Heh. It may be subscriber only, but they still let you read the article behind the "Subscribe Now" screen.

Anyways...
Mike Imrem - Bagwell, McGwire, Morris, Smith
Barry Rozner - Morris, Raines, Smith
Scot Gregor - Larkin, Morris
Bruce Miles - Bagwell, Larkin, Martinez, Morris, Raines, Smith, Trammell

Man, they love them some Jack Morris. :|

The Hall of Fame should be representative of baseball, and what's more baseball than shitty players with unreasonable hagiography?

I choose to believe that this is why Morris gets so much support.

Man, they love them some Jack Morris. :|

AND DA SAVES!

Morris: 4 votes
Smith: 3 votes
Bagwell, Raines, Larkin: 2 votes each
McGwire, Martinez, Trammell: 1 vote each

Kudos to Bruce Miles - he got the Big Four right, and then voted for Edgar Martinez, who may be the 5th best candidate, IMO. If you vote for Larkin/Bagwell/Trammell/Raines, and you want to see Smith and Morris get in, too, that's fine - just get the first four, please...

Rozner's ballot is just painful. Gregor's is barely better, maybe?

Gregor says he isn't voting for McGwire, Palmeiro, Bagwell, and Gonzalez due to concerns over steroids.

Imrem is one of those guys who writes like he's talking to the guy on the next stool at the bar, trying to be funny, and all the time he's just convincing you that he's a total idiot who shouldn't be allowed anywhere near a column. He's not actively evil like Marriotti, just a complete dolt.

FOUR guys from one paper all get to vote? That seems out of whack to me, regardless of the contents of their ballots.

And the Daily Herald is Chicago's third most significant paper, too.

We make the news, then we report on the news we make. What a living.

FOUR guys from one paper all get to vote? That seems out of whack to me, regardless of the contents of their ballots.

The Chicago Tribune has considerably more than that.

IIRC, Maury Brown posted the BBWAA membership several years ago. About a fourth or a fifth of the membership is based out of NYC, so I assume some of those papers I'm sure has a lot of voters.

Thanks, Chris. For anyone looking here's the list that Maury posted.

However, that opens up a few other questions...the eligibility rules state that ten-year BBWAA members can vote, but the number of votes cast in 2011 (581) don't seem to match the number of "badges" for ten-year members. (Down further, there's a note indicating that there are "lifetime members"--who don't appear to retain their badge numbers once they are no longer active--who retain voting rights.)

So, since there are 481 active BBWAA members as of 2001, that means there are at least one hundred "lifetime" members out there, and (of course) quite probably many more than that.

You know, being able to break this vote down by subcategories (region, years of membership, etc.) would be more than a little bit interesting...

And the Daily Herald is Chicago's third most significant paper, too.

Though - I think you can make a strong argument for Miles as Chicagoland's best sportswriter, especially on baseball. In fact - I'm not so sure that isn't a slamdunk statement.

Rozner - despite a bad a ballot - is probably the equal of Phil Rogers in the also-ran category/more respected than he should be.

Not listed on the Brown list are a dozen MLB.Com writers like myself who had at least 10 years with a newspaper and are still considered "honorary members." I had 20 years for the Fort Worth paper before going to MLB.Com. We can only vote for the Hall of Fame. We can not vote for BBWAA awards. The BBWAA will not allow MLB.Com into the BBWAA.

TR... Do you know if MLB.Com will be bundling up their HOF voters this year...like they usually do?

They have not requested my ballot yet so I do not know

Given just 3-4 paragraphs to work with, each writer still managed to display some really awful writing.

However, that opens up a few other questions...the eligibility rules state that ten-year BBWAA members can vote, but the number of votes cast in 2011 (581) don't seem to match the number of "badges" for ten-year members. (Down further, there's a note indicating that there are "lifetime members"--who don't appear to retain their badge numbers once they are no longer active--who retain voting rights.)

This is what kills me -- there are plenty of guys who continue to get ballots despite the fact that they haven't written a baseball (or in some cases sports) column in years.

there are guys who get ballots who are/were editors or photographers who know as much about baseball as i do about soccer.

i remember looking at that list and checking out some of those names to see how they were connected to BASEBALL - and the BBWAA really REALLY needs to modernize itself, i mean, editors??? football guys who applied for membership 30 years ago???

people who explain that they really are not "rickey guys"

people who didn't know who was on the ballot last year even though they voted last year?

people who, unlike, say, robothal and richard justice, can't be bothered to actually do any real sort of research beyond - how many wins and did he have Big Muscles?

poor bagwell.
but i guess we all know that in order to hit homers in the astrodome like bagwell and joe morgan and jimmy wynn, you have to shoot steroids because small guys like mickey mantle and willie mays are speed guys, not home run hitters

bbc #19 - thanks for reminding me about some of the old Astros.

I remember, even as a kid back in the late sixties, wondering how in the heck the Astros wound up with Joe Morgan, Jim Wynn and Rusty Staub - all excellent hitters with good power, and all having their numbers absolutely strangled by playing in that Godforsaken dome...

Looking at Maury's list I am surprised that a huge proportion of the badge members are recent. The lists for 2007-9 are massive relative to the earlier years. Given the demise of newspapers, etc. I had thought BBWAA membership was a pretty aged group. But over 1/3 of the badges were handed out 2005-9.

To the extent there seemed to be a trend it's towards a great expansion among small-town/suburban papers. The Boston contingent reads like a train schedule from the Simpsons (Springfield, Brockton, Worcester, Quincy, New Bedford, Woburn ... alas I did not notice North Haverbrook). Not that that's a bad thing necessarily but not necessarily what we expect.* There also has been a "boon" in what appear to be Japanese reporters following Ichiro, Godzilla, Dice-K (and LA).

* That might just be an early-career thing. I assume the affiliations are current affiliations (e.g. Chass is listed as "at large") so small-paper reporters in, say, 1985 have hopefully moved up to more prominent papers by now.

i remember looking at that list and checking out some of those names to see how they were connected to BASEBALL

Every year I track down these "retired" baseball writers (some actually start up blogs and release their HOF picks there...totally unnoticed by the public)...and one I came across is doing a monthly column on girls High School track for The Bluehair Bulletin or something.

Yet he has a vote...and probably does his yearly squint looking for "Slats" Marion's name.

Gregor says he isn't voting for McGwire, Palmeiro, Bagwell, and Gonzalez due to concerns over steroids.

Is he implying that he would be voting for Gonzalez otherwise? Because that would frankly bother me even more.

EricJ - I figured it just meant he won't vote for anyone even whispered about.

There's no question but that Bill James is right - some day it will come to light that they have elected a HOFer who roided. Seems like nobody wants to be the one that "did it."

When it comes to light that they have elected a HOFer who roided, there will be approximately 450 somebodies who "did it." Or more.

Every year I track down these "retired" baseball writers (some actually start up blogs and release their HOF picks there...totally unnoticed by the public).

The BBWAA should consider offering unpublished voters the chance to put their ballots (and write-up for that matter) on the BBWAA website. I don't know how many would take them up on it but no harm in finding out.