re: Greg Maddux HOF selection question

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Completely disagree. Watered down with special interests and average players.

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Bill James' book "whatever happened to the hall of fame" sheds a great deal of light on the process and evaluates the merits of some of the borderline guys that are in/out.

the first point he makes is that while we think the HOF should be exclusively the realm of the likes of Walter Johnson, Ruth, and Mays; it really isn't and largely due to the influence of the Veterans Committee, it never has been. The truly exceptional ballplayers are still exceptional even when viewed against the entirety of the HOF and really it's been that way for pretty much its entire existence. Heck, there was a while there where it seemed like if you were a good player that was a teammate of Frankie Frisch, you couldn't help but get in. Also, lots of guys that participated in the Glory of Their Times found their way in after their careers got a second look due to the popularity of it.

He also rolls through the various arguments guys make on behalf of favored players, the most poisonous being "well, if XYZ is in, then ABC should too" since it continually waters down the HOF pool by adding marginally great players. Another good one is the creation of custom stat combinations: player ABC is the only guy w/ xxx extra base hits and xxx RBI over 10 years and isn't in the HOF....stuff like that.

I used to get all up and arms in these arguments about who should be in/out, but it's kinda pointless in my mind when the BBWAA kinda runs it all by their own rules (including who is and isn't considered a "baseball writers") w/ no accountability and it's less about greatness and more about each voter's agenda. i'm just happy when guys i rooted for get in, and leave it at that now.