People voted for Sanjaya too.
Apparently, a rogue element of jokesters has organized itself with the intent on getting longtime bad left-hander Jimmy Gobble elected to the Kansas City Royals’ Hall of Fame.
This year’s list of candidates includes Bo Jackson, Darrell Porter, Kevin Seitzer, John Wathan, Jermaine Dye and Al Cowens, and all except one — Bo — are running behind Gobble as of Tuesday night. Jimmy has been gobbling up online votes at a 20 percent-plus clip. Bo leads with over 40 percent.
Gobble, not that you need to be reminded of the hard numbers because you remember the generally stinky results, finished his career with a 5.23 ERA in 235 major league appearances for K.C. His first nine starts were OK in 2003 for the last Royals team to finish over .500, and he had a good ERA out of the bullpen as a specialist in 2007. He is friends with Zack Greinke, so he’s probably a good guy.
Gobble was the 43rd overall pick of the 1999 draft and, at one time, was rated by Baseball America the No. 50 prospect in Major League Baseball. So he could have been somebody but, as far as ballplayers go, he was a below-average left-handed pitcher. I’m being really nice here — Gobble was a turkey!
And someone out there thinks it’s HEE-larious that Gobble is even on the ballot in the first place, so why not embarrass the Royals more by making it look like he has a chance to win? The Royals HOF (located inside of Kauffman Stadium) has admitted 25 members (including groundskeeper George Toma) since it opened in 1986. So it’s exclusive. And the Royals, though kids today might not believe it, have an actual tradition that includes some great players — such as Porter, who deserves to be enshrined.
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1. Transmission Posted: March 20, 2013 at 03:41 PM (#4392867)The Fine Print
In other words, the Royals designed this so that fan input would be both minimal and overrideable.
Or Smell Hall
Was Neifi Perez on the ballot?
Its a Hall of FAME, not Hall of Merit. I think club Hall of Fames are for popular players (like say Cookie Rojas, who does not belong on merit). Bo clearly fits that profile, as does Joe Randa (why isn't he on the ballot????) while maybe someone who was pretty good but fairly unpopular like Danny Tartabull could be left out.
Darrell Porter 4 times AS (3 with Royals), 2 time top 10 MVP, ROY 3rd place
Bo Jackson 1 time AS, 1 time top 10 MVP.
Jackson was not more baseball famous by any stretch. he beats Porter in Nike endorsement money, sure.
Of course he was. I don't see how number of All-Star appearances is the end-all metric in baseball fame.
That being said, I think Darrell Porter should probably be in too.
I'm kind of sad Mike Macfarlane didn't make it onto the ballot. He was one of my favorites growing up and possibly the second best catcher in Royals history.
EDIT: Never mind. Just read the fine print about the Veteran's Committee voting. Has it really been 15 years since Macfarlane was traded? :(
Yep, was thinking the same thing. Why the committee would even consider someone like Gobble who is not even close to being borderline?
And the catalyst for Bill James ranking of top 100 players per position in the New historical baseball abstract.
I agree, it might be a fine line as obviously Jackson was more famous, but in regards to baseball value/fame, it's not like Porter was an unknown.
Sorry, it had to be linked....
I've mentioned before that my wife is related to Darrell (Porter was her maiden name), and it would be a pretty big deal to the extended family to see him inducted, even posthumously.
I realize people are just goofing around with Gobble, and it doesn't mandate anything, but there are real people out there who care about this stuff.
I wish my team could have a sideshow who hit 30 HRs with a 120 OPS+
Most teams have. They don't put them in a HOF:
Cubs - Henry Rodriguez 1998
BOS - Jason Bay 2009
BAL - B J Surhoff 1999
CLE - Corey Snyder 1988
DET - Rob Deer 1992
SDP - Kevin McReynolds 1986
MIL - Carlos Lee 2006
and so on.
Ahem.
OK, Luke Scott
Indeed. I'm not a Royals fan and I've aged out of the Internet-snark-is-awesome demographic, but I think this is pretty funny.
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