Comments on: Great Moments in Hall of Fame Voting

By: abaird2012

abaird2012 — Fri, 14 Dec 2012 01:52:44 +0000

There isn’t any.

By: dirtyharry1971

dirtyharry1971 — Thu, 13 Dec 2012 06:04:05 +0000

nobody ever liked them either just like your blowjays son, they never mattered period. go watch hockey ahole

By: 18thstreet

18thstreet — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 20:09:40 +0000

I know this is a popular theory to explain why some players get in and others don’t, but reporters hated Jim Rice (and vice versa) and loved Steve Garvey.

I have A LOT of problems with many writers’ ballots, but I’m not convinced personal grudges have all that much to do to explain the results. I think over-reliance on the basic stats (wins, batting average) most of the stupid mistakes.

By: kevinbnyc

kevinbnyc — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 17:31:03 +0000

Bigger issue: This guy still has a HOF vote 8 years after the team he covered left town. I’ve had to reapply for a DRIVERS LICENSE in that time, nevermind the right to name someone a Baseball Immortal.

By: schlom

schlom — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 17:26:45 +0000

Maybe this guy is like Homer Simpson?

By: jonrox

jonrox — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 17:18:43 +0000

If the Hall of Fame has actually turned into the Hall of “Great players who are also good people and who didn’t use performance enhancing drugs” like many writers are suggesting, then why isn’t Fred McGriff in?

By: bowens3181

bowens3181 — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 17:07:29 +0000

Well now I feel crappy. To clarify though my comment wasn’t directed at you Craig, but rather at Skids003 who referred indirectly to Hickey as an idiot probably without ever having heard of him or read anything by him until today. However since my initial comments was written on my cell phone on the NBC SportsTalk app, I wasn’t able t specify specifically who I was replying to. My bad on that.

I never said I agreed with his logic, just that I didn’t see the point in ridiculing it in the first place, especially since journalists are under no obligations to explain their votes, and so the very fact that Hickey attempted to do so should be appreciated. I believe that often, when voting for anything, yes even the baseball HOF, that one’s reasoning for voting is a personal choice that might be devoid of logic that others would understand. I for one, if I happen to have a HOF vote, would have voted for Bond but not Clemens, don’t ask me why, I’m not really sure. Even though both handled the PED accusations poorly, something about the way Clemens did it just bothered me more then Bonds. Thats my personal opinion, and regardless of whether my logic makes sense to someone else, if I happen to have a HOF vote then it is my prerogative on how to use my vote.

And, while I wasn’t replying to you, Craig, I just would like to say that compared to most of the year when HBT is a significantly more interesting, better written, and less biased blog then any of the other NBC sports blogs, this daily attacking of other journalists during HOF voting season has gotten old and tiresome.

By: abaird2012

abaird2012 — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 16:40:40 +0000

Bet you wish you had an “edit” function …

By: jwbiii

jwbiii — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 16:28:26 +0000

Don Mattingly, on the other hand, looks rather fetching.
http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/sports/Don-Mattingly-Evansville-Ballet-Nutcracker-Mother-Ginger-Dodgers-135937108.html

By: fredverd

fredverd — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 16:18:41 +0000

Hush, puppy, while I listen to…

By: jwbiii

jwbiii — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 16:13:16 +0000

Craig’s blog was Shyster Ball.

By: cur68

cur68 — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 15:58:09 +0000

Hey! We do have internets. Our dog teams power the wi-fi when they aren’t taking the kids to the school igloo.

By: Old Gator

Old Gator — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 15:55:04 +0000

Okay, live and learn…sometimes. But the main point is that you don’t run it so my challenge remains open.

By: Craig Calcaterra

Craig Calcaterra — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 15:35:07 +0000

Actually, Gleeman came up with the name “Circling the Bases.” Came up with it before I was hired on in April 2009. That fall our boss changed it to HardballTalk.

By: Old Gator

Old Gator — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 15:30:12 +0000

Let’s think “Hardball Talk” over.

It used to be called “Circling the Bases,” which was Craig’s name and which I still call it. Kinda like Alan Shepherd’s comment in The Right Stuff: “That sir is a spacecraft. We do not refer to it as a “capsule.”

NBC decided to change it to “Hardball Talk.”

Well….?

By: cogitobaseballergosum

cogitobaseballergosum — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 15:21:41 +0000

That’s okay, I’d rather not see Pete Rose in a ballet either.

By: ezthinking

ezthinking — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 15:18:54 +0000

Nice nose to brown star, Roger.

By: fanofevilempire

fanofevilempire — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 14:56:42 +0000

does Hickey have a problem when a juicer is the MVP of the National League.

just asking ….

By: mustbechris

mustbechris — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 14:53:03 +0000

I mean Ty Cobb stabbed a dude too. But thank God we have the Moral Majority voting for who should be enshrined in the holiest of holy Halls of Fame and discerning who does not pass the ethical sniff test. The Hall would be a complete joke otherwise.

By: yahmule

yahmule — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 14:46:30 +0000

Some of the younger people on the board who weren’t watching baseball in the last half of Rose’s career wouldn’t believe how overrated he was among fans and media. He was fixated on personal statistics and whined like a baby when he was held out of a World Series lineup for the Phillies in 1983 in favor of long time Reds teammate Tony Perez. That said, he deserved to make the Hall of Fame, although he most certainly earned a ban from holding a job in MLB.

By: yahmule

yahmule — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 14:38:13 +0000

Apple polisher.

By: Roger Moore

Roger Moore — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 14:34:55 +0000

Hardball Talk

By: notoriousbri

notoriousbri — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 14:23:03 +0000

ahh baseball.. the sport that keeps their all time hits leader out of the hall of fame while pedophile Bill Conlin is in as a writer. Make sure we keep out the suspected PED users from the sports holy hall but child molesters.. mmmkay’

By: elwaysmilehighdenver

elwaysmilehighdenver — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 13:40:54 +0000

Auto correct sucks. Should be ballot.

By: Craig Calcaterra

Craig Calcaterra — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 13:40:17 +0000

First, I didn’t call him an idiot. I said he clearly did not notice that Pete Rose was never on his Hall of Fame ballot, which he was not.

Second, I am not “disagreeing” with his logic. I am noting that it has an objective incoherence. Owning up to PED use has not, as a matter of fact, not opinion, not helped anyone’s Hall of Fame case.

If you disagree with that great, but don’t let your love of a sportswriter prevent you from seeing when he’s clearing talking nonsense.

By: elwaysmilehighdenver

elwaysmilehighdenver — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 13:40:07 +0000

I’ll give Hickey the benefit of the doubt.
Maybe he didn’t know Rose wasn’t on the
ballet. Do they have the Internet in Canada? Just wondering.

By: stex52

stex52 — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 13:31:31 +0000

Not so much his opinions. But it wouldn’t be too much trouble to fact check if you are writing an article for publication.

By: stex52

stex52 — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 13:29:23 +0000

Damn, Gator. I thought, “No sweat, I can think of some organization that everybody likes.” So far I’m stumped.
*
I started to say the American Ornithological Union. Nah. Always a war between the lumpers and splitters.

Doctors without Borders? Something in me says that those guys are probably all jerks, too.

By: bowens3181

bowens3181 — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 13:28:20 +0000

First of all, Hickey is a great sports writer, and referring to him as an idiot when this is the first time you have ever heard of him is ridiculous. He has been covering the Habs, Als, and formerly the Expos here for as long as I can remember. Second of all the fact that he even tried to write an article justifying his decisions is, in my mind, commendable considering the fact that he is under absolutely no obligation to do so. It’s his vote, he can do what he wants with it. Just because his logic doesn’t conform to what you expect of him does not make his vote count any less. I would like to see the columns people would write trying to justify their choice in the American election in Nov. It’s your vote, so what you will with it.

By: proudlycanadian

proudlycanadian — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 13:23:31 +0000

The revenge of the Expos on MLB continues.