The Hall Calls

Many congratulations are due to Roberto Alomar and Bert Blyleven for being voted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY. Alomar gained 90 percent of the vote as being selected on 523 of 581 ballots in his second year on the ballot, jumping up from 73.65 percent of the vote last year, missing election by only 8 votes. Alomar was a 10 time gold glove winner and a 12 time All Star. He will be inducted as a member of the Toronto Blue Jays, with whom he won two World Series. Blyleven was in his 14th year on the ballot and gained 79.7 percent of the vote being selected on 463 of 581 ballots. He gained 74.21 percent of the vote on year ago, missing election by only 5 votes. Blyleven was a two time All Star and had a career win total of 287 and will surely be inducted as a member of the Minnesota Twins. Two players very worthy of Hall of Fame enshrinement will be very welcome.

The other big story was the big name players with a very low vote total. Mark McGwire finished with only 19.8 percent of the vote, Rafael Palmeiro with 11 percent of the vote, and Jeff Bagwell with only 41.7 percent of the vote. McGwire and Palmeiro have both been implicated in the recent steroid and PED scandal in baseball and this is the most likely reason why they have such a low vote total. Bagwell has never been tied in any way to steroids or any other PED and has had a highly successful career so it is surprising that he only garnered just over 40 percent of the vote.