Womack: Mike Mussina’s HOF case is strong, so why aren’t voters buying it?
From SABR member Graham Womack at The Sporting News on August 31, 2015, with mention of SABR members Jay Jaffe and Adam Darowski:
After Curt Schilling ignited his latest round of Twitter controversy last week, thoughts drifted to another pitcher from his era who has yet to sign up for the service. Statistically, Schilling and Mike Mussina rate similarly, two of the best pitchers not in the Hall of Fame, though the two diverge sharply in personality. It’s difficult, for one, to imagine someone as low-key and intelligent as Mussina having a knockdown fight over evolution with Keith Law.
It’s funny, though: Where Schilling might be the first ballplayer whose induction gets delayed due to social media, Mussina could use a little more self-promotion if he wants a plaque anytime soon. After two years on the the Baseball Writers’ Association of America’s ballot for Cooperstown, the former Orioles and Yankees ace sits at 24.6 percent of the vote, well short of the necessary 75 percent. In the past 50 years, just one pitcher who’s debuted with a lower percentage of the vote than Mussina, Bert Blyleven, has won enshrinement through the writers.
Read the full article here: http://www.sportingnews.com/mlb/story/2015-09-01/mike-mussina-hall-of-fame-vote-totals-bbwaa-orioles-yankees
Originally published: September 2, 2015. Last Updated: September 2, 2015.