[Westheim]

HALL OF FAME VOTING RESULTS

TIJ SP Woody Roberts – 1st – 94.9 – INDUCTED
ATL RF Michael Root – 3rd – 85.1 – INDUCTED
LAP SP Bastyao Caixinha – 1st – 73.7
OCT 2B Dave Browne – 3rd – 67.8
ATL SP Carlos Asquabal – 5th – 60.0
WAS C Gabriel Rivera – 5th – 58.8
PIT LF Diego Rodriguez – 3rd – 56.9
LAP RF Anibal Rodriguez – 1st – 51.0
DEN SS Paul Connolly – 4th – 37.6
BOS LF Jose Martinez – 1st – 36.5
WAS CL Domingo Rivera – 5th – 34.9
IND CL Jim Durden – 5th – 30.6
TOP SP Arnold McCray – 3rd – 27.5
DEN 3B Jesus Garcia – 1st – 11.8
LAP RF Yoshinobu Ishizaki – 5th – 11.0
MIL SP Neil Stewart – 1st – 10.6
TIJ C Andres Manuel – 1st – 4.7 – DROPPED
CIN CF Robert Harris – 1st – 3.5 – DROPPED
SAC SP David Castrillo – 1st – 3.1 – DROPPED
DAL RF Moromao Hino – 2nd – 2.7 – DROPPED
CHA SP Manuel Movonda – 2nd – 2.7 – DROPPED
OCT LF Will Jackson – 1st – 2.4 – DROPPED
RIC SP Chris O’Keefe – 1st – 1.6 – DROPPED
POR SP Scott Wade – 2nd – 1.6 – DROPPED

No player has been on the ballot for longer than five years. Before current Hall of Fame Voting procedures were introduced in 2003, players were elected to the Hall by the very elusive Secret Ninja Committee, which was totally invisible. All players not elected before were eligible for re-election in 2004, and so a few players that have been retired for longer than since 1998 are on the ballot still.

Scott Wade dropped from 32% to next to nothing. He was on my ballot last year, but not this year. Player votes have WAY too much leverage! I mean, he is NOT a Hall of Famer. 2% is what he should received in the first place! But… At this rate, nobody’s going to get inducted against my wishes.

Outlook: the next two newly-eligible crops of players look rather bleak. It won’t get interesting again until 2011, and not because of the two players that would be inducted as Raccoons that will be added to the ballot then, because they (Neil Reece, Royce Green) won’t make it anyway. It’s because of the player that would NOT be inducted as a Raccoon, but something repulsive (David Brewer), and of course there’s a first ballot guy on there in Dale Wales, the all-time hit king. John Hensley has to like his chances as well.

But will Dale Wales’ mark of 3,673 base knocks still be the all-time record when he becomes eligible? Cristo Ramirez, 38, sits only 95 hits out, but has yet to find a job for 2008. Currently, no active player north of 2,500 hits is younger than 35. You have to dig all the way down to #56 on the all-time list to find the next serious challenge to the record, where Oklahoma’s Victorino Sanchez has amassed 2,129 career hits at age 29. He made his debut at a tender 18 years old. My office would be too small to display all his silverware. For starters, he won the batting title in his league for six straight years.