I already wrote a few thoughts in the comments for Ben's take on Rickey Henderson and Jim Rice's election to the Baseball Hall of Fame. But I wanted to add a few more here, especially after reading the actual voting statistics here.
1. Rickey Henderson deserved 100% of the vote. He has the records for most runs scored, most stolen bases, and most leadoff homeruns all time, as well as the most stolen bases in a season, and he once had the most walks of all time (and Rickey was not intentionally walked 688 times like Bonds was, only a "measly" 61 times). So how does he not get 100% of the vote? Maybe some guys trying to prove that the stolen base is an overrated statistic. Maybe people trying to elect Rice, Bert Blyleven, and Andre Dawson to the Hall all at once (Blyeleven certainly deserves it, Dawson is more arguable). Maybe they don't like that Rickey talks about Rickey in the third person. Whatever the case, he should have been unanimous, and that he wasn't says that something is wrong with the system.
2. The system is flawed. Mostly I just don't like the "experts" they pick I guess. Jim Rice in general is questionable...I like the guy but his statistics are very similar to my favorite player of all time (and Hall of Fame eligible next year) Fred "Crime Dog" McGriff. And McGriff doesn't belong in the Hall. So sorry.
But it gets worse. One of the 27 voters who didn't vote for Rickey? He "goofed" in not electing Rickey into the Hall. He somehow just left him off the ballot, electing Matt Williams as his 8th choice and no one at all as his 9th and 10th choices (you're allowed 10 picks, he only chose 8). That's just...wow...I would never make an oversight like that if given such an awesome responsibility.
But what bothered me more? 23 players were on the ballot. Henderson sure...Tim Raines sure. But Ron Gant, Jay Bell, Greg and Mo Vaughn, and Dan Plesac were on the ballot. Granted they combined for 8 votes...but that's the best 23 guys they could come up with? After you subtract the also rans (guys who are already off the list for getting less than 5% of the vote, you have 14 players. If all the voters voted for 10 guys each then we could've seen like 7-8 guys elected. So why not allow only like 5 votes each and add only the truly deserving guys to each ballot. It's a lesser field...but it'll be truly deserving players battling other truly deserving players for these spots. And Ron Gant and Hall of Fame will never be mentioned in the same breath ever again. As it should be (Troy O'Leary was freakin' Hall of Fame eligible for crying out loud!).
Baseball Hall of Fame Voting - Far From Foolproof
