Before I finish My Life As A Ballhawk, I need to address the news of the day: Barry Bonds was not elected to the Hall of Fame on the first vote.
It's tough news for Giants fans, really tough news for fans of Barry Bonds. I have spent the last couple of months reading up on the issue of whether or not Barry would be inducted to the Hall of Fame on the first vote and I was not surprised when I found out he was not. Nevertheless I am severely disappointed.
As a Giants fan, Barry has brought me more joy than any other player. I watched this guy hit hundreds of home runs. HUNDREDS! I watched him make incredible plays in the field. Steal when you wouldn't expect him to. Throw guys out at the plate on one bounce. Doubles, walks, walks, walks..... So many freaking walks we had a tradition for making fun of hurlers who were afraid to pitch to him (see memorialized rubber chicken). The guy was always on base. The most valuable player to any organization in the history of baseball as explained by the fact he has SEVEN MVP AWARDS. Yet the Baseball Writers Association (BBWAA) want to make a statement. Screw those guys. Barry is a Hall of Famer.
Over the holidays I spent a couple hours skimming Bill James' Politics of Glory (published mid-steroid era 1994) and learned a couple of things. First, that even obvious HOFers don't always get in on the first vote. That is somewhat comforting. I expect Barry will eventually get voted in but I would have liked to see acknowledgement for how dominant he was within his era.
Second, I learned that you could take any one of James' statistical methods for determining whether or not a player should get in to the HOF and confirm Bonds should get voted in.
Statistical methods include
Similarity Scores - determines whether two players are truly similar, helps determine if comparable to existing HOFer
Hall of Fame Standards Test - based on career totals
Black Ink Test - counts league leading accomplishments
Really? I am not going to run those tests. That would be a waste of my time.
I will admit, guys have come up with much more sophisticated ways to measure whether or not a player should get in to the HOF. Any way you position the stats and comps, it would be asinine to nay Bonds. With the Moneyball/Sabermetrics revolution over the last decade... The fact that baseball operations guys are finally using sophisticated quantitative analysis to assist in making labor related decisions garners so much positive press... Yet the press won't admit a player who outperformed every one of his peers?
Who is to say the voters of the BBWAA look at those measures? I will assume most don't. The election process (75% yays from BBWAA voters) was crudely cobbled together at the inception of The Hall and is entirely is subjective and should be refined.
I want to start a foundation to preserve the legacy of Barry Bonds. He will eventually get in to The Hall. Until then, with a decent grant we can build ball parks, training facilities, give away equipment, and maybe even build a statue for our man, Barry.
Lets put that statue here. Who is with me?
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