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Baseball Brethren:
Having just finished up my fourth jury trial in the last seven weeks, the
weight of the world is finally off my shoulders and I am able to
rededicate myself to family, friends, and of course, baseball. With a trip
to San Diego in the offing, and the funnest day of the year just around
the corner, the timing is perfect.
DRAFT DAY: SATURDAY, APRIL 2, 2005,
1:00 P.M.
Just a little over three weeks remain before our annual rite of spring,
the Hot Stove League Draft. We have settled on Saturday, April 2,
beginning at the traditional 1:00 p.m. start time. For those of you with
short-term memory loss, meaning all of you, please remember that the
offices of Pansing Hogan Ernst & Bachman have moved to 10250 Regency
Circle, Suite 300, just on the other side of the Marriott Hotel from our
old building. Tirebiter is threatening to go high-tech on us this year,
and to tabulate our draft results on the computer to be displayed on the
big screen before our very eyes. For those of you who refuse to be
involved in anything resembling modern technology, we will have the usual
box of crayons and butcher paper for you to record your draft picks.
Remember, we are all males in our 40s, to whom change does not come
easily.
This will be our 21st year of Hot Stove League play, and the 13th year of
competition under the Bill James System with our full league membership.
For those of you in the pitiable minority who have not yet seen your name
etched upon The Cup (proudly sitting on my desk in my home office, by the
way), remember that Time begins on Opening Day, and this season may be
your time to grab glory by the tail and to bring home your first title.
And UBob might back Karl Rove for president in 2008, too.
If any of you have not yet signed up on-line for this season, please see
that you do so as soon as possible. With our Draft on April 2 and Opening
Day on April 4, we don’t have any margin for error in getting our league
signed up and our teams registered.
THAT OLD CUB
Many of you have read Possum’s diatribe (when does he find the time? Isn’t
there some stock exchange doing business 24/7?) about Ron Santo not being
elected to the Hall of Fame by the Veterans Committee. Even though I
haven’t made a studied review of Santo’s qualifications, I tend to agree
with Ted that Santo probably deserves to be in the Hall, at least as much
as any other veteran who didn’t make it in during the first go-round.
Maybe the fact that he sounds like he’s always hammered when doing Cubs
broadcasts is being held against him by the Veterans Committee, although I
expect that most of said Committee members are no strangers to the joys of
inebriation.
Regarding the BBWA vote, resulting in the election of Wade Boggs and Ryne
Sandberg to the Hall, while Boggs’ 3000 hits made him a shoo-in, I was a
little bit surprised that Sandberg made it in. He was a great second
baseman who had some great seasons, but his career numbers over sixteen
seasons (1318 R; 2386 H; 282 HR; 1061 RBI; .285 BA; .344 OBP; 344 SB; 761
BB) are not exactly jaw-dropping. One could argue that Ryno made it in as
much because of his popularity as his career stats.
In this year’s Hall of Fame voting, after Sandberg, nobody else was really
even all that close. Sandberg received 393 votes out of a possibility of
516 from the Baseball Writers’ Association of America, or 76.2%, just over
the 75% level needed for induction. The next highest was Bruce Sutter with
344 votes, or 66.7%, followed by Jim Rice with 307 votes (59.5%), Rich
Gossage with 285 votes (55.2%), and Andre Dawson with 270 votes (52.3%).
Since usually at least one player gets voted into the Hall of Fame every
year, and more often two, it is interesting to look at the 2005 candidates
to see if there are any HOF locks from that group, and to think about how
this might impact upon the chances of Bruce Sutter and Jim Rice of getting
in next time around. Here’s the list of 2006 candidates:
Rick Aguilera
Tim Belcher
Albert Belle
Will Clark
Alex Fernandez
Gary Gaetti
Dwight Gooden
Orel Hershiser
Ozzie Guillen
Juan Guzman
Gregg Jefferies
Lance Johnson
Doug Jones
Roberto Kelly
Mickey Morandini
Hal Morris
Jamie Navarro
Luis Polonia
Mike Stanley
Walt Weiss
John Wetteland
Mark Whiten
Without looking at their statistics, I would say that only Orel Hershiser
has any chance at all of getting in during his first year of eligibility.
Dwight Gooden and Will Clark will probably get a fair number of votes, but
probably nowhere near the 75% needed. Does this mean that Bruce Sutter
and/or Jim Rice might make it into the Hall next year, practically by
default? My bet is that at least one of them will make it, maybe both, but
probably only Sutter.
What is the criteria for making it on the ballot anyway? I mean, Mickey
Morandini? Walt Weiss? Mark Whiten? Come on, there has to be some minimum
criteria for being on the ballot. Also, I thought you had to be retired
five years to be eligible. Isn’t Doug Jones still pitching long relief
somewhere?
The year 2007 will be an entirely different story. With Tony Gwynn, Mark
McGwire and Cal Ripken, Jr. on the ballot that year, we have three
absolute leadpipe cinches for first ballot HOF induction. In addition to
the big three, Harold Baines, Jose Canseco (popular man that he is) and
Bret Saberhagen will all receive votes from many. As such, it looks to me
like 2006 may be the last opportunity for Bruce Sutter, Jim Rice and
company to have a shot at Cooperstown.
HSL LUNCH
It looks like we are getting together for a pre-Draft lunch next Tuesday,
March 15, 2005, at McKenna’s on Pacific Street. Shall we say 11:45 a.m.?
See you there.
SHOP TALK
Having just finished my fourth grueling jury trial in the last seven
weeks, I am more than ready for some fun. At some point during the last
week of my last trial, I looked in the mirror and noted that my face
looked like a clenched fist . All work and no play makes Skipper a dull --
not to mention tired and crabby -- boy. But now that this marathon trial
session is behind me, I can only look forward to more relaxing and sunnier
days ahead with the promise of another fantastic Hot Stove League season
with the boys. Can’t wait.
See you all soon. Have a great month of March.
Skipper
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