Year: 2013

A reporter for The Republican explains his HOF voting thought process

Bagwell won’t make it, mostly because he is widely suspected of using steroids. Beyond gossip and unproven speculation, there is no evidence he did – no list, no eyewitness account, just rumor.

Sorry, I need more than that to indict a guy. There is barely more reason to suspect Mike Piazza, but enough doubt for me to withhold a Piazza vote and pledge to review his case in the future.

via A voter asks if 9 Hall of Famers is too many | masslive.com.

In the Boston Globe, Dan Shaughnessy walks us through his HOF thought process…..

This is where it gets unfair and subjective. I don’t vote for the PED guys, so it’s easy to say no to Bonds, Clemens, Sosa, McGwire, and Palmeiro. They have positive tests and/or admissions and/or multiple appearances in the Mitchell Report. Piazza and Bagwell have none of that. They just don’t look right.

via Time to cast his votes for baseball’s Hall of Fame – Sports – The Boston Globe.

Some bloggers, Daniel Murphy, a question about EY Jr, and some always great writing by Greg Prince.

“He flipped a double play in Chicago against the White Sox that was sweet,” the incumbent second baseman said of the player who could very well replace him. Murphy, who was given most of that game off, went onto describe the play that I could vaguely envision once he mentioned it. “He got a low throw, I think, from the third baseman and he took it and he turned that thing over easy. It was impressive not because you didn’t think he could do it, but he hadn’t been there like all year. And he really wasn’t taking a whole, whole bunch of ground balls. He did some work there and turned some double plays, but to just go out there in the best league on earth, flip a double play with a guy bearing down on you…that’s what I would say is impressive.”

..

Murph has been a true team man since 2008, playing wherever assigned without a hint of public complaint. Now, minutes after schvitzing as Santa, he was giving the gift of praise to somebody whose very presence might soon make him the former Met starting second baseman or perhaps a former Met altogether. Yet Daniel Murphy honestly assessed Eric Young’s skills and shared his impressions with a handful of strangers who, from a strictly transactional standpoint, weren’t people to whom he really needed to say anything substantive at all.

via That’s Why He’s Santa « Faith and Fear in Flushing.