Beltré, Mauer, Helton Make Hall of Fame; Wagner, Sheffield, Others Snubbed.
How would you vote if you had a vote? Did the writers get it right?
Hi friends-
I’ve been writing about baseball professionally for 17 years, and I *think* this may be the first time I’ve written about the Hall of Fame. I could be wrong, but it’s just never been a selection process I have many hot takes about.
I recognize that this… neutrality(?) puts me in the tiny minority of baseball writers, many for whom the Hall seems to be a life or death issue. To be clear, I love Cooperstown (you should go if you can!), and I generally enjoy it when people are rewarded for excellence in their fields. I’m inspired by human achievement, and felt like clapping for Adrián Beltré when he was enshrined yesterday because I adored watching him play.
But the way the voting process works is so weird and confusing that I guess I’ve given up losing sleep over borderline snubs.
(Note: You need to be a member of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America for 10 consecutive years before you’re granted a Hall of Fame vote. I gave up my membership the year I went on sabbatical to write my book, so my clock restarted in 2017. This is why I won’t have a vote for a few more years. Taking a year off when I didn’t have to was probably dumb, but I’m also not super-fixated on having an impact on who is in the Hall at this moment, so whatevs!).
To make the Hall of Fame through the BBWAA vote, you need to be chosen on at least 75% of all ballots. Three hundred and eighty-six writers voted this year, which meant each player needed 289 yeses. Beltré, Helton and Mauer received 366, 307 and 293 votes, respectively. Billy Wagner received 284 votes, falling short by just five.
There are two reasons I’m not as desperate to vote on this honor as some of my peers. The first is that the results are often farcical.