Hall voters still miss mark

In what has become an annual rant of mine for anyone who will listen, how Bert Blyleven was once again not voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame is ridiculous.

The voters got the easy one Monday when Rickey Henderson was voted in with almost 95 percent of the vote (75 percent is needed for induction). But they once again missed the boat on Blyleven, who, upon further examination, had some of the best stats for a pitcher in the history of baseball.

Blyleven won over 280 games and won 15-plus games in a season 10 times. He also ranks in the top 15 all-time in a number of key categories, including innings pitched (4,970 – 14th), strikeouts (3,701 – 5th), games started (685, 11th) and shutouts (60, 9th). Of the pitchers with 50 or more shutouts in the Hall of Fame of which there are 20, Blyleven is the only one not to be inducted.

Of course, the voting process is somewhat flawed. Though voters can put up to 10 players on a ballot, who does the voting needs to be re-examined. The qualification is if someone is a member of the Baseball Writers Association of America for 10 consecutive years, that person can vote provided they keep their membership.

So why is this flawed? It's because there are people who haven't been baseball writers for years who continue to vote for the Hall of Fame. Two I know of in this area are Dave Fennessy, who used to cover the Pirates for The Daily News in McKeesport, Pa. but hasn't for close to 15 years, and Ed Bouchette, yes the same Bouchette who has covered the Steelers for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette for the last 25 years or so. He, too, covered baseball back in the 1970's and gained his membership then and, because he keeps it up to date, votes for the Hall of Fame each year.

I do not have a vote for the Hall of Fame. I have requested admission into the Pittsburgh chapter of the BBWAA but have not been allowed to join as of yet, therefore I don't have a vote.

If I did, I would have put four players on my ballot this year, down from an average of five in past years.

I would have put Henderson on but NOT Jim Rice, the other players elected to the Hall Monday. I always thought of Rice as a very good player, but not a Hall-of-Famer.

I also would have selected Blyleven and Lee Smith. Smith was the dominant closer mainly in the National League, throughout his career. His 478 saves were first all-time when he retired and he currently ranks third, which he should stay at for a number of years. The closer position became as much of a fabric of the game as it evolved throughout the 1980's and 90's and Smith was one of the top five in history. Therefore, he deserves to be elected though he was fifth in the balloting this year with 44 percent of the vote.

I also would have voted for Andre Dawson, one dominant players of his time. He hit 438 home runs in the pre-steroid era and is in the top-50 all time in hits (2,774 – 45th), home runs (438, 36th) and runs batted in (1,591 – 34th). He also had 503 doubles and was an eight-time All-Star and eight-time Gold Glove winner. He finished third in this year's balloting with 67 percent of the vote.