Or will some writer feel the need to get his 15 minutes in the sun.
Mo should never have been the first, but hopefully he opens the door to future players that deserve the same honor.
Rivera should open door for more unanimous Hall of Famers
By Kevin Kernan
Mariano RiveraReuters
End the silliness. Or is it madness?
Baseball writers need to all get on the same page, and Tuesday evening should be the time for that long overdue breakthrough.
Mariano Rivera must be the first unanimous Hall of Fame selection by the Baseball Writers Association of America. There should not be a single no for Mo. The man with the most saves in baseball history at 652 should get 100 percent of the vote in this 75th BBWAA HOF election.
It must happen. Then next year Derek Jeter can follow with 100 percent, too, giving the Yankees the first two unanimous Baseball Hall of Fame selections.
It’s really not that hard, voters.
Cooperstown needs to get this right, finally.
How can it be that no player has garnered 100 percent of the votes. Ken Griffey Jr. is at the top of the list with 99.3 percent of the vote. In 2016, three of 440 writers left Griffey, who was only a 13-time All-Star, off their ballots.
This is something that should have been done long ago, but the BBWAA voters couldn’t agree on The Big Fella. In their waxing-poetic minds somehow Babe Ruth, who revolutionized and saved the game after the Black Sox scandal, wasn’t good enough, despite his 714 home runs.
The Great Bambino should have been the Unanimous Bambino.
Let’s make it Unanimous Mo come 6 p.m. Tuesday (MLB Network). It’s past time, dating all the way back to 1936.
The writers really messed that up. Ruth tallied 95.13 percent of the vote. In all, 226 writers voted, and 11 of them did not vote for Ruth. Eleven clueless writers.
Interestingly, that first year Honus Wagner was voted into the Hall and 11 writers refused to vote for him. Ty Cobb led the way with 222 votes.
Rivera has already dodged a HOF ballot bullet from Bill Ballou, a Worcester (Mass.) writer, refusing to vote for Rivera because he believes saves are overrated — even 652 saves — but deciding not to submit a ballot as to not affect Rivera’s chances to be elected unanimously. I’ve known Ballou a long time and attended his retirement party at Fenway Park near the end of the regular season last year. He’s always been a bit of a curmudgeon, in a good way, but this was too much.
SEE ALSO
Breaking down New York Post voters' Baseball Hall of Fame ballots
Sometimes you just have to accept that if a player is the best the game has ever seen at what that player does, in this case closing games, even if you don’t like that part of the game, you have to recognize his greatness. Ballou decided to opt out of the no vote, explaining, “I’m not voting this year. A submitted blank ballot is ‘no’ vote for every candidate, so I’m doing a Switzerland and not sending one at all.’’
Rivera could still be a unanimous selection and he is tracking that way on Ryan Thibodaux’s HOF tracker on Twitter (@NotMrTibbs). But all the votes have not been released publicly. There is the possibility of a writer submitting a no vote on Rivera.
The old “I’m not voting for this guy on the first ballot.’’
Here’s hoping all the voting writers understand the situation, and that no one decides to pull the stunt that no HOF candidate, no matter how great, should be a unanimous selection.
Hopefully, the voters understand Rivera’s brilliance as a closer. It’s not that hard to understand, especially since closers have become Hall of Fame fashionable of late. Last July on Main Street in Cooperstown, HOF closer Goose Gossage, who is not afraid to say what he believes, said he can’t wait to welcome Rivera into the Hall in 2019.
“I love Mariano,’’ Goose told The Post that sunny day. “I will be here for his induction. I wouldn’t miss it.’’
Now Gossage may not like one-inning saves, but he loves Mariano.
All HOF voters should show Mariano their love, too. The time is now to have a unanimous Hall of Fame selection.
Rivera is not the greatest player ever, but this unanimous vote would be for Babe, Ty, Honus, Cy Young, Walter Johnson, Jackie Robinson, Ted Williams, Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, Bob Gibson, Tom Seaver, Nolan Ryan, Cal Ripken Jr., Griffey Jr., Greg Maddux and the other greatest of the greats who were denied that privilege because of silly games writers can play.
Make Mo a clean sweep.
Mo should never have been the first, but hopefully he opens the door to future players that deserve the same honor.
Rivera should open door for more unanimous Hall of Famers
By Kevin Kernan
Mariano RiveraReuters
End the silliness. Or is it madness?
Baseball writers need to all get on the same page, and Tuesday evening should be the time for that long overdue breakthrough.
Mariano Rivera must be the first unanimous Hall of Fame selection by the Baseball Writers Association of America. There should not be a single no for Mo. The man with the most saves in baseball history at 652 should get 100 percent of the vote in this 75th BBWAA HOF election.
It must happen. Then next year Derek Jeter can follow with 100 percent, too, giving the Yankees the first two unanimous Baseball Hall of Fame selections.
It’s really not that hard, voters.
Cooperstown needs to get this right, finally.
How can it be that no player has garnered 100 percent of the votes. Ken Griffey Jr. is at the top of the list with 99.3 percent of the vote. In 2016, three of 440 writers left Griffey, who was only a 13-time All-Star, off their ballots.
This is something that should have been done long ago, but the BBWAA voters couldn’t agree on The Big Fella. In their waxing-poetic minds somehow Babe Ruth, who revolutionized and saved the game after the Black Sox scandal, wasn’t good enough, despite his 714 home runs.
The Great Bambino should have been the Unanimous Bambino.
Let’s make it Unanimous Mo come 6 p.m. Tuesday (MLB Network). It’s past time, dating all the way back to 1936.
The writers really messed that up. Ruth tallied 95.13 percent of the vote. In all, 226 writers voted, and 11 of them did not vote for Ruth. Eleven clueless writers.
Interestingly, that first year Honus Wagner was voted into the Hall and 11 writers refused to vote for him. Ty Cobb led the way with 222 votes.
Rivera has already dodged a HOF ballot bullet from Bill Ballou, a Worcester (Mass.) writer, refusing to vote for Rivera because he believes saves are overrated — even 652 saves — but deciding not to submit a ballot as to not affect Rivera’s chances to be elected unanimously. I’ve known Ballou a long time and attended his retirement party at Fenway Park near the end of the regular season last year. He’s always been a bit of a curmudgeon, in a good way, but this was too much.
SEE ALSO
Breaking down New York Post voters' Baseball Hall of Fame ballots
Sometimes you just have to accept that if a player is the best the game has ever seen at what that player does, in this case closing games, even if you don’t like that part of the game, you have to recognize his greatness. Ballou decided to opt out of the no vote, explaining, “I’m not voting this year. A submitted blank ballot is ‘no’ vote for every candidate, so I’m doing a Switzerland and not sending one at all.’’
Rivera could still be a unanimous selection and he is tracking that way on Ryan Thibodaux’s HOF tracker on Twitter (@NotMrTibbs). But all the votes have not been released publicly. There is the possibility of a writer submitting a no vote on Rivera.
The old “I’m not voting for this guy on the first ballot.’’
Here’s hoping all the voting writers understand the situation, and that no one decides to pull the stunt that no HOF candidate, no matter how great, should be a unanimous selection.
Hopefully, the voters understand Rivera’s brilliance as a closer. It’s not that hard to understand, especially since closers have become Hall of Fame fashionable of late. Last July on Main Street in Cooperstown, HOF closer Goose Gossage, who is not afraid to say what he believes, said he can’t wait to welcome Rivera into the Hall in 2019.
“I love Mariano,’’ Goose told The Post that sunny day. “I will be here for his induction. I wouldn’t miss it.’’
Now Gossage may not like one-inning saves, but he loves Mariano.
All HOF voters should show Mariano their love, too. The time is now to have a unanimous Hall of Fame selection.
Rivera is not the greatest player ever, but this unanimous vote would be for Babe, Ty, Honus, Cy Young, Walter Johnson, Jackie Robinson, Ted Williams, Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, Bob Gibson, Tom Seaver, Nolan Ryan, Cal Ripken Jr., Griffey Jr., Greg Maddux and the other greatest of the greats who were denied that privilege because of silly games writers can play.
Make Mo a clean sweep.