Phil Watch: Absolving Himself Of His Own Dippiness

Slow day for Phil today.

He meant to vote for seven (!) players on his ballot for the Hall of Fame but forgot to check Harold Baines' name, possibly leaving him dangerously close to permanently falling off the ballot.

But it didn't happen. He got 5.2% of the vote.

Whew!!

In early January, shortly after the deadline for voting, I realized that I had meant to vote for seven players but had voted for six. I omitted Baines through an oversight, not any change in believing him worthy of the honor.

This is subtle bullshit. Nothing about this 'omission' is mentioned in the Trib's article on January 6 that polled their writer's votes. Nothing. Not a word.

Completely disregarding his vote for seven players on this ballot and overlooking what seems to be revisionist history (a hope that the possible becomes plausible), check your fucking ballot! I will win no proofreading contests in this lifetime, but I will bet both of my nuts, I'd check that before 'hitting send'.

I'm not sure I could have looked Baines in the face, and I've known him for almost 20 years.

This is the kind of sportswriting that can only be determined as sloppy. Aging writers use this crap to substitute for true statistical analysis. They happened to be in the same room as a player and probably had a drink or two with them, so they allude to this, keeping it vague as to just how much they 'know' them, and apply it to buttress their forthcoming ridiculous argument.

Baines received 28 votes this time around, one less than a year ago, and the exact number needed to stay on the ballot. One fewer vote, and he would have been the new Lou Whitaker—a great player erased from the Hall ballot alongside the slightly better-than-average players who get one courtesy trip through the process.

Whoa, doggie! Lou Whitaker was never a 'great player'. He was a very good player. Very Good, that category Phil conveniently omitted between great and slightly better-than-average.

He's widely dismissed because he was one-dimensional as a designated hitter for the second half of his career, but he has enough hits to be on the radar. He endured endless knee surgeries and brutal workouts to stay on the field.

A mildly cogent argument could be made for Baines. This isn't it. Phil is adopting the Mike Downey argument that the sheer number of hits should be the only benchmark for the Hall.

Downey is also the guy who gave us this when justifies a couple of players:

A single no-brainer: Andre Dawson with his 2,774 hits and 438 home runs. (Joe DiMaggio had 2,214 and 361.)

A show-of-support vote: Alan Trammell, a super shortstop, a six-time All-Star, a World Series MVP, a class act. Tram, too, had more hits (2,365) than DiMaggio did.

Um, what? Let's forget for the moment that Joe DiMaggio missed three full seasons at the height of his career because of that little skirmish across the pond.

DiMaggio's 162 game averages: .325 avg, .398 OBP, 35 hrs and 143 fuckin' RBI.

I won't speak to the 'sacred hallowedness' of the Hall of Fame, but this isn't some truck stop, farm toy museum. Not everybody with $2 and receipt from your cigarette purchase should get in.

Back to Phil.

He (Baines) deserves the benefit of the doubt, in my opinion, because of a .324 batting average and .888 OPS (on-base plus slugging) in 31 postseason games for four teams, including White Sox appearances in 1983 and 2000 on both ends of his career.

Then put Tito Landrum in the Hall. In two World Series, he had a .920 OPS.

As a member of the Baseball Writers Association of America, I'm proud that the Hall of Fame entrusts us with the first level of voting on inductees. There are a lot of people who believe the process should be opened to others, especially broadcasters and statistical analysts. It's not a perfect process, certainly, but the onus isn't on the baseball writers to justify the system; it's on the Hall.

First, to be a member of the BBWAA, you have to get a job as a baseball writer at a somewhat regional newspaper and not die for ten years. This isn't the Supreme Court. Woody Paige is a member.

Second, BULLSHIT! The BBWAA does, indeed, justify the system by their sheer inaction on attempting to justify the system. To say they are without blame is ridiculous. They Are The Sole Voters, now that the Veteran's Committee has been marginalized.

And to see how much of a closed little cabal they are, check this out.

Now that Phil has supposedly exposed his ballot (Blyleven, Dawson, Gossage, Rice, Morris, Trammell), the search for the Shawon Dunston voter will diligently move forward.