11.03.2004
The Ballot that Matters
Even though I am not a member of the BBWA, I still submit a Hall of Fame ballot every year. What can I say, I'm a freak. Let it fly. Here's my ballot this year (in no particular order, except for the top slot):
1. Don Mattingly. Best first baseman I have ever seen. For most of his career I would watch him all the time on WPIX. I can still mimic the way his gloved hand would glide over to the sliding baserunner on every throw to the base. I even remember seeing for the only time the successful execution of the fake throwback to the pitcher - tag out of the runner play. And for about seven years in the eighties he was a fucking ferocious batter. If Kirby Puckett could get elected into the HOF with similar numbers and a career shortened by an injury (glaucoma), then Donnie Baseball (chronic back pain) deserves a shot. I used to think he was dogging it, not believing that chronic back pain was a real malady. Then I got it and have been bedridden by days by it.
2. Wade Boggs. The chicken loving sex maniac. Which hat to wear in the hall of fame? My order of preference: Devil Rays - Yankees - Red Sox. They should have a mural of him either riding a horse around Yankee Stadium or crying in the dugout in the 86 world series. The Agony and the Glory, or some such bullshit.
3. Goose Gossage.
4. Keith Hernandez. Even though he is a Met, and his career ended miserably in Cleveland. I like his "No Play for Mr. Gray" commercials.
5. Tommy John. Hey they named a surgery for this guy. And he won 290 games! If Jim Bunning, that bastard senator from Kentucky is in, so is Tommy John.
6. Andre Dawson. He was the man. I think all the 80s 'Spos (except maybe Francona) should be in. Tim Raines! There was atime when I got more Cubs games on WGN than I did Yankees games on WPIX. And they were on right when I got back from school.
7. Steve Garvey. Bastard kids all over the country. Him and Wade Boggs should have a knotched bedpost in the hall (next to Babe Ruth's)
8. Jack Morris. He was unstoppable.
9. Dale Murphy. He's good enough, barely, to be in the hall. Give him some due.
10. Jim Rice. He's better than Murphy. And there's a playground and ballpark in Boston named after him.
Even though I am not a member of the BBWA, I still submit a Hall of Fame ballot every year. What can I say, I'm a freak. Let it fly. Here's my ballot this year (in no particular order, except for the top slot):
1. Don Mattingly. Best first baseman I have ever seen. For most of his career I would watch him all the time on WPIX. I can still mimic the way his gloved hand would glide over to the sliding baserunner on every throw to the base. I even remember seeing for the only time the successful execution of the fake throwback to the pitcher - tag out of the runner play. And for about seven years in the eighties he was a fucking ferocious batter. If Kirby Puckett could get elected into the HOF with similar numbers and a career shortened by an injury (glaucoma), then Donnie Baseball (chronic back pain) deserves a shot. I used to think he was dogging it, not believing that chronic back pain was a real malady. Then I got it and have been bedridden by days by it.
2. Wade Boggs. The chicken loving sex maniac. Which hat to wear in the hall of fame? My order of preference: Devil Rays - Yankees - Red Sox. They should have a mural of him either riding a horse around Yankee Stadium or crying in the dugout in the 86 world series. The Agony and the Glory, or some such bullshit.
3. Goose Gossage.
4. Keith Hernandez. Even though he is a Met, and his career ended miserably in Cleveland. I like his "No Play for Mr. Gray" commercials.
5. Tommy John. Hey they named a surgery for this guy. And he won 290 games! If Jim Bunning, that bastard senator from Kentucky is in, so is Tommy John.
6. Andre Dawson. He was the man. I think all the 80s 'Spos (except maybe Francona) should be in. Tim Raines! There was atime when I got more Cubs games on WGN than I did Yankees games on WPIX. And they were on right when I got back from school.
7. Steve Garvey. Bastard kids all over the country. Him and Wade Boggs should have a knotched bedpost in the hall (next to Babe Ruth's)
8. Jack Morris. He was unstoppable.
9. Dale Murphy. He's good enough, barely, to be in the hall. Give him some due.
10. Jim Rice. He's better than Murphy. And there's a playground and ballpark in Boston named after him.
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