Hall of Fame

So Wade Boggs and Ryne Sandberg were voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame today, and excellent picks they both were. It was Ryne's third year of elligibility which seems like a long time considering he was the best 2B in baseball for a decade, but hey, he made it.

Who didn't make it is kind of ridiculous to me. Bert Blyleven ended his career with the third most strikeouts in Major League history (as a pitcher, so that's a good thing). He also ended with 287 wins. Now, the "magic number" for victories getting you into the HoF is 300. He came up 13 short. I wonder if the baseball writers (who vote on things like this) maybe thought for a split-second at all that perhaps one of the reasons for that was that he played on the TERRIBLE TERRIBLE MINNESOTA TWINS. He should be in.

Also, Goose Gossage. When people talk about intimidating pitchers, Gossage is one of the first people they mention. He is easily one of the best relief pitchers in Major League history. Unfortunately, the baseball writers have yet to recognize the importance of relief pitchers just yet, as they have only elected two that I can think of (Fingers, Eckersley).

Ah well. The debut headliners for next year's ballot are Dwight Gooden, Orel Hershiser and Will Clark. Maybe Goose and Bert will make it in for lack of better options.

And no, I didn't forget about Andrew Dawson and Jim Rice. You can keep 'em.