Baseball Stew: Tom Seaver — Closest to Unanimous Hall of Fame Selection

We’ve finally come to the end of a somewhat rambling road, a figurative road that leads to Cooperstown, New York. The journey has covered many aspects of the voting for Hall of Fame candidates. Here now, with a focus on Tom Seaver, is more on illogical thinking by some of the voters from the BBWAA, men who at one point or another covered baseball for 10 or more consecutive seasons. Men who should have known better when it came time to cast their votes for baseball’s version of Mt. Olympus, the home of the gods.

Thinking back to Part Five of this series, the last story posted here, I just can’t imagine a clear thinking voter, again, supposedly a highly informed and intelligent voter, mulling over whether he should vote for one of the original five members.

In Part Five the surprisingly low vote totals were listed for those greats, none apparently good enough for unanimous honors— Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Walter Johnson, Honus Wagner, and Christy Mathewson. Worse were the incredibly low percentages garnered by men such as Cy Young, Lefty Grove, Jimmie Foxx, and others. And how about the voters who considered the merits of a Greg Maddux, a Willie Mays, or a Ted Williams, then decided, “No. He’s doesn’t belong, but I’ll vote for him next year, I guess.”

So, while there should have been some unanimous picks along the way, there weren’t. Perhaps there never will be one unless there’s ever a time when a group of 500-plus voters doesn’t contain at least one person, who for whatever crazy or perverse reason, passes negative judgment on an all-time great.

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Consider some actions of BBWAA members. In 1992 three writers — Paul Hagen, Bob Hertzel, and Bob Hunter — turned in blank ballots as a way of protesting the decision made by the Hall of Fame board of directors to prohibit Pete Rose from being on ballots because he had been banned from baseball for life for his involvement in gambling on baseball.

That year, 430 votes were cast and Seaver missed out on unanimity by five votes, the three blank ballots and the two he would have — in fact, should have – earned if two retired writers shook off their cobwebs and conceded that Seaver did indeed deserve to get the honor of going into the Hall the first time he was on the ballot. The two retirees were Deane McGowen and Bud Tucker.

Hagen told AP writer Ronald Blum, “If it [his not voting for Seaver] had cost Seaver anything, “Yeah, I probably would regret it at some level, but it didn’t really cost him anything. He still got the highest vote [percentage wise] total ever, and he wouldn’t have been unanimous anyway.”

Of course, when he withheld his vote he probably didn’t know that Seaver would not have been a unanimous selection no matter how he voted. Further, shouldn’t Seaver be the one to decide if not being a unanimous pick cost him anything, and not Hagen? Even if it cost Seaver something intangible, something along the lines of pride and honor, then he was, in fact, hurt by the three-man protest and by the actions of the two retired writers.

Hagen was correct about one thing— Seaver’s percentage was the closest anyone ever came to being a unanimous choice, receiving a 98.84 per cent vote. And just where did Seaver gain much of his fame? Oh, yeah, New York — a city with a so-called mystique and tendency to elevate the importance of who plays there and what happens.

I’m getting a bit off the subject here, but be aware that I’m not arguing Seaver didn’t deserve to be a unanimous selection. However, don’t tell me he was a greater pitcher than a few others who come quickly to mind, or that he was a better pitcher than, say, Hank Aaron was an everyday player.

What I am saying is others should have been unanimous picks long before Tom Seaver deserved such an honor, and given there have never been any unanimous picks, Seaver doesn’t really deserve to have pulled down the highest percentage of votes ever.

My tirade and my six-part story complete, I am now going on a leave of absence to spend time writing a book on a different sport — football. For the next year or so I will be co-writing the autobiography of NFL Hall of Famer Raymond Berry, tentatively entitled Catch Me If You Can. Hopefully, I will catch you next year for more Hot Stove chatter.

Next: Sean Dolittle, Tyler Clippard, Dan Otero: Three-headed closer?