On one hand, I'm happy that
Harold Baines made it to a second Hall of Fame ballot. On the other hand, it's disheartening to see how narrowly he made the cut.
Baines received
5.3 percent of the vote, with five of his total of 29 coming from
Chicago Tribune writers. Take Chicago out of the equation, and Baines drops off the ballot.
Maybe it's because Tony Gwynn and Cal Ripken Jr. were on the ballot. That probably explains why Jim Rice, Andre Dawson and Bert Blyleven all saw their percentages drop. When true greatness is on the ballot, voters become far more discriminating, and those shifting standards present one of my biggest problems with the current voting procedure.
Baines isn't a Hall of Famer, because he simply wasn't durable enough for a designated hitter. On the other hand, he seems to have done enough to warrant a lengthy run on the ballot, which I consider to be the Temporary Baseball Hall of Fame. Here's how Baines ranks on the Eligible Players Not in The Hall lists:
- First in hits (2,866)
- First in total bases (4,604)
- First in RBI (1,628)
- First in runs created (1,657)
- Second in games (2,830)
Yes, he did rack up those numbers because he hung around forever, but he had every right to stay. Although he missed a lot of time thanks to his knees, he didn't post an OPS+ below 100 until he was 41, so it isn't exactly garbage time for garbage teams.
Hopefully he'll see some more votes come his way in 2008, which will feature a far weaker ballot. Of course, that will be
Tim Raines' first year, so we'll probably just shift the caterwauling for Rock's eventual lack of support.