The Baseball Hall Ballot Newbies

Raines belongs.

 

Raines, Gossage, Blyleven and Rice.

Wishful thinking yes, but hopefully Goose at the very least.

 

when it raines it pours.

 

Raines absolutely belongs. It'll take him 12-15 years though...if he's fortunate.

 

Sounds good to me.

 

Mine, too.

 

Has there ever been a year that the writers voted nobody in?
With a weak first-ballot class this year, will enough writers change their minds about guys like Gossage, Rice and Blyleven for them to be elected?

 

I'd bet right now Goose makes it (deservedly), Rice and Blyleven just miss (despite Zeke's wonderfully logical and impassioned pleas) and Raines doesn't come close.

 

1996 was the last time, I think. And Nellie Fox and/or Jim Bunning, I think, missed in their last year of eligibility because a few writers submitted blank ballots.

I don't think Rice gets in. Power numbers that pale in comparision to today's numbers + a well-earned rep as a surly jerk = Vets Committee

 

My ballot willl have Goose Gossage, as it has every year. (And probably no one else).

 

Goose has deserved to be in for a while and hopefully he can overcome the first-ballot support of Dunston.