More on the Baseball Hall of Fame vote. Plus: the frustrating Toronto Maple Leafs, and the .500 Raptors:
1. The Tao of Stieb asked, on Twitter: "Impertinent Question: Why the fuck does someone from the Delaware County Times have a HoF quote?" Beats the hell out of me. So I moseyed on over to http://www.delcotimes.com/sports and at 2:00 am Thursday morning, found nothing on the Baseball Hall of Fame vote that became news at, oh, 2:01 pm eastern time Wednesday afternoon. Nothing. Of the four top stories, three were about the Philadelphia Eagles and one about the Philadelphia Flyers.
2. According to trusted source Wikipedia, three Toronto writers are members of the BBWAA: The Globe and Mail's Jeff Blair, Canadian Press and MLB.com writer Larry Milson, and the Toronto Sun's Bob Elliott. The Toronto Star's Richard Griffin isn't on the list, but said he's been a member for 15 years.
4. Jeff Blair wrote two excellent columns, one before the vote, and one after. You should read them both. What I like about Blair is that he flat out tells you who he voted for: Alomar, Tim Raines and Mark McGwire. Blair's colleagues in the city should follow his lead.
5. I trust guys like Tom Verducci and Jeff Blair to make this decision. Ken Rosenthal doesn't inspire the same confidence. And Jay Mariotti clearly cannot be trusted. The revolution will not be televised. It'll happen on the internet.
6. First Doc. Now Alomar. If Tom Cheek doesn't win the Ford C. Frick award, I might be forced to believe that the Toronto Blue Jays have "become the target of a systematic process of intimidation and manipulation the likes of which you have never" seen before.
7. On days like this, in the aftermath of a beating of the Toronto Maple Leafs by the Philadelphia Flyers, it's easier to tell yourself that Vesa Toskala played. The entire game. Even if he didn't.
8. At 8:21 pm yesterday evening, I received a text message from my brother: "Luke Schenn sucks." Good times.
9. It's bad enough that the Leafs lost, and gave up another three power play goals in the process. What makes it worse is that Daniel Carcillo scored. Carcillo needs to be placed on an iceberg, and sent floating off into frigid waters. It can't be possible for even Flyers fans to like Carcillo. Or can it? I mean, if Don Cherry hates him, what hope does he have?
10. When Reggie Evans was diagnosed with a "sprained left foot" on October 20, 2009, did you have any idea he still wouldn't be playing in January of the new year? I totally misjudged that injury. I was thinking a couple of weeks. Three, tops.
11. An office colleague of mine, whom I sit beside and genuinely enjoy working with, isn't as passionate about the Raptors as she used to be. Yesterday, she dropped the bombshell that she's not a fan of Chris Bosh. Aghast, I hopped out of my seat to confront her. This wasn't a through-the-cubicle-wall conversation. This was serious business. I said: "Twenty/ten!!1 Every night." She said it wasn't good enough. She said hurtful things: that Bosh couldn't deliver in the clutch; that he isn't a superstar. I stood my ground; 20/10 is no joke. And Scott Carefoot has pointed out at RaptorBlog that Bosh has been the definition of clutch this season. While my definition of superstar is clearly different from that my colleague's, there's no denying Bosh is a special talent. I maintain: max money. Really, the Raptors have no other choice. And, for everyone's sake, the Bosh hating needs to stop.
10 comments:
Why you are awesome:
"Aghast, I hopped out of my seat to confront her. This wasn't a through-the-cubicle-wall conversation. This was serious business."
Never change brother.
As much as I was shocked/disappointed that Alomar didn't get in yesterday, at least he SHOULD get in next year. Do you really think "first ballot" means anything? I don't really see it as a big deal at all. Especially with all these so-called power plays the BBWAA seems to be so fond of.
And I'm still extremely hesitant to give Bosh max. But someone will. He has definitely continued to improve, and it's been a joy to watch it. But I still don't like the idea of giving him max money. That being said though, the thought of actually having a reason to watch the PLAYOFFS!!!!1 for the first time in who knows how long is exciting as fuck.
Surprisingly, Rosenthal admits that the BBWAA made a huge mistake. Normally I don't agree with him, but he owned up to it.
If Tom Cheek doesn't get in, I'm going to start thinking there is a conspiracy theory going on here.
It doesn't say "first ballot..." on the plaque.
That Mariotti is an idiot and the four others that sent in blank ballots are too. Nobody is good enough for them to vote for? Well, nobody is good enough to read his crap either. Boycott! Wonder where the word, "boycott," came from? Interesting word. Going to have to look it up.
I really, really like this blog. Love the enthusiasm and the real, heartfelt writing. Even if you and Tao refuse to answer my tweets. hehe
boycott: the word's origin
By The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition
Captain Charles Cunningham Boycott was an Englishman working in Ireland. In the 1870s he was farming at Loughmask in County Mayo and serving as a land agent for an absentee English landlord, Lord Earne. This was the time of the campaign organized by the Irish Land League for reform of the system of landholdings. In September 1880, protesting tenants demanded that Captain Boycott give them a substantial reduction in their rents. He refused. Charles Stuart Parnell, the President of the Land League, suggested in a speech that the way to force Boycott to give way was for everyone in the locality to refuse to have any dealings with him. Laborers would not work for him, local shops stopped serving him (food had to be brought in from elsewhere for him and his family), and he even had great trouble getting his letters delivered. In the end, his crops were harvested that autumn through the help of fifty volunteers from the north of the country, who worked under the protection of nine hundred soldiers.
The events aroused so much passion that his name became an instant byword. It was first used - in our modern sense of collective and organized ostracism - in the Times of London in November 1880, even while his crops were still being belatedly harvested; within weeks it was everywhere. It was soon adopted by newspapers throughout Europe, with versions of his name appearing in French, German, Dutch and Russian. By the time of the Captain's death in 1897, it had become a standard part of the English language.
We are fucked, the team hates Ron Wilson.
I hate to be merely a shrill for Jeff Blair, but my goodness, I can't remember the last article that I have vehemently disagreed with him and thought he was dead wrong.
As for Chris Bosh and max money, I'm not sure why giving max money is such an egregious move. Not because I think he's on the upper echelon of players, but as you said, 20/10 is good thing. Bosh may never transcend the game, but you can do a lot worse than consistently great play. If the Raptors need a go-to guy, which seems to be the case, I'm not sure giving max money to Bosh prevents that from happening. Vince Carter was given max money and Bosh was supposed to be his second-in-command. I foresee a similar situation happening with Bosh, where the Raptors will have to draft and develop their own star/lieutenant, since I highly doubt the Raptors can sign a franchise player in his prime. Toronto just isn't a destination for most NBA megastars.
that pic reminded me of gibby in niags
I know it doesn't say first ballot on the hall of fame plaque but damnit I hate how the voting works for the Hall of Fame, What changes over the years? How is it that one year a person only gets like 20-25% of the vote but continues to get more year after year until 10 years (Or whatever time) later he has enough to get in.
Did his stats magically get better in that time frame? Did he knock out a couple more home runs? or eek out a few more strikeouts?
Seriously, getting into the hall of fame should be a relatively simple question. Were they good enough or were they not? And I cannot possibly think of a situation where I might think Hey this guy was pretty good... not hall of fame good but ask me again in 10 years and I'll say he was.
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