The Baseball Hall of Fame voting process
The Baseball Hall of Fame Class of 2025 was announced on Tuesday: Ichiro Suzuki, C.C. Sabathia and Billy Wagner.
Ichiro received 99.7 percent of the vote, after one of the 393 Baseball Writers Association of America left him off their ballot.
I will continue to maintain that the longer only members of the Baseball Writers of America Association are allowed to vote for the Hall of Fame, the more scrutiny and criticism the process and the writers should face. The voting process needs a major overhaul.
By authorization of the HOF Board of Directors, the Baseball Writers’ Association of America (BBWAA) was authorized in 1936 to hold an election every year for the purpose of electing members to the HOF.
Only active and honorary members of the BBWAA, who have been active baseball writers for at least ten (10) years, shall be eligible to vote. They must have been active as baseball writers and members of the Association for a period beginning at least ten (10) years prior to the date of election in which they are voting.
Here are my issues:
1. Media coverage has dramatically changed since the first HOF election in 1936. There is no reason for the vote to be exclusive to the BBWAA. Do we only get our news from a newspapers? Do only newspaper writers cover the game? TV and Radio play much bigger roles in our lives than newspapers. Why is that not reflected in the HOF voting process?
2. Think about some of the individuals that don't vote in this process: Brennaman, Bob Costas, George Grande, Pat Hughes, John Sterling, Dave Sims, John Rooney, Steve Stone, Buck Martinez, Joe Castiglione, Ken Harrelson, Tom Hamilton and Jon Miller. Consider the combined years of broadcasting and games witnessed in their collective broadcasting careers. Why don't historians like Bill James, Ken Burns, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Steve Hirdt, George Will, and John Thorn have votes?
3. How about adding diversity in the voting group? How about a voting panel that includes:
10-year members of the BBWAA (45%)
Broadcasters, executives and historians (45%)
Hall of Famers (10%)
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Here is Marty Brennaman's rant against the voting process a couple of years ago on Reds Hot Stove:
"I see more baseball in the course of a season than most of these guys who are given the opportunity to vote by the BBWAA. It is a closed fraternity. They have guys voting that have about as much right to vote as my grandchildren do. It's a dumb situation. It is something that needs to be looked at seriously. They will not allow us to be a part of this, and I think they are a bunch of damn idiots because they won't. The Baseball Hall of Fame bends over and just says 'ok, we'll do whatever you want to do'. They could apply the pressure if they wanted to, but they choose not to, and that's the reason we are not allowed to vote."