Hall of Fame Vote Tracker Update – Pete Rose gets a Vote
Posted by: Richie Rich in Baseball Hall of Fame, Pete Rose, Reds, WritersI’ve updated the 2009 Hall of Fame Vote Tracker with six more BBWAA writers’ votes. We’re up to 38.
Writers joining the list are Phil Arvia, Phil Pepe, Mike Nadel, Steve Aschburner, Jack McCaffery, and Garry Brown. All of them voted for Rickey Henderson, meaning Corky Simpson is still the only writer (that we know of) who doesn’t think MLB’s all-time steals leader belongs in the Hall of Fame.
Rickey Henderson is still above 97% of the vote and will probably finish with a higher percentage than that. But even more interesting is the three-way logjam of Jim Rice, Andre Dawson, and Bert Blyleven at 68.4% of the vote. Each one has a legit chance to make the Hall this year – but fans of Rice’s HoF final chance at enshrinement have to be concerned, as he’s tracking lower than he did in 2008. But there’s over 500 ballots to go.
Curiously, Delaware County Daily Times writer Jack McCaffery is both the first writer to vote for the maximum of ten players and the first writer to vote for a write-in candidate. That write-in was cast for Pete Rose.
It’s a bit of a throwaway protest vote, seeing as his eligibility on the ballot (1992-2006) has expired and he’s been banned from the Hall of Fame due to his lifetime ban from baseball for gambling. McCaffery explains his reasoning …
Though he’s banned from baseball and has never been on a ballot, Rose’s write-in votes were published for 15 years. Since his time is up, they don’t even reveal his vote total anymore. But believe this, no matter what the official results say: At least one vote will have gone to the most prolific hitter in the history of the game, and a player who never did anything but try to win.
I don’t mind that vote. He voted for NINE other players, too. And it sounds like he votes for Rose every year.
I can understand why McCaffery made the vote – it can be hard to accept the fact that a man who was selected to 17 All-Star Games and won Three World Series and is still MLB’s all-time leader in hits (4,256), games played (3,562), and at-bats (14,053) isn’t in the Hall of Fame – and likely never will be so long as he breathes air on this Earth.
Based on his accomplishments as a player alone, Rose would have been a first-ballot Hall of Famer.
But there’s that whole gambling thing. Rose’s involvement in gambling on games as a manager (whether for or against his team) taints his candidacy just as much as allegations of performance-enhancing drugs taints the candidacy of players like Mark McGwire.
Entries (RSS)
January 8th, 2009 at 3:54 pm
Rose literally put his money where his mouth was. And lost plenty, most of all Baseball.
Phillies Phans love Pete. And the ban kept him away from the Vet many were upset, many lobbied the Phillies to buck MLB and bring him anyways.
MLB is like the mob teams don’t go against them.
I saw Pete Jr play for Reading same team as Gary Maddox the second.
The organization is great to its alumns. Ask Ruben Jr.
Some of us call Chase Utley “Chase Hustle” for his Rose like heart playing.
He was no “Black Sox” he bet he would win. Rose had too big a ego to throw games.
Thats why we love him, as Phillies fans.
January 13th, 2009 at 3:28 pm
Give up on Rose. The White Sox of 1919 are still out and Joe Jackson would have been better.
January 16th, 2009 at 11:45 am
MIKE, The SOX of 1919 threw games to help pad the MOB’s gambling earnings, but who’s to say they would have won anyway….
Pete always thought the team he fielded could win every game, because he was that confident in his knowledge of the game, and the prep of his players
don’t tell me you never put a fiver into a World Series POOL or on The SuperBowl….
He lost a boatload if he didn’t coach his Reds to a win — didn’t you wonder why he was constantly doing autograph shows ??
As Cincy became a small market team, it got harder to compete for marquee players, and winning got tougher, and his losses greater, but the IRS didn’t see it that way, they only saw his legit income go up, not his gambling losses…
so he was stuck, and did time for tax problems, rather than sully baseball….
it’s called taking one for the team, and shows character from a person who owes nothing to the game, because he earned his spot in history,
so Cooperstown won’t have him, so we will just move the HOF to Cincy, where pro- baseball began, and give the NFL HALL to Buffalo or something, since they still love OJ there…… (BTW, he’s still a HOFer, for what he did on the field) COBB was a drunk and a gambler, but he’s there, Ruth was a womanizer and died from Booze & drug related problems, Hell folks have been re-instated after 7 offenses, so bring back Pete before it’s too late,
Maybe OBAMA will get him in, YES HE CAN