After the recent results of this year’s Hall of Fame vote with no modern era players being voted into the Hall, I’m guessing Thomas realized the topic was so hot as he becomes eligible for the first time next vote that it is neither bragging, nor a mistake to address the matter, so he did.

Former Chicago White Sox star Frank Thomas, eligible for the Hall of Fame next year, publicly said he is deserving of election at the team’s FanFest over the weekend. Credit: Dennis Wierzbicki-USA TODAY Sports

Thomas told sports writers that yes he does believe he belongs in the Hall of Fame and that he is worthy of first-ballot induction next year along with other newcomers to the ballot, Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine, both of whom won more than 300 games. And he is right on all counts. They are all deserving. There has never been any doubt about any of them.

Nor has there ever been a doubt expressed about Thomas being the genuine article. There’s never been a hint of suspicion that he used performance-enhancing drugs. What he did during his 19-year career, most of it with the White Sox, was hit, hit for power, and play as one of the most dominant players in the game at the same time some other players who were using PEDs recorded better statistics.

So others who benefited achieved more than they might have if they had not used PEDS and that came at the expense of players who did not use them. Thomas hit 521 home runs, same as Ted Williams. He knocked in 1,704 runs and batted .301 lifetime. Thomas won an American League batting title and had a lifetime .419 on-base percentage because he walked very often. A five-time All-Star he scored more than 100 runs in a season nine times and he collected more than 100 RBIs in a season 11 times. Thomas won two Most Valuable Player awards and he finished a very close runner-up for a third. Jason Giambi, who did use PEDs, finished ahead of him that time. Three MVP’s vs. two MVPs–how much does than change Thomas’ legacy? It shouldn’t really given the big picture, but that doesn’t mean it won’t for some voters.

Hall voters should inspect Thomas’ actions during his playing days, too, when baseball finally got suspicious about the potential use of performance-enhancing drugs and began writing reports and holding hearings. Thomas was front and center, speaking out then, testifying when asked, and testifying when others refused, urging that drugs be wiped out of the sport.

At 6-foot-5 and 250 or so pounds, Thomas is a naturally big man. He played football in college at Auburn on the same team with Bo Jackson. Thomas had a tight end’s build. He was gifted and strong enough to hit those homers without drug use.

I have spent time around Frank Thomas. I spoke to him in the White Sox locker room. We worked on a writing project together. Before this year’s Hall vote he was very reluctant to talk about his own chances to be elected into the Hall of Fame even as people walked up to him and told him he was a shoo-in. He was already superstitious about the whole subject. He didn’t want to talk about his chances or likelihood of being chosen until it was a done deal.

This time Thomas was in a public forum, surrounded by sports writers, and he said his piece about the Hall of Fame, PED users, and players who tainted their own legacy.

Frank Thomas was a great player. He is a proud man and he is proud of what he accomplished (and also a nice guy). The Hall of Fame vote is not for many months, but come next December it should be Thomas’ (as well as Maddux’s and Glavine’s) turn for selection. After a few years of virtual silence on the topic, keeping a low profile, Thomas is out of the shadows.

I’m not suggesting Thomas go barnstorming around the country campaigning for Hall election on a whistle-stop train. But I think any time he ventures into a baseball forum and he is asked about the Hall he shouldn’t duck it. He has every right to make sure people are familiar with his credentials and to distance himself from those players who either admitted to using or got caught taking PEDs.

In an ongoing heated debate Thomas has the heft, the record, and the case to stand out from the babble to be viewed as a reasonable man making a rational argument. It doesn’t hurt any that he is on the side of right and has the numbers supporting him to make a winning argument.

Since the vote was announced Wednesday afternoon more countries have chimed in. Even enshrined Hall of Famers are split over how history should view great players with gaudy statistics who were alleged to have taken steroids. The reactions range from one extreme to another, just as they did among the 569 voters.

No one denies that Barry Bonds - the winner of seven Most Valuable Player awards and holder of the all-time home-run records for a single season and a career - and that Roger Clemens - winner of seven Cy Young Awards and 354 games – recorded fabulous statistics during their lengthy careers. Similarly, Sammy Sosa hit 609 home runs. Mark McGwire hit a then-record 70 homers in a season and 583 in his career. Rafael Palmeiro hit 569 homers and accumulated 3,020 hits. McGwire admitted using PEDs. Palmeiro got caught. Sosa was named in the Mitchell Report. Bonds and Clemens have denied drug use.

Former Houston Astros former second baseman Craig Biggio, who collected 3,060 hits in his career, came close to Hall of Fame election this year, but missed out. Credit: Brett Davis-USA TODAY Sports

The basic arguments in favor of the players revolve around the fact that baseball had no banned drugs list and no drug testing program for most of the time those guys played and that you can’t have a Hall of Fame recognizing greats of the game that leaves out greats of the game. Pitcher Juan Marichal was one Hall of Famer on that side of the debate.

“I think that they have been unfair to guys who have never been found guilty of anything,” Marchial said. “Their stats define them as immortals. That’s the reality and that cannot be denied. What we are witnessing here are innocent people paying for the sinners.”

Marichal’s statement especially pertains to additional players who have never been accused of using PEDs, who had terrific credentials, but played at the same time as Bonds, Clemens, and the others. That would include Mike Piazza, Craig Biggio and Jeff Bagwell, who essentially were collateral damage casualties to a vengeful electorate. Biggio received the highest percentage of votes of the 37 players on the ballot at 68.2 percent when 75 percent is needed for selection.

Other Hall of Famers liked the results–Bonds and Clemens obtaining barely more than a third of the vote–just the way they saw them. Relief pitcher Rich “Goose” Gossage and outfielder Al Kaline used the word cheating in their reactions to the vote.

“If they let these guys in ever–at any point–it’s a big black eye for the Hall and for baseball,” Gossage said, “and an endorsement of cheating as a message to youngsters.” Kaline said, “…to me it’s cheating. Numbers are important, but so is integrity and character.”

Gossage even wants the record books expunged, but he’s dreaming on that score since there is no literal proof of evidence of cheating to strip the players he was talking about of their numbers. You can’t give retroactive drug tests to cover a time period when there was no drug policy in place.

However, from reading hundreds comments posted on Internet Hall of Fame stories since Wednesday, it’s apparent that the public–at least those with computers–would like to strip the baseball writers of their right to vote. It seemed as if the comments were running about 3-to-1, about 75 percent, against the writers for leaving out everyone on the ballot. There was considerable backlash over the failure to elect Biggio, Piazza and Bagwell, and a sizeable block of feeling against blocking Bonds and Clemens.

Judging from the distribution of the vote and the policy of players staying on the ballot up to 15 years if they gather at least five percent of the vote, this issue is going to go on for years.

Wait till next year when Greg Maddux and his 355 victories, compiled in the same era as these players, becomes eligible. Anyone who ever saw Maddux without his shirt on will tell you that it didn’t look as if he had ever done a sit-up in his life. He wasn’t fat, but he certainly wasn’t steroid-sculpted. Try to explain away a no vote on Maddux.

Probably the most unhappy people in the universe about Wednesday’s announcement that the Baseball Writers Association of America failed to vote in any modern era players are the merchants of Cooperstown. Hall of Fame weekend is the biggest stretch of good business days in Cooperstown. The downtown of the small town in upstate New York is overwhelmed by baseball shoppers who wish to schmooze with Hall of Famers signing autographs and buying souvenirs of the national pastime. But next July? Forget about Christmas shopping, the hobby shops and memorabilia stores will probably seem more like Christmas day–closed for lack of interest. (more…)

This was not a shock–at least twice I mentioned that this could happen–but it is jarring. The last time the writers failed to elect a candidate was 1996 and this was only the second time in 41 years. It takes 75 percent of the vote, not simply a majority, to elect an individual to the Hall of Fame.  Former Astros second baseman Craig Biggio led the way with 68.2 percent of the 569 votes cast. Pitcher Jack Morris, as he was last year, came in second at 67.7 percent. Morris will be on the ballot for the last time next year. (more…)

July 16, 2011; Seattle, WA, USA; Seattle Mariners former player Edgar Martinez (left) stands with current right fielder Ichiro Suzuki before a game with the Texas Rangers at Safeco Field. The game was in celebration of the 2001 won team won 115 regular season games. Mandatory Credit: James Snook-USA TODAY Sports

The Hall of Fame voting season is driving me crazy. I just can’t stand it, man. I told myself that I wasn’t going to care this year, that I wouldn’t let all of the expected nonsense and grandstanding drag me down. Pitcher Wins, Character, Grit, Look at Me, Morals, Jack Morris, Ethics, No Seriously Look At Me I’m Important—I was done letting all of that get to me. And then it started. I doubt I need to rehash it all here. One of the most complex and stacked collections of eligible players of all time and probably not a one is going to make the cut. This is because the all powerful and conflicted and innocent and tortured baseball writers can’t be bothered to exercise a collective shred of common sense or nuanced thought. Let us pray for them and their immeasurable burden.

(more…)

The same standard that applies to the BBWAA was used by the writers of FanSided, with 75 percent of the vote needed to gain entrance into the Hall. Of course, the BBWAA has been more than a little hesitant to included internet-based writers into its membership, so we get no official vote, but if we did, our conglomerate put their heads together and determined that Mike Piazza and Jeff Bagwell would be inducted into the Hall of Fame.

Falling just short of our election was Craig Biggio and Roger Clemens, each coming up two votes short, and Barry Bonds, who ended up three votes behind. Each writer was limited to ten players on their ballot, as is the case with the BBWAA election. FanSided, however, also asked its writers to submit a second ballot without the restrictions placed upon them. In that election, Biggio and Clemens earned enough votes to get in, as did Tim Raines. Interestingly, Bonds still came up short in this scenario.

Though he may be the only player inducted (if any are at all) when the BBWAA results are announced on Wednesday, Jack Morris managed only 30.4 percent of the FanSided vote. That number climbed top just over 40 percent when the 10-player limit was removed.

Complete results can be found at Wahoo’s on First, where Lewie Pollis published the results.

I can certainly understand the hesitancy to include Bonds and Clemens if the idea of steroids is something you feel is an affront to the game. There is a vocal segment of the fanbase who detest anyone who has been implicated in the use of PEDs and those people would probably never support either Clemens or Bonds for enshrinement. That said, I do wonder who the writers are that voted for Clemens but not Bonds. Clemens was arguably the greatest starting pitcher of his generation and at worst he was second behind Greg Maddux. Bonds really had no peer as a hitter unless you consider Ken Griffey Jr. and merely forgive the years lost to injury.

My point is that if you think Clemens is a Hall of Famer, you’d better think Bonds was as well. To do otherwise is allowing a personal dislike for the guy to cloud your judgement and bias your thinking.

If that’s the way that new media writers are going to vote, then perhaps it’s best the BBWAA doesn’t allow most of us as members.

For the sake of transparency, my ballot included Bonds, Clemens, Biggio, Piazza, Morris, Alan Trammell, Larry Walker, Raines, and Bagwell.

Although it is going on a quarter of a century since Cincinnati Reds icon Rose was banned from baseball for life and I know he always thought he would gain reinstatement, this current wave of attention focused on players who may or may not have taken performance-enhancing drugs also harms Rose’s chances of ever being permitted back in the game. (more…)

Just as in the case of his compatriot Roger Clemens, the pitching version of Bonds on the ballot for the first time, Bonds compiled monumental statistics and a boggling record of achievement during his lengthy career with the Pittsburgh Pirates and San Francisco Giants. Many voters will convict Bonds in their minds on circumstantial evidence that he did the enhancing, even if, also like Clemens, thorough and expensive government investigation did not prove that he took drugs to help his game. (more…)

And then all of the questions began. Did Clemens use performance-enhancing drugs? Did Clemens cheat the game? Did Clemens break rules? Or even laws? According to those who sat in judgment of him when Clemens was charged with law-breaking, he is an innocent man, so toss the law-breaker item out. (more…)

This is the 12th year on the ballot for Trammell and last year he received 36.8 percent of the vote in his favor for admission to the Hall. He needs 75 percent to be selected for the class of 2013 when the balloting closes Dec. 31, but boy oh boy it’s going to be tough with so many fresh names on the list in addition to several holdovers who have their own set of credentials nearly as solid as Trammell’s.

The list of 13 players who received at least five percent of the vote last year to stay on the Hall ballot for further consideration includes Jack Morris, Jeff Bagwell, Lee Smith, Tim Raines, Trammell, Edgar Martinez, Fred McGriff, Larry Walker, Mark McGwire, Don Mattingly, Dale Murphy, Rafael Palmeiro and Bernie Williams.

Alan Trammell, currently a coach for the Arizona Diamondbacks, spent 20 years as the Detroit Tigers shortstop and deserves serious Hall of Fame consideration in this year’s vote. Credit: Brad Mills-USA TODAY Sports

There are also 24 new names and room on the voter’s list for just 10 names. Williams, Palmeiro, Murphy, Mattingly, McGwire and Walker are in the most danger of being dropped. My first choices among the holdover group to go in would be Trammell, Matinez, Bagwell, Smith, McGriff, Morris, and Raines, with careful thought given to Palmeiro and McGwire regarding just how much consideration they deserve despite the performance-enhancing drug issue. I have heard a lot of voters say that they will not ever vote for anyone who in their minds is tainted by performance-enhancing drugs. I have heard a lot of voters say they will not vote right now for anyone in their minds tainted by performance-enhancing drugs. However, by the nature of the way the system works, right now may be at issue because a Palmeiro or McGwire could be cut from the ballot altogether if they don’t receive enough votes.

Trammell played 20 seasons in the majors, all with the Detroit Tigers between 1977 and 1996. A six-time All-Star, he won four Gold Gloves and three Silver Slugger awards while batting .285. The percentage of those voting for him for the Hall has been increasing. Trammell was not really seen as a slugging shortstop, but hit 185 home runs during his career with a seasonal high of 28. Likewise, he drove in 100 runs once. He stole 10 or more bases in a season 13 times. The Tigers won the World Series in 1984 and Trammell was voted MVP of the Series.

He and Lou Whittaker played a record 19 seasons together as a double-play combination and their partnership actually went along longer, going back to their minor-league days.

Overall, middle infielders, even the best of them, usually compile the lowest batting averages over the course of a career. They are more appreciated for their fielding. A comparative study of Trammell’s statis with those of the the 22 players listed as primarily shortstops in the Hall of Fame shows that Trammell voters should look very carefully at his qualifications. Based on the numbers, Trammell is a very logical choice for acceptance.

Only the following Hall of Fame shortstops have lifetime .300 averages: Honus Wagner (.327), Arky Vaughan (.318), Joe Sewell (.312), Hughie Jennings (.310), Luke Appling (.310), and Joe Cronin (.301). Phil Rizzuto batted .273, Pee Wee Reese, .269, Luis Aparicio .262, and Ozzie Smith .262. Just four other Hall shortstops had higher averages than Trammell and one had the same .285.

Only Ernie Banks, who also played first base, with 512 home runs, Cal Ripken Jr., who also played third and hit 431 homers, and Robin Yount, who also played center field and hit 251 home runs, have significantly more home runs than Trammell. Barry Larkin, elected last year, is the only other shortstop with more career homers than Trammell and Larkin had 198.

Thirteen shortstops in the Hall of Fame have fewer than Trammell’s 1,003 career RBIs. Trammell would rank 11th among Hall shortstops in stolen bases.  Thirteen shortstops in the Hall scored more runs than Trammell, but his total of 1,231 runs scored would have him very close to three others.

Trammell out-hit such post-World War II shortstop luminaries as Rizzuto, Reese, Aparicio and Smith. The pre-1933 players did not have the opportunity to be selected to a non-existent All-Star game and the pre-1957 players did not have the opportunity to become Gold Glove winners.

Smith won 13 Gold Gloves at short, Aparicio won nine, Larkin won three, Ripken won two, and Banks won one, among those in the Hall of Fame, compared to Trammell’s four.

Trammell made six All-Star teams, compared to Ripken’s 19, Smith’s 15, Larkin 12, Banks 11, Aparicio 10, Reese 10, Vaughan 9, Lou Boudreau 8, and Rizzuto 5.

Basically, in almost every key measurable category, Trammell ranks within the top dozen shortstops of all time. That should be good enough to get him into the Hall.