The 2001 Hall of Fame Vote

by David Fleitz
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P.S.  Jim Deshaies got one vote in the balloting this year.  I want to meet the guy who voted to put Jim Deshaies in the Hall of Fame.

P.P.S.  Dave Winfield was born on October 3, 1951, the same day that Bobby Thompson hit his historic homer off Ralph Branca to win the NL pennant for the Giants.

Now that Kirby Puckett (who I watched in 1984 when he played for the Toledo Mud Hens) and Dave Winfield have been elected to the Hall of Fame, let's look at the vote totals of all the guys who didn't make it.

Here are the voting totals for the last three years. It takes 75 percent of the votes to gain election; both Puckett and Winfield got more than 80 percent of the total. 
                         1999         2000         2001

        Jim Rice         29.4%        51.5%        57.9%
        Gary Carter      33.8         49.7         64.9
        Bruce Sutter     24.3         38.5         47.6
        Goose Gossage     ne          33.2         44.3
        Steve Garvey     30.2         32.0         34.2
        Tommy John       18.7         27.0         28.4
        Jim Kaat         20.1         25.0         27.0
        Dale Murphy      19.3         23.3         18.1
        Jack Morris       ne          22.2         19.6
        Dave Parker      16.1         20.8         16.3
        Bert Blyleven    14.1         17.4         23.5
        Luis Tiant       10.7         17.2         12.2
        Don Mattingly     ne           ne          28.2

        ne = not yet eligible


Rising: Carter, Sutter, Gossage, and Rice. Carter will probably get in next year or the year after; it doesn't make much sense to put Carlton Fisk in and leave Carter out. Rice keeps gaining, and although he wasn't the easiest guy to get along with, he'll be in a few years down the road. Sutter and Gossage will make it someday as well. Very few players get up past 40 percent in the vote and fail to get in.

Gaining, but still behind: Blyleven. He won 287 games, but ended his career only 37 games above .500 (though Nolan Ryan was only +32). However, Blyleven made only two All-Star teams in his long career.

Stagnating: Garvey, John, and Kaat. They don't seem to be able to get much past a third of the vote. Garvey's total has remained about the same for several years now, and it's unlikely that he'll get too many more writers on his side.

Falling: Murphy, Morris, Parker, and Tiant. Murphy is the only eligible player in history, besides Roger Maris, to win back-to-back MVP Awards and not make the Hall of Fame. Morris has 254 wins, more than many Hall members, but he didn't get along well with the writers, and his ERA is 3.90, which would be the highest in the Hall. Parker is still paying a price for his drug problems, and Tiant keeps falling despite the similarity of his stats to those of Catfish Hunter and Jim Bunning, two recent inductees.

Keep an eye on: Mattingly. He's starting strongly, and if he gets above thirty percent next year, he'll keep building momentum.