Hall of Fame Ballot: The One-Vote Seekers

Let's start putting the Queen Amidala Hall of Fame Gambit to work.

The Baseball Hall of Fame will announce its newest inductees at 6 p.m. on Jan. 21. We already know four people who will be inducted that weekend:

1. Dick Allen, who hit the ball so hard that for the rest of his life, major league pitchers would regard him with a mixture of awe and trepidation.

2. Dave Parker, a boppin’ ballplayer who in his younger days displayed a dizzying array of power, speed, arm strength and aggressiveness.

3. Tom Hamilton, dynamic announcer for the Cleveland Indians/Guardians whose daily enthusiasm for baseball and life has entertained and energized baseball fans across Northeast Ohio for three decades.

4. Thomas Boswell, brilliant sportswriter whose keen eye and graceful prose elevated the game. “Tom Boswell,” the basketball coach John Thompson once said, “writes for the heavens.”

I should say that the Hall of Fame does not consider the last two—Hamilton and Boswell—to be “official” Hall of Famers. They’re receiving two of the Hall of Fame’s most prestigious awards: Hamilton is getting the Ford Frick Award for broadcasting excellence. Boswell is getting the BBWAA Career Excellence Award, which, like Ebby Calvin Laloosh, desperately needs a nickname. They will not be getting a spot in the plaque room, and as such are not viewed by the Hall as full-blooded Hall of Famers.

I get the distinction… and I’ve made it clear to my friends in Cooperstown that it’s a huge mistake for the Hall of Fame to make that distinction. The Hall of Fame inducts owners, managers, executives, umpires, pioneers—you can’t tell me that any of them had a greater impact on this great game of baseball than Vin Scully… or Red Smith… or Roger Angell… or Bob Uecker… or Tom Hamilton… or Thomas Boswell. That’s just plain laughable. I don’t need to tell you how awesome Ken Griffey Jr. was. And I don’t need to tell you that, all in all, Dave Niehaus meant at least as much to Seattle baseball, probably more, because he was there for so much longer, and he was there every single day.

I know there are plenty of those who view the Hall of Fame as baseball’s most exclusive club—and they want to keep it that way. I despise this country club instinct. I feel sure this is part of the reason why no veterans committee of Hall of Famers will ever vote in Barry Bonds or Roger Clemens. I feel sure this is why players like Dick Allen and Ron Santo were not elected until they were gone. And I feel sure this is why the Hall of Fame itself will make the distinction that while Ford Frick Winners and BBWAA Career Excellence winners are to be honored, they are not Hall of Famers. It’s a mistake, in my view.

Not that it matters: Away from Cooperstown, Tom Hamilton and Thomas Boswell will be introduced as Hall of Famers for the rest of their lives. And that is exactly as it should be. Someday, I hope the Hall of Fame catches on.

As for the rest, well, the ballot has 28 players on it, and we have a little less than two weeks to go through all 28. We’ll begin today with the six players who have not yet recorded a vote on the Baseball Hall of Fame Tracker—if you will remember, this year we’re applying the Queen Amidala Hall of Fame Gambit, which means that for each player I will attempt to do the following:

Try to describe the player WITHOUT listing off their achievements or awards, without referencing their WAR, without talking about how many games they won or saved or what their batting averages were or how many home runs they hit. Describe them to your friends like they ain’t never seen a baseball game.