Neyer: Why Bobby Grich will never be a Hall of Famer
From SABR member Rob Neyer at Baseball Nation on December 11, 2013:
There were 16 members on the Hall of Fame’s Amphetamines Expansion Era Committee, and we know that all 16 voted for Tony La Russa, Joe Torre, and Bobby Cox. We know the names of the 16 voters, and we know the 12 candidates on the ballot. The only other thing we know about the voting is that six or fewer voted for the nine other candidates on the ballot. That’s the only other thing we know because that’s the only thing the Hall of Fame announced, and none of the voters are talking, because they’re sworn to secrecy.
However, the San Francisco Chronicle’s Bruce Jenkins was kind enough to write at some length about the process, and today I would like to share some of Jenkins’ sharing with you …
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Those votes are absolutely NOT made public, and the great majority of the voters do NOT explain their decisions in print. What’s made public are the overall results; we do know exactly how many votes each candidate receives. But the individual ballots are not public. And while most of the voters might be “willing” to explain their decisions, very few of them actually do. Last year, 569 ballots were cast in the general Hall of Fame election; were 285 explanations printed, each with comments about all 37 candidates on the ballot?
Read the full article here: http://www.baseballnation.com/2013/12/11/5199704/hall-fame-voting-committee-marvin-miller-veterans
Originally published: December 11, 2013. Last Updated: December 11, 2013.