January 11, 2000

STATLG-L Hall of Fame Results

Even Better than the Real Thing

by Neal Traven

Many thanks to the record 518 participants in this ninth edition of the STATLG-L Hall of Fame voting. The results are in the book ... and nobody won. None of the 30 players on this year's Baseball Writers Association of America ballot were named on the requisite 75% of the submitted votes.

Fact is, no one even came close. Only one player, Gary Carter, drew votes from more than half the people who cast ballots, and fellow catcher Carlton Fisk was the only other player named by even one-third of the voters. Although the number of voters was appreciably higher than in any of the previous (non-Web) elections, the number of players selected on each ballot was much lower than ever before. The 518 voters placed their checkmarks 1384 times, an average of just 2.67 selections per ballot. By comparison, last season's strong slate averaged 6.96 names per ballot, and there were 5.55 names per ballot the previous year (another weak year in which STATLG-L elected no one).

So the STATLG-L voters didn't elect anyone to the Hall of Fame this year, and the number of names per ballot was exceedingly low. Even so, the rank-order of players, shown below, reveals some interesting contrasts to the media hype and hoopla surrounding the "real" HOF vote. Media darling Tony Perez finished fifth in our vote, drawing support from fewer than one of every six participants. Jack Morris finished far behind another first-timer, as Goose Gossage was one of just four players to receive as many as a quarter of the votes. And a mere ten, count 'em, ten people thought All-American boy Steve Garvey merited a plaque in Cooperstown. Five of this year's newcomers failed to draw the attention of even one STATLG-L Hall of Fame voter.

I'm already looking forward to next year, when the STATLG-L HOF vote celebrates its tenth anniversary with Dave Winfield, Don Mattingly, Lou Whitaker, Dave Stewart, and Kirby Puckett looming on the horizon...

Player Name        Votes      Percent  (389 required for election)
Gary Carter          321        62.0%
Carlton Fisk         221        42.7%
Bert Blyleven        139        26.8%
Rich Gossage         135        26.1%
Tony Perez            80        15.4%
Jim Rice              60        11.6%
Jim Kaat              56        10.8%
Luis Tiant            56        10.8%
Tommy John            54        10.4%
Bruce Sutter          47         9.1%
Jack Morris           46         8.9%
Dale Murphy           37         7.1%
Keith Hernandez       33         6.4%
Dave Concepcion       22         4.2%
Ron Guidry            21         4.1%
Dave Parker           20         3.9%
Steve Garvey          10         1.9%
Jeff Reardon          10         1.9%
Bob Boone              4         0.8%
Dave Henderson         3         0.6%
Willie Wilson          3         0.6%
Charlie Hough          2         0.4%
Rick Sutcliffe         2         0.4%
Hubie Brooks           1         0.2%
Kent Hrbek             1         0.2%
Bill Gullickson        0         0.0%
Bruce Hurst            0         0.0%
Steve Sax              0         0.0%
Lonnie Smith           0         0.0%
Bob Welch              0         0.0%

Neal Traven is the co-chair of the Statistical Analysis Committee of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR).

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