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Class 12 Hall of Fame –

Voters Find None Worthy of Entry

John Waits; Grimes Denied

 

 

 

No Hall for Burleigh Grimes

 

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TJ Still Waiting for a Hall of Fame Ticket

 

Voting for the TCBA Players’ Hall of Fame concluded this week, with unanticipated results. For the first time in the history of TCBA Hall of Fame voting, the voters rejected all of the candidates, including Burleigh Grimes, who had missed out on induction by a single vote in Class 11.

 

For Grimes it was a bitter pill. The old spitballer had racked up steadily increasing voter support through his first three elections, rising from an original 472 to a Class 11 total of 713, one shy of the needed total. Grimes continued to be a popular choice, but his vote total in Class 12 of 482 was far short of entry. Because his vote total did not reach the 50% level, Burleigh’s hopes for a Hall plaque have been relegated to the boneyard. So close he came; but it was not to be.

 

Tommy John received the most support from voters in his second election, accumulating 687 votes. He was trailed closely by George Sisler (649) and Pete Rose (632).  All three saw their support improve and each of the three will get one more try at the gates to the hallowed Hall.

 

Among the others, Dave Winfield, Robbie Alomar, Kevin Brown and Tim Raines Sr. all ran strongly and will reappear on a future Hall of Fame ballot. 

 

A player, who, like Grimes, saw his last chance at Hall immortality fade away, is Gary Gaetti. In the Top 50 in Doubles, Homers and RBI, Gaetti attracted significant votes in each of his four tries, but peaked at 459 and then faded to 279 and irrelevancy.

In analyzing the vote totals, observers noted the frequency of pitchers being ignored by voters, if not totally, then at least significantly.

“All pitchers are fascists,” noted Ken Sajdak, perhaps explaining the low regard for pitchers. Sajdak, however, did find five pitchers worthy of Hall of Fame consideration that he included on his ballot.

Hall of Fame curator Red Braun pointed out that voters identified a balanced list of candidates, but that support for any one of the pitchers was generally less than what was given to the batters.

“Typically, pitchers receive 20% less support than batters do,” said Braun, who has led TCBA through eight of the twelve Hall of Fame ballots. “It’s not unusual for a voter to completely ignore pitchers on the ballot; but that never happens with the batters.”

Braun rejected suggestions that maybe the Hall classes were too large.

“There have been some large classes, no doubt. But I believe the voters are astute enough to find the pearls. In time, the classes will shrink. Only nine of the recent nominees will get another shot. Voters purged forty-nine others who will no longer appear on any ballot.”

 

The next class of Hall of Fame candidates will be Class 13, currently scheduled to be announced on December 31, 2014. The vote totals for Class 12 are listed below:

 

CLASS 12 Voting Totals:

Player

70% Needed

John,Tommy

67.6%

Sisler,George

63.9%

Rose,Pete

62.2%

Winfield,Dave

59.3%

Alomar,Roberto

57.7%

Brown,Kevin

56.5%

Raines,Tim Sr.

54.4%

Kaat,Jim

50.5%

Tartabull,Danny

2.1%

 

 

No Longer Eligible

 

Grimes,Burleigh

47.4%

Cash,Norm

30.3%

Luque,Dolf

29.4%

Jackson,Reggie

27.8%

Gaetti,Gary

27.5%

Koosman,Jerry

22.2%

Larkin,Barry

17.9%

Blue,Vida

14.4%

Sosa,Sammy

12.3%

Martinez,Edgar

12.2%

Smith,Ozzie

10.3%

Faber,Red

10.2%

Smith,Lee

9.1%

Gonzalez,Juan

9.0%

Blue,Lu

6.5%

Aguilera,Rick

2.5%

 

Source: TCBA Encyclopedia