cheaters, Morris figures to benefit. If Morris isn’t elected this time, he could face a problem next year because Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine will be on the ballot for the first time.
Having pitchers who were much better players than Jack Morris will hurt his case. No argument here.
Years ago, I introduced a motion at a national writers’ meeting that we withdraw from voting. Had the motion been voted on at that meeting, I think it would have had a good chance of passing. If it had passed, we wouldn’t be debating the steroids issue now. But a quick-thinking writer moved to table the vote until the entire national membership could vote by mail.
My motion easily lost so here we are today talking about Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Sammy Sosa, Mike Piazza, Craig Biggio and Jeff Bagwell among others.
This is so unfathomable stupid I don't think I can be snarky. Let's not do the one really important thing we are tasked to do.
I spoke to several writers about their ballots and found that two had voted for Biggio and two others hadn’t because of a suspicion in baseball circles that he used steroids. When Bagwell was eligible initially a couple of years ago, I voted for him, then was told he was a steroids guy. Trusting the information, I haven’t voted for him since.
I will paypal $50 to the first writer that emails Murray Chass telling him Jack Morris used steroids.
[redacted long bizarre rambling on Mike Piazza and back acne. Almost as long as the Jack Morris article itself]
TL:DR version
Murray Chass is voting for Jack Morris because of his internal organs
Steroids are confusing
Mike Piazza had back acne.
