Skip to main content

Three unanimous votes for the Hall of Fame. After that, it's complicated

Monday, January 8, 2018

The annual Baseball Hall of Fame election is always fuel for impassioned discussion. It goes beyond statistics to such topics as the use of performance-enhancing drugs and character. Even the process of selecting voters for Cooperstown has come under scrutiny. No other Hall of Fame generates more debate.

Five Globe staff members have a vote. The results will be announced on Jan. 24, but in the interest of full disclosure, we present the Globe ballots and each writer’s explanation.

Players we voted for

5 votes

Vladimir Guerrero

2 years on ballot

Chipper Jones

1 year on ballot

Jim Thome

1 year on ballot

4 votes

Mike Mussina

5 years on ballot

Curt Schilling

6 years on ballot

3 votes

Edgar Martinez

9 years on ballot

2 votes

Barry Bonds

6 years on ballot

Roger Clemens

6 years on ballot

Trevor Hoffman

3 years on ballot

Omar Vizquel

1 year on ballot

1 vote

Johnny Damon

1 year on ballot

Scott Rolen

1 year on ballot

Gary Sheffield

4 years on ballot

Other players on ballot: Chris Carpenter, Livan Hernandez, Orlando Hudson, Aubrey Huff, Jason Isringhausen, Andruw Jones, Jeff Kent, Carlos Lee, Brad Lidge, Hideki Matsui, Fred McGriff, Kevin Millwood, Jamie Moyer, Manny Ramirez, Johan Santana, Sammy Sosa, Billy Wagner, Larry Walker, Kerry Wood, Carlos Zambrano

AdvertisementContinue reading below

I’ll hold my ground on The Wall for another year

Vladimir Guerrero
Chipper Jones
Jim Thome

Three guys. That’s it. I don’t want the Hall of Fame to turn into the Hall of Very Good. I’m not coming down off the Steroid Wall, which is an increasingly difficult and unpopular position. And I’m not letting the analytics army tell me that WAR is the perfect barometer for Hall worthiness.

So my three votes on the 2018 ballot go to Jim Thome, Chipper Jones, and Vladimir Guerrero.

Easy and obvious. And I can guarantee you they will all be enshrined in late July.

Thome already has a statue outside the ballpark in Cleveland. He hit 612 home runs over 22 seasons and there was never a whiff of PED suspicion around him. Not bad for a 13th-round draft pick from Illinois Central College who was selected by the Tribe after Alan Embree and Curtis “The Mechanic” Leskanic in 1989.

Thome has more homers than all but seven players in major league history. This is his first year of eligibility and he is going to sail into the Hall.

Here’s one vote going Johnny Damon’s way

Vladimir Guerrero
Chipper Jones
Jim Thome
Mike Mussina
Curt Schilling
Edgar Martinez
Trevor Hoffman
Johnny Damon

Cue the ridicule. I’m voting for Johnny Damon.

His body of work is borderline at best for induction into the Hall of Fame. But voters have long shown their standards are as squishy as Silly Putty, and I’m straying from convention this year to recognize Damon’s transformative role in Red Sox history.

Damon’s marquee teammates — Curt Schilling, Pedro Martinez, Manny Ramirez, and David Ortiz — rightfully received much of the glory for the Sox breaking the franchise’s 86-year championship famine in 2004 with their historic comeback over the Yankees in the American League Championship Series and their sweep of the Cardinals in the World Series.

But it was Damon more than anyone who purged the franchise’s self-defeating culture of doom, making possible those watershed moments. Long before Kevin Millar let loose his “Cowboy Up’’ rally cry and Martinez introduced his miniature human charm, Nelson de la Rosa, Damon arrived as a free agent from Oakland before the 2002 season and infused the Sox clubhouse with a sense of desperately needed optimism.

As recently as 2001, the clubhouse had been rife with malcontents, who, in the words of Trot Nixon, “disrespected the Red Sox uniform’’ and themselves. Principal among them was center fielder Carl Everett, whom Damon replaced.

Hall may not want Clemens or Bonds but they get this vote

Vladimir Guerrero
Chipper Jones
Jim Thome
Mike Mussina
Curt Schilling
Edgar Martinez
Barry Bonds
Roger Clemens
Scott Rolen

The Hall of Fame voting process is charmingly old-fashioned. The ballot arrives in the mail and you’re instructed to check off boxes on a standard sheet of paper and mail it back.

It’s everything else that gets complicated.

Comparing players is less about math and more about personal preference. What one voter believes is important may be completely different from another.

This ballot is a great example of that. Trevor Hoffman will be an easy choice for many voters and Scott Rolen likely won’t receive more than 20 percent. But I voted for Rolen and not Hoffman.

Ultimately, I selected nine players. Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Vladimir Guerrero, Edgar Martinez, Mike Mussina, and Curt Schilling were on my ballot last year and stayed there. The newcomers were Rolen, Chipper Jones, and Jim Thome.

Staying the course with Clemens and Bonds

Vladimir Guerrero
Chipper Jones
Jim Thome
Mike Mussina
Curt Schilling
Barry Bonds
Roger Clemens
Trevor Hoffman
Omar Vizquel
Gary Sheffield

I’ve been voting for the Hall of Fame since 1994. I must say that it’s never been an easy process. For the most part, I’ve stuck with candidates all the way through either their induction or their removal from the ballot.

Advanced analytics have come into play more over the years. While I take heed of those numbers, I adhere to the old-school approach first and foremost: You know a Hall of Famer when you see one, which is why I continue to vote for Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens.

I have no idea when and if they started using steroids; all I know is that when I watched them perform — likely against other players who dabbled in PEDs — they were the most outstanding players on the baseball field.

And yes, I have convinced myself that every era has had its vices.

When Hall of Famer Joe Morgan recently put out his impassioned letter to the electorate asking them to not vote for known steroid users, I respected the position he took. But I can’t get past the fact that players of Morgan’s era took amphetamines to enhance their performance.

I’m juiced about seven candidates, but still not the ‘PED guys’

Vladimir Guerrero
Chipper Jones
Jim Thome
Mike Mussina
Curt Schilling
Edgar Martinez
Omar Vizquel

I’ve been saying for years that someday I might wake up and say, “The hell with it. I can’t tell which juiced pitchers pitched to which juiced batters. I give up. I’m letting them all in.”

That day has yet to come.

Once again, I could not bring myself to check the names of Mssrs. Bonds, Clemens, and Sosa on the 2018 Baseball Hall of Fame ballot. Is any further explanation necessary? Just couldn’t do it. Maybe next year.

So whom did I vote for?

(In alphabetical order)

  • 1. Vladimir Guerrero

    You may know him from his Angels days, but the National League set well recalls when he was a terror north of the border. He had a ridiculous seven-year run with the Expos in which his OPS numbers ranged from .833 to 1.074, but for all we knew he was in the Sluggers Protection Program. Rumor has it he occasionally swung at actual strikes, but I have not been able to substantiate this.

Design and Development by Amanda Erickson