Home Run Derby

We’ve focused a lot lately on the top of the Hall of Fame ballot.  Well now, with the HoF results in and Jim Rice and Rickey Henderson (suck on it, Corky) elected to the Hall of Fame … let’s look at the bottom of the ballot.

Instead of wondering if someone will ever be voted into the Hall unanimously … let’s look at those who have been unanimously shut out of the Hall of Fame.   And I don’t mean players who went one-and done in their chance at the Hall.

I mean those players who couldn’t get a single vote during their chance on the ballot.  Zip.  Zilch.  Nada.  Donut.  Not a sausage.  Bugger all.

This year (2009), the no-vote dishonor fell on Ron Gant, Dan Plesac, and Greg Vaughn. Not a single writer bit on any of them. Not even Corky Simpson.

The Baseball Hall of Fame has been tracking voters who didn’t receive a vote for the past 32 ballots.   During that time, there were 189 players who couldn’t gather up a single vote between them.  As you might imagine … there’s a few names that you’ve heard of among that group. 

Here’s some notable ones.

In 1991, Oscar Gamble couldn’t get a single voter to bet on him. 

You see … this is what’s wrong with the BBWAA. 

If that fabulous afro can’t get an obligatory vote from at least one BBWAA writer … it’s time for the entire institution to lose its voting rights.

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In 1978, Mudcat Grant and Pedro Ramos couldn’t get a single vote from the BBWAA. 

Which kinda surprised me … because someone with the nickname ”Mudcat” simply belongs in every Hall of Fame out there.  And those mutton chops robably deserved a vote of their own.

And who wouldn’t “Vote for Pedro”?

In 1980, Paul Casanova couldn’t get any love from the BBWAA. 

But Casanova shouldn’t feel too bad … because just shy of half the players on the 1980 ballot went voteless (29 of 61).  

And you probably never heard of any of them.  How the heck did they get on a HoF ballot?

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How quickly they forget … just because the BBWAA selected a player for one of its coveted postseason awards doesn’t mean they’ll remember their name when it shows up on a Hall of Fame ballot.  

Over the past 32 Ballots, ten former Rookies of the Year and five Cy Young Award winners couldn’t get a second vote from the BBWAA …

Rookies of the Year

• Al Bumbry (1973 AL ROY) shut out in 1991
• Bake McBride (1974 NL ROY) shut out in 1989
• Bob Horner (1978 NL ROY) shut out in 1994
• Chris Chambliss (1971 AL ROY) shut out in 1994
• Gary Matthews (1973 NL ROY) shut out in 1993
• Jon Matlack (1972 NL ROY) shut out in 1989
• Pat Zachry (1976 NL ROY) shut out in 1991
• Stan Bahnsen (1968 AL ROY) shut out in 1988
• Todd Worrell (1986 NL ROY) shut out in 2003
• Tommie Agee (1966 AL ROY) shut out in 1979

Cy Young Award Winners

• Steve Stone (1979 AL CY) shut out in 1987
• Pete Vuckovich (1982 AL CY) shut out in 1992
• Randy Jones (1976 NL CY) shut out in
• Mike Cuellar (1969 AL CY)  shut out in 1983
• John Denny (1983 NL CY)  shut out in 1992

In 1985 and 2001, Ed Kranepool and Andy van Slyke both got shut out of the Hall of Fame balloting. 

But they acheived an even better sort of immortality as the namesakes of two awesome baseball blogs … The Eddie Kranepool Society and Where Have You Gone Andy van Slyke? 

In 2000, Hubie Brooks was the loneliest man on the HoF ballot.  He was the only player (out of 30) who couldn’t get a vote that year. 

In 2003, the BBWAA didn’t go wild over Mitch Williams.  At least the Wild Thing can take solace in the fact that Joe Carter also only lasted one HoF vote – getting 19 votes in 2004.

Want to see the full list?  It’s right here.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 13th, 2009 at 8:13 am and is filed under Baseball Cards, Baseball Hall of Fame, Stats, Writers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.