Bruce Sutter was the winner of the "We Had To Elect Somebody" Sweepstakes, entering the Baseball Hall of Fame with 76.9 percent of the vote.
Once again, former White Sox Goose Gossage will have to wait despite putting up far better numbers over a longer career.
And I don't think I'll ever understand it.
Sure, Sutter has the better ERA (2.83 to 3.01), but Gossage threw more than 800 more innings, rendering the difference moot. He struck out hitters at a higher rate, pitched 10 more years, saved more games and threw more innings per save.
Yet somehow Sutter got in ahead of Gossage. And ahead of Bert Blyleven who had 13 fewer
wins than Gossage had
saves. That's a whole lot of credit voters are giving Sutter for being the first pitcher to have success with the splitter.
As far as the other White Sox are concerned, Tommy John earned 29.6 percent, showing no significant progress towards Cooperstown. Albert Belle lives to see another ballot, earning 7.7 percent of the vote. The same can't be said for Ozzie Guillen or Alex Fernandez who earned 1 and 0 percent of the vote, respectively.
This year's tragedy goes to Will Clark, who dropped off the ballot by only earning 4.4 percent of the vote. Clark isn't a Hall of Famer because his career was too short, but he was a heckuva hitter, had a terrific batting eye, had great power, played solid defense, and was a menace in the postseason. He absolutely destroyed the Cubs in 1989, and was the only Cardinal to pose any sort of threat to the Mets in 2000.
Meanwhile, Steve Garvey -- who had more hits, but a lower batting average, hit with less power, didn't walk as much, and fathered more illegitimate kids -- received just over a quarter of the vote.
Even if these guys aren't Hall of Famers, I think it's important for them to remain on the ballot because that's the kind of recognition they deserve -- year after year, they may come up short of the Hall, but seeing their names on the ballot brings back a lot of memories and brings up discussion regarding his place in history. It's somewhat like a temporary Hall of Fame, which is appropriate for players who come up just short.
And Alan Trammell only garnered 17 percent. Looks like we're going to need the Veterans' Committee to help him out.