I agree, I think they should be voted in by ex-players/coaches instead of reporters. That's the dumbest shit I've ever seen.

What I'd like to see is what idiots didn't vote for Griffey? He had the sweetest left handed swing in the game.

The 2017 Hall of Fame ballot is out. Voting to be completed by the end of December, results in mid-January:

http://bbwaa.com/

It's still a crowded ballot - I see 20 guys with reasonable arguments. Bagwell, Raines, and Hoffman were all close last year. Raines and Lee Smith are in their last year on the ballot. If I had a vote, I'd go for Mussina, Schilling, Bagwell, Walker, Raines, Rodriguez, Guerrero, Martinez, McGriff, and Wagner.

Yes he bet on his own team to win not to lose.

But rules are rules aren't day.

What about Jim Thorpe they took away all his gold medals in the Olympic Games because he played in a few baseball games where they paid him a few bucks to play.

They paid the dream team in basketball to play in the Olympics.

Paul hornung is in the football hall of fame he bet on his own team.

you are right foots, it's all about fairness, Thorpe was done wrong, and should never had his medals taken away , he earned them, and they still don't know if he ever got paid for the ballgames he's accused of playing. and now people get paid for participating in the games, and horning bet on games more than once, but he was a star, one year suspension is all he got, but, rose was betting when he was a manager, he could influence games,with pitching decisions and line-up changes, it seems to be more serious when you are betting as a manager.

In soccer you could fail a doping test if you had caffeine.it was considered as a performance enhancing drug.

[quote=Footreads]In soccer you could fail a doping test if you had caffeine.it was considered as a performance enhancing drug. [/quote

that seems ridiculous.

One of the Hall's myriad special committees met today and inducted Bud Selig and former Braves and Royals executive John Schuerholz. I wouldn't have voted for either, but then they wouldn't have put me on the committee:

http://baseballhall.org/hof/class-of-2017

never liked selig,

As in previous years, a website is tracking Hall of Fame votes as baseball writers announce who is on their ballots:

https://onedrive.live.com/view.aspx?resid=F2E5D8FC5199DFAF!7731&ithint=file,xlsx&app=Excel&authkey=!AE2Lu5P1f92OW8o

After 98 recorded ballots, more than 20% of the expected total, there could be some dramatic changes this year:

Bagwell 92% (finished with 72% last year)
Raines 91% (70%)
Rodriguez 86%

75% needed for induction.

Hoffman 74% (67%)
Guerrero 74%
Bonds 73% (44%)
Clemens 73% (45%)
Martinez 66% (43%)
Mussina 60% (43%)
Schilling 53% (52%)
Ramirez 35%
Smith 31% (34%)
Walker 22% (16%)
Sosa 14% (7%)
Sheffield 11% (12%)
Kent 11% (17%)
McGriff 11% (21%)
Wagner 10% (11%)
Posada 6%

The tracker doesn't claim to be a predictor. In the past, the final tally for most players is 5% or so lower than percentage they received on votes that were made public. Right now Bagwell, Raines (in his tenth and last year on the ballot), and Ivan Rodriguez (first year) look in pretty good shape. Trevor Hoffman looks doubtful with 74%, but last year his vote was odd because he actually underperformed in the ballots that were made public. He may have enough lurking votes to squeak through. Vlad Guerrero is also on the ballot for the first time. At the very least, he's making a very strong start.

Next is a mind-boggling change - Bonds and Clemens at 73% each. They hung at around 50% of the public vote last year and finished around 45%. I doubt if many people have changed their minds about either the rightness of PED use or the allegations against Bonds and Clemens, so it looks like this is a pretty strong reaction to the induction of Bud Selig, and maybe Tony LaRussa or Mike Piazza. Even Sosa is doing much better, although from a much lower base.

If they could induct Bagwell, Raines, Rodriguez, and Hoffman this time around, it would go a long way in eliminating the backlog of deserving players that we've seen for the last few years.

After 166 votes (38% of the expected total):

Bagwell 92% (72% in last year's vote)
Raines 91% (70%)
Rodriguez 84%
Guerrero 76%

Hoffman 73% (67%)
Bonds 69% (44%)
Martinez 69% (43%)
Clemens 69% (45%)
Mussina 61% (43%)
Schilling 53% (52%)
Ramirez 28%
Smith 28% (34%)
Walker 25% (16%)
McGriff 15% (21%)
Sheffield 13% (12%)
Kent 13% (17%)
Wagner 12% (11%)
Sosa 11% (7%)

Posada 4.8%

The deadline to vote was December 31. Selections will be announced on January 18.

pete, is rose ever going to make it in? what do you think his chances are? 1 being never......

Binnie,

I think they may let him in after he's passed away.

That would be a scumbag move. Wouldn't surprise me though.

yes, voting him in after he is dead, is probably going to happen, hard having sympathy for rose, because he brought it all on himself by his incessant lying.

If someone gave me an over - under of ten years on Pete being inducted, I'd go for the under. MLB has already signaled that the issue is up to the Hall, and I'm not sure what particular interest the Hall has in the question. Maybe they'll turn attention to him once the steroids group actually starts being inducted.

not sure a good thing for the steroids group to be inducted, it would only mean nothing is really outlawed, and, a message that anything goes.

Final ballot (with votes and %'s). Bagwell, Raines and Rodriguez will be inducted next summer:

381 Jeff Bagwell 86.2%
380 Tim Raines 86.0%
336 Ivan Rodriguez 76.0%

327 Trevor Hoffman 74.0%
317 Vlad Guerrero 71.7%
259 Edgar Martinez 58.6%
239 Roger Clemens 54.1%
238 Barry Bonds 53.8%
229 Mike Mussina 51.8%
199 Curt Schilling 45.0%
151 Lee Smith 34.2%
105 Manny Ramirez 23.8%
97 Larry Walker 21.9%
96 Fred McGriff 21.7%
74 Jeff Kent 16.7%
59 Gary Sheffield 13.3%
45 Billy Wagner 10.2%
38 Sammy Sosa 8.6%

17 Jorge Posada 3.8%

Posada drops off the ballot due to lack of support, and Lee Smith because he's finished 15 years on the ballot. Jim Thome, Chipper Jones, Scott Rolen, and Omar Vizquel will be eligible next year, so the ballot will remain stacked.

The 2018 Hall of Fame ballot is out:

https://bbwaa.com/18-hof-ballot-release/

Ballots to be returned by December 31, results announced January 24.

The ballot seems a liitle less crowded this year. Vlad Guerrero and Trevor Hoffman missed narrowly last year, and will probably go in. Jim Thome and Chipper Jones are strong new candidates. After them, it's anyone's guess.

Paul Hurnung made the pro football hall of fame. Even though he too gambled that his team would win a game.

But as we all know now you can get away with everything in football. Even take a knee during the national anthem and you can call cops pigs.

No baseball players have taken a knee at least not yet.

Betting on your own team doesn't make it okay. It's forbidden for a reason. Players can easily manipulate the line by betting on their own team. If bookies got word that a player like Rose bet less than his usual amount on a given day, they'd assume something is wrong with his team, and they'd move the line accordingly (and vice versa). The outlaw line would eventually make its way to Vegas. Then the player could send a beard into a Vegas casino and make a huge bet after the line's been moved. Rose is a scumbag, and he's now admitted it. Keep him out of the Hall, and preserve some kind of integrity in the game.

Catcher Bruce Maxwell of the Oakland A's knelt towards the end of this past season.

And then not even a month into the off-season he was arrested for allegedly pointing a gun at a female food delivery person.

I'm not making this up either.

He shouldn't have continued living in Arizona after kneeling. He was probably paranoid as hell from all of the death threats, started drinking. Come home to Cali, Bruce.

As in previous years, a diligent fellow named Ryan Thibodaux is compiling the vote as sportswriters reveal their ballots in their columns:

https://onedrive.live.com/view.aspx?resid=F2E5D8FC5199DFAF!8063&ithint=file,xlsx&app=Excel&authkey=!AAAsz3uDsmqy_Vw

After 105 ballots, about 25% of the expected total:

C. Jones 98%
Thome 95%
Guerrero 94%
Martinez 81%
Hoffman 79%

75% required for induction

Clemens 71%
Bonds 70%
Mussina 71%
Schilling 68%
Walker 41%
Ramirez 29%
Vizquel 29%

As I say every year, nearly everyone's numbers fall when final vote is announced. Bonds and Clemens were at around 73% at this point last year, but finished at around 54%.

That said, the top 5 are very interesting. Jones, Thome, and Guerrero look like locks. Hoffman's one of the few guys whose numbers haven't crashed when the final vote is announced. Edgar Martinez fell by about 7.5% at the announcement last year. If he does that again he'd fall just short of induction at around 73.5%

Jack Morris and Alan Trammell were voted in by one of the veterans' committees earlier this month. If joined by four others, it would be only the second time (1955) that six living ex-players were inducted in one year.

This year's results (votes, percentage, years on ballot):

Chipper Jones 410 (97.2) 1
Vladimir Guerrero 392 (92.9) 2
Jim Thome 379 (89.8) 1
Trevor Hoffman 337 (79.9) 3

Edgar Martinez 297 (70.4) 9
Mike Mussina 268 (63.5) 5
Roger Clemens 242 (57.3) 6
Barry Bonds 238 (56.4) 6
Curt Schilling 216 (51.2) 6
Omar Vizquel 156 (37.0) 1
Larry Walker 144 (34.1) 8
Fred McGriff 98 (23.2) 9
Manny Ramirez 93 (22.0) 2
Jeff Kent 61 (14.5) 5
Gary Sheffield 47 (11.1) 4
Billy Wagner 47 (11.1) 2
Scott Rolen 43 (10.2) 1
Sammy Sosa 33 (7.8) 6
Andruw Jones 31 (7.3) 1

Jamie Moyer 10 (2.4) 1
Johan Santana 10 (2.4) 1
Johnny Damon 8 (1.9) 1
Hideki Matsui 4 (0.9) 1
Chris Carpenter 2 (0.5) 1
Kerry Wood 2 (0.5) 1
Livan Hernandez 1 (0.2) 1
Carlos Lee 1 (0.2) 1
Orlando Hudson 0 1
Aubrey Huff 0 1
Jason Isringhausen 0 1
Brad Lidge 0 1
Kevin Millwood 0 1
Carlos Zambrano 0 1

C. Jones, Guerrero, Thome, and Hoffman will be inducted this summer. Everyone with less than 5% drops off the ballot. Next year's newcomers include Mariano Rivera, Roy Halladay, Todd Helton, Andy Pettitte, and Roy Oswalt.

This year's Hall of Fame announcement is due on January 22. Very likely inductees are Mariano Rivera, Roy Halladay, and Edgar Martinez. Mike Mussina's induction sits on a knife edge.

Thread hasn't been updated in quite a while. A couple veterans committees met today. The pre-1950 group elected former Negro Leaguers Bud Fowler, and Buck O'Neil. The 1950-69 group elected Gil Hodges, Minnie Minoso, Tony Oliva, and Jim Kaat. Oliva and Kaat are still alive, and will be inducted next summer.

The baseball writers are currently doing their annual voting for the regular induction. Balloting closes at the end of the year, results announced in late January.

Does Pete Rose belong in the Hall of Fame?

I did not know that there was a Gambling Hall of Fame ! ! !

He's served his time and if they let cheaters like Hinch, Cora, and others back into the game, then yes, Rose belongs in the HOF. Enough is enough. Let the man in already!

Posthumously. It's a lifetime ban well deserved.

Yes, especially after all these years. Steroid use is getting more and more tolerated today, yet his violation from 20 years ago is keeping him out of the Hall.