Welcome to 2025 and the tenth year of 210Sports, and in what has become a New Year’s tradition here on the blog I’ll begin the year by casting my completely unofficial Baseball Hall of Fame ballot.
To be eligible to cast an official ballot a person must be a Baseball Writers’ Association of America member for at least 10 years and cover baseball for 10 consecutive years for an accredited outlet. Obviously, I have neither qualification nor will never get to cast an official ballot. But I do watch a lot of baseball and have a blog I can write about sports on, so that must count for something.
Within the rules determined by the Baseball Hall of Fame, BWAA writers can vote for up to ten players on the ballot and may use any criteria they see fit in selecting which players from the ballot to vote for. I am a huge fan of the way Bill Ballou, formerly of the Worcester Telegram, decides who to vote for: “You would buy a ticket just so you could tell your grandchildren you saw him perform”. That’s as great a reason to vote for anyone as I have ever heard.
As it does every year, the subject of performance-enhancing drugs will come up. To be honest, how I deal with that is very easy: if a player is eligible, I’ll vote for him if I think he’s worthy of the Hall of Fame. I understand that some people think they shouldn’t be enshrined, but if they’re on the ballot the Hall of Fame has determined that player is qualified to be inducted.
The first part of my ballot is easy, it’s the players I voted for last year that are still on the ballot this year. Those players are:
Manny Ramirez
Alex Rodriguez
Billy Wagner
None of those guys got any better or worse on the field, so I’m not sure why a voter wouldn’t just copy over the ballot they had the previous year. I guess you could see voters dropping some players because those players turned out to be really sketchy people since their inclusion on the ballot, but short of being a physical menace to society, I try to let their on-field careers decide if they’re worthy.
For the same reason, I also won’t make any additions to any players I left off before. For me to add a player I omitted before someone would have to make a very convincing argument that I got it wrong leaving him off the first year he was eligible. That happened just once before when I added Edgar Martinez in 2019. Looking at who is on this year’s official ballot again from previous seasons there’s no chance of it happening for any of those players.
Of the first-time candidates, if you don’t think Ichiro Suzuki is a Hall of Famer your opinion on pretty much everything you can think of is probably invalid too. Ichiro had 3,093 hits and ranks in MLB’s top 100 in runs scored, total bases, and stolen bases. Oh, and he had zero in all of those categories until he turned 27 years old. If you feel like piling on you can add his pro numbers from Japan to his MLB stats to see some scoreboard like numbers.
The only question about Ichiro’s candidacy is if he will be a unanimous selection. And to be blunt, anyone not including him on their ballot should have their voting privileges revoked.
CC Sabathia would also get my vote. Yes, lots of his stats are inflated because he played so long, but longevity seems like something that should be taken into account when determining if someone is a Hall of Famer or not. We know short careers are often taken into consideration for players being excluded, which happens on this ballot for another player, so long careers need to earn some credit.
I think one of the reasons I’m not a huge Sabathia fan is he pitched so long for the Yankees, but I don’t need to be a fan to include a player on my ballot, and Sabathia gets my vote.
One player who doesn’t get my vote, and it’s because injuries cut his career short, is Dustin Pedroia. The Laser Show really needed just a couple more seasons of even average baseball to earn his spot. But his bad left knee had other ideas, and unfortunately that was that.
For the rest of the first timers, if any real voters include them, I’d love to know why. Are there some really good ball players on that list? Sure. And would I have loved to have most of them on the Red Sox at some point? Of course. But are any of those guys Hall of Famers? Absolutely not.
While we’re on the subject of Hall of Fame players, no one can be a borderline Hall of Famer. Being a Hall of Famer in any sport is like being pregnant, either you are, or you aren’t. And if you have to think about if a certain player is or isn’t a Hall of Famer, then they’re not. The key difference is that eventually, no matter how, you’re not pregnant anymore.
That’s not true of being a Hall of Famer.
On January 21st the BBWAA will announce the results of its 2024 Hall of Fame balloting, and those that get the required 75% for enshrinement will join Veterans Committee picks Dave Parker and Dick Allen at the Hall of Fame induction ceremony on July 27, 2025, in Cooperstown, New York.
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