Goodbye, President George Walker Bush. I am not going to miss you at all.
Welcome, President Barack Hussein Obama. I voted for you, and proudly. Your taking the office today, and winning the election back in November, validates so many of the myths I and many were told about America as we were growing up, promises that have at last, in part, been fulfilled.
You have four years -- I'll help work to make it eight -- to fulfill more of those promises. I so look forward to this time, for me, and more for my children. Take the lead.
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Sunday, January 18, 2009
The Hall's 2009 Writers Ballot -- Results
The Baseball Hall Of Fame announced the results of the writers' ballot on 12-January, so let's take a look and wrap it up for another year.
Congratulations to newest Hall members Rickey Henderson and Jim Rice.
2009 HOF Voting results (539 ballots returned)
...candidate.......... votes.. %
--- ELECTED ---
1. Rickey Henderson... 511.. 94.8%
2. Jim Rice........... 412.. 76.4%
--- not elected ---
3. Andre Dawson....... 361.. 67.0%
4. Bert Blyleven...... 338.. 62.7%
5. Lee Smith.......... 240.. 44.5%
6. Jack Morris........ 237.. 44.0%
7. Tommy John......... 171.. 31.7%
8. Tim Raines......... 122.. 22.6%
9. Mark McGwire....... 118.. 21.9%
10. Alan Trammell...... 94.. 17.4%
11. Dave Parker........ 81.. 15.0%
12. Don Mattingly...... 64.. 11.9%
13. Dale Murphy........ 62.. 11.5%
14. Harold Baines...... 32... 5.9%
--- relegated ---
15. Mark Grace......... 22... 4.1%
16. David Cone......... 21... 3.9%
17. Matt Williams....... 7... 1.3%
18. Mo Vaughn........... 6... 1.1%
19. Jay Bell............ 2... 0.4%
20. Jesse Orosco........ 1... 0.2%
21t. Ron Gant........... 0... 0.0%
21t. Dan Plesac......... 0... 0.0%
21t. Greg Vaughn........ 0... 0.0%
Candidates I supported: Blyleven, Henderson, McGwire, Murphy, Raines, Rice.
Two were elected, can't complain, and Blyleven is still in good position though down to onlyfour three more ballot cycles. Still hoping.
Candidates I thought would be elected: Dawson, Henderson, Rice.
This wasn't much by way of prognostication. Dawson fell short, but was the top vote-getter among unelected candidates, and is probably in line for 2010 or 2011 election.
Candidates I thought would be relegated: Bell, Gant, Plesac, Greg Vaughn.
Again, not a difficult guess, but I picked only four of the nine. The complete shutouts didn't surprise me, but I thought the other five would get a good bit more interest. Not so.
Turning to individual candidates, the vote differentials from 2008 were so small I won't bother with percentages.
Henderson was inevitable.
Rice (+20 votes) finally limped over the finish line. There's lesser players in the Hall.
Dawson (+3) and Blyleven (+2) basically stayed in place. I'm still confident both will be elected, but Bert's clock is running short.
Smith (+5) saw the biggest jump among players not on their final ballot. In the same low-40% zone with Morris (+4), it doesn't look promising. If neither leaps past 50% next year, they're doomed. Morris being doomed doesn't bother me. Smith... tougher call. I'm not behind his candidacy yet.
John (+13 on his final ballot) finally has run out of time. No tears here.
Raines (-10) and McGwire (-10) both lost votes, which never makes sense to me. The electorate changes a bit every year, sure, and it's not unusual when opinions turn to the positive (witness Rice), but to the negative? Weird. I wish I understood it better, but getting logical rationales from the BBWAA members is an elusive task. With McGwire, any voter can simply play the "steroids!" card (at least in his own head, if not on paper -- there's no accountability), but Raines? Here's hoping this was a "Rickey First" reaction and his candidacy gets on the move next year, because this man is eminently overqualified for the honor of the Hall.
The McGwire grudge clearly runs very, very deep amongst the voters. The only chances Mac's candidacy has, and these are not at all good chances, are (a) the forthcoming (2011) ballot massacre of Rafael Palmeiro will finally slake the electorate with enough spillage of steroid-tainted blood, or (b) McGwire speaks, and does so clearly and unambiguously. Of course the only thing any writer wants to hear from him is some version of "I did it, and here's what I did" -- if he speaks denials no one will believe him, because they only want to hear what they want to hear. It's not a happy situation, and I understand why he has chosen to be silent.
Trammell (-5) has a better case than longtime teammate Morris, but perception and legend get in the way of things. Going nowhere, apparently. Keystone sack partner Lou Whitaker only lasted one ballot, so Tram is getting a lot more respect even if not enough.
Parker (-1) is in a holding pattern, counting down to his final ballot in a few years.
Mattingly (-22) took the biggest hit. I don't consider him Hall-worthy anyway -- few outside of Yankee fandom do -- but wow, that's a huge drop. Wonder if the new Rice voters all migrated en masse from Donnie to Jim Ed? Small fluctuations are just noise in the electorate, but this was pretty big. He's not going in anyway, but -22 without obvious reasons behind it is just confusing.
Murphy (-13) is now into the final third of his 15-year candidacy window, and going nowhere. Murf is one of the few universally acclaimed Good Guys in baseball history, and since he clearly is getting no credit for that, it puts the lie to the Hall's published guidelines of tasking its voters with considering sportsmanship, character, and integrity. Those are listed so the voters can use (perceived) lack of them to excuse not voting for a candidate (e.g., Albert Belle, just to throw out one name), but no one ever really uses them to support voting for a player. That's not how things should be, but is how things are. Murphy is just counting down, much like Parker.
Baines (+4) continues to hang on by knife-edge margins, though by clearing the 5% minimum by a whole six votes, he set a new personal high. It perplexes me that 32 voters, this year, considered Baines Hall worthy while 28 voters did not consider Henderson to be so. Those tiny blocs in the voting don't really mean much, but one does have to wonder what thought processes are being used to reach these conclusions.
Grace, Cone, Williams, both Vaughns, Bell, Gant, and Plesac were all ballot rookies, and got the "one and done" treatment. I have no worthwhile objections here.
And that leaves us with Jesse Orosco, another ballot first-timer. I don't feel bad for Orosco that he was bounced from the ballot, but I do feel let down for baseball. The BBWAA electorate has only recently come to hesitant terms with what a closer relief pitcher has to accomplish in order to be considered Hall measure. They haven't yet had that discussion about middle relievers. I am not at all ready to take a position on the matter, but Orosco represented one of the best opportunities to have that discussion with a live example, as he is one of the most accomplished middle relievers in baseball history. If he'd gotten just enough (Baines level) support to stay on the ballot, that discussion could have progressed -- but no, and now, if it is ever to be raised, will have to be raised on the shoulders of a less-accomplished pitcher. The Orosco chance is gone, and it may be a while before another MR reaches the ballot who could drive that discussion, sustain the dialogue, get the debate bubbling. Maybe MRs are not Hall worthy, but wouldn't it be better to kick the notion around for a while instead of accepting it by fiat? Sorry, Jesse, you could have held aloft a torch for a few years, but it was too quickly snuffed.
Added thought, whomever was the writer who did cast the one vote for Orosco, is someone whose hand I'd like to shake, and ask why he did cast that vote.
Headliner first-time probable candidates for 2010: Roberto Alomar, Barry Larkin, Edgar Martinez, and Fred McGriff. Should be interesting.
Congratulations to newest Hall members Rickey Henderson and Jim Rice.
2009 HOF Voting results (539 ballots returned)
...candidate.......... votes.. %
--- ELECTED ---
1. Rickey Henderson... 511.. 94.8%
2. Jim Rice........... 412.. 76.4%
--- not elected ---
3. Andre Dawson....... 361.. 67.0%
4. Bert Blyleven...... 338.. 62.7%
5. Lee Smith.......... 240.. 44.5%
6. Jack Morris........ 237.. 44.0%
7. Tommy John......... 171.. 31.7%
8. Tim Raines......... 122.. 22.6%
9. Mark McGwire....... 118.. 21.9%
10. Alan Trammell...... 94.. 17.4%
11. Dave Parker........ 81.. 15.0%
12. Don Mattingly...... 64.. 11.9%
13. Dale Murphy........ 62.. 11.5%
14. Harold Baines...... 32... 5.9%
--- relegated ---
15. Mark Grace......... 22... 4.1%
16. David Cone......... 21... 3.9%
17. Matt Williams....... 7... 1.3%
18. Mo Vaughn........... 6... 1.1%
19. Jay Bell............ 2... 0.4%
20. Jesse Orosco........ 1... 0.2%
21t. Ron Gant........... 0... 0.0%
21t. Dan Plesac......... 0... 0.0%
21t. Greg Vaughn........ 0... 0.0%
Candidates I supported: Blyleven, Henderson, McGwire, Murphy, Raines, Rice.
Two were elected, can't complain, and Blyleven is still in good position though down to only
Candidates I thought would be elected: Dawson, Henderson, Rice.
This wasn't much by way of prognostication. Dawson fell short, but was the top vote-getter among unelected candidates, and is probably in line for 2010 or 2011 election.
Candidates I thought would be relegated: Bell, Gant, Plesac, Greg Vaughn.
Again, not a difficult guess, but I picked only four of the nine. The complete shutouts didn't surprise me, but I thought the other five would get a good bit more interest. Not so.
Turning to individual candidates, the vote differentials from 2008 were so small I won't bother with percentages.
Henderson was inevitable.
Rice (+20 votes) finally limped over the finish line. There's lesser players in the Hall.
Dawson (+3) and Blyleven (+2) basically stayed in place. I'm still confident both will be elected, but Bert's clock is running short.
Smith (+5) saw the biggest jump among players not on their final ballot. In the same low-40% zone with Morris (+4), it doesn't look promising. If neither leaps past 50% next year, they're doomed. Morris being doomed doesn't bother me. Smith... tougher call. I'm not behind his candidacy yet.
John (+13 on his final ballot) finally has run out of time. No tears here.
Raines (-10) and McGwire (-10) both lost votes, which never makes sense to me. The electorate changes a bit every year, sure, and it's not unusual when opinions turn to the positive (witness Rice), but to the negative? Weird. I wish I understood it better, but getting logical rationales from the BBWAA members is an elusive task. With McGwire, any voter can simply play the "steroids!" card (at least in his own head, if not on paper -- there's no accountability), but Raines? Here's hoping this was a "Rickey First" reaction and his candidacy gets on the move next year, because this man is eminently overqualified for the honor of the Hall.
The McGwire grudge clearly runs very, very deep amongst the voters. The only chances Mac's candidacy has, and these are not at all good chances, are (a) the forthcoming (2011) ballot massacre of Rafael Palmeiro will finally slake the electorate with enough spillage of steroid-tainted blood, or (b) McGwire speaks, and does so clearly and unambiguously. Of course the only thing any writer wants to hear from him is some version of "I did it, and here's what I did" -- if he speaks denials no one will believe him, because they only want to hear what they want to hear. It's not a happy situation, and I understand why he has chosen to be silent.
Trammell (-5) has a better case than longtime teammate Morris, but perception and legend get in the way of things. Going nowhere, apparently. Keystone sack partner Lou Whitaker only lasted one ballot, so Tram is getting a lot more respect even if not enough.
Parker (-1) is in a holding pattern, counting down to his final ballot in a few years.
Mattingly (-22) took the biggest hit. I don't consider him Hall-worthy anyway -- few outside of Yankee fandom do -- but wow, that's a huge drop. Wonder if the new Rice voters all migrated en masse from Donnie to Jim Ed? Small fluctuations are just noise in the electorate, but this was pretty big. He's not going in anyway, but -22 without obvious reasons behind it is just confusing.
Murphy (-13) is now into the final third of his 15-year candidacy window, and going nowhere. Murf is one of the few universally acclaimed Good Guys in baseball history, and since he clearly is getting no credit for that, it puts the lie to the Hall's published guidelines of tasking its voters with considering sportsmanship, character, and integrity. Those are listed so the voters can use (perceived) lack of them to excuse not voting for a candidate (e.g., Albert Belle, just to throw out one name), but no one ever really uses them to support voting for a player. That's not how things should be, but is how things are. Murphy is just counting down, much like Parker.
Baines (+4) continues to hang on by knife-edge margins, though by clearing the 5% minimum by a whole six votes, he set a new personal high. It perplexes me that 32 voters, this year, considered Baines Hall worthy while 28 voters did not consider Henderson to be so. Those tiny blocs in the voting don't really mean much, but one does have to wonder what thought processes are being used to reach these conclusions.
Grace, Cone, Williams, both Vaughns, Bell, Gant, and Plesac were all ballot rookies, and got the "one and done" treatment. I have no worthwhile objections here.
And that leaves us with Jesse Orosco, another ballot first-timer. I don't feel bad for Orosco that he was bounced from the ballot, but I do feel let down for baseball. The BBWAA electorate has only recently come to hesitant terms with what a closer relief pitcher has to accomplish in order to be considered Hall measure. They haven't yet had that discussion about middle relievers. I am not at all ready to take a position on the matter, but Orosco represented one of the best opportunities to have that discussion with a live example, as he is one of the most accomplished middle relievers in baseball history. If he'd gotten just enough (Baines level) support to stay on the ballot, that discussion could have progressed -- but no, and now, if it is ever to be raised, will have to be raised on the shoulders of a less-accomplished pitcher. The Orosco chance is gone, and it may be a while before another MR reaches the ballot who could drive that discussion, sustain the dialogue, get the debate bubbling. Maybe MRs are not Hall worthy, but wouldn't it be better to kick the notion around for a while instead of accepting it by fiat? Sorry, Jesse, you could have held aloft a torch for a few years, but it was too quickly snuffed.
Added thought, whomever was the writer who did cast the one vote for Orosco, is someone whose hand I'd like to shake, and ask why he did cast that vote.
Headliner first-time probable candidates for 2010: Roberto Alomar, Barry Larkin, Edgar Martinez, and Fred McGriff. Should be interesting.
Friday, January 02, 2009
Rockette Man
This has nothing to do with baseball.
For Christmas, in her stocking, Amalie got two tickets to see the Radio City Rockettes at the Erwin Center here in Austin. The national touring group of Rockettes was here on December 30-31, and her tickets were for the early (4:00 pm) show on the first day. It was her choice to bring either Val or me, and she decided to ask me to drive. (Partly she was being equitable, as Val had taken her to another Christmas show some ten days earlier, in which her piano teacher was part of the band.)
Song-and-dance shows aren't really my thing -- I grew up somewhat close to NYC but never went to see the Rockettes, nor had any desire to -- but as dad, I happily agreed to go along.
Parking was dismal, and traffic control nonexistent. We finally stowed the car near the Capital, and walked. It wasn't so bad.
Waiting to get in (it didn't take too long), I noticed two things about the crowd. One, other children tended to be girls, and they were dressed up in holiday finery, which was nice to see. Two, a great deal of the crowd was senior citizens. I can only speculate, but at a guess, many of these people either had seen the Rockettes before and had enjoyed the show, or were hoping that the lifelong hype and expectations were met.
We found our seats -- very high up, but the view was good except for being partially obstructed by a lighting fixture -- and I was soon dispatched for a pretzel and water. The concession clerks were pathetically inept, and the show had started by the time I got back, but after that everything went well.
The dancers are very good at what they do; the choreography was snappy, including the famous kicking lines, but also the more scattered dance bits were fun and delightful. One number used a prop bus, which rotated (and the tires spun) to synchronize with a background of moving through New York streets, while street-dressed characters pranced the stage and the main dancers rode the bus. It was quite a production! There was one story about kids who have doubts about Santa Claus, until he helps them believe, with one segment of some 40 Santas dancing in formation (words alone cannot fully describe the visual feast of this image). Plenty of classic Christmas songs along with exclusive tunes. There was even a small skating rink at the forefront of the extended stage, though there was only one, brief skating sequence.
I enjoyed the show quite a lot, while Amalie was enraptured the entire show. No fidgeting, no fussing. She sat there, watched, listened, and enjoyed (while slowly eating her pretzel). After we got home, she couldn't tell Mommy enough about it.
Good, fun entertainment. Four stars. If the Rockettes are coming to your area, consider checking out this legendary troupe. I think you'll be glad you did.
For Christmas, in her stocking, Amalie got two tickets to see the Radio City Rockettes at the Erwin Center here in Austin. The national touring group of Rockettes was here on December 30-31, and her tickets were for the early (4:00 pm) show on the first day. It was her choice to bring either Val or me, and she decided to ask me to drive. (Partly she was being equitable, as Val had taken her to another Christmas show some ten days earlier, in which her piano teacher was part of the band.)
Song-and-dance shows aren't really my thing -- I grew up somewhat close to NYC but never went to see the Rockettes, nor had any desire to -- but as dad, I happily agreed to go along.
Parking was dismal, and traffic control nonexistent. We finally stowed the car near the Capital, and walked. It wasn't so bad.
Waiting to get in (it didn't take too long), I noticed two things about the crowd. One, other children tended to be girls, and they were dressed up in holiday finery, which was nice to see. Two, a great deal of the crowd was senior citizens. I can only speculate, but at a guess, many of these people either had seen the Rockettes before and had enjoyed the show, or were hoping that the lifelong hype and expectations were met.
We found our seats -- very high up, but the view was good except for being partially obstructed by a lighting fixture -- and I was soon dispatched for a pretzel and water. The concession clerks were pathetically inept, and the show had started by the time I got back, but after that everything went well.
The dancers are very good at what they do; the choreography was snappy, including the famous kicking lines, but also the more scattered dance bits were fun and delightful. One number used a prop bus, which rotated (and the tires spun) to synchronize with a background of moving through New York streets, while street-dressed characters pranced the stage and the main dancers rode the bus. It was quite a production! There was one story about kids who have doubts about Santa Claus, until he helps them believe, with one segment of some 40 Santas dancing in formation (words alone cannot fully describe the visual feast of this image). Plenty of classic Christmas songs along with exclusive tunes. There was even a small skating rink at the forefront of the extended stage, though there was only one, brief skating sequence.
I enjoyed the show quite a lot, while Amalie was enraptured the entire show. No fidgeting, no fussing. She sat there, watched, listened, and enjoyed (while slowly eating her pretzel). After we got home, she couldn't tell Mommy enough about it.
Good, fun entertainment. Four stars. If the Rockettes are coming to your area, consider checking out this legendary troupe. I think you'll be glad you did.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
