The Pecan Park Eagle

“Gods of the Keyboard, be cautioned! Some of the little people are suggesting that our process for selecting candidates for the Baseball Hall of Fame has brought about an element of taint to our normal state of perfection!”

First of all, The Pecan Park Eagle wants to thank those of you who have made such seriously important comments in response to all of our Biggio column articles this week. Keep it up. Maybe we can drum up enough restlessness with the current system to eventually get something more than disappointment out of this arrogant and inept “near miss by the little gods of HOF selection”. Again, please keep all the good thoughts, questions, and improvement suggestions flowing into public print everywhere.

Just a few more loose end comments on the Biggio vote and the policies and powers of the BBWAA group in their historic handling of the induction process before I take a needed breather from the subject until something else sizzles to the front burner in this baseball news matter. First, the Biggio vote:

We’ve heard since Wednesday that Craig Biggio missed induction by two votes. His 74.8% was rounded up from the 74.78% he got for receiving 427 of the 571 votes cast. If that was OK, then why would they not have rounded his percentage up to 75.0% had he received only a single other vote to make it 428 out of 571 for his induction? – The following simple chart shows how Biggio’s support percentage would have increased with one or two more votes of support:

Did they change the math rules about rounding up since I was a kid? Or does the BBWAA simply use the method until a vote percentage reaches the magic 75.0% mark and then insist upon actual penetration of the barrier without rounding?

Next, did you either already know or pick up from the PPE column on Biggio’s consolation of Thursday that there have been two past instances when the writers approved an induction of a player who had failed to get 75.0% of the vote, In both instances, the failed candidates had lower vote percentages than Biggio, but they led the pack in years that found no one qualifying for induction. In both instances, 1947 and 1964, runoff elections were held between the top two original vote getters for each year to approve one of the failed candidates for HOF induction in that same, otherwise induction-barren year.

Here’s a little chart that shows how the fates of these two men played out differently than it has for Craig Biggio:

So, Luke Appling defeated Red Ruffing in a 1964 runoff election between two candidates with less support than Craig Biggio in 2014 and Red Ruffing defeated Joe Medwick in the second runoff in 1967 to secure his own induction on the heels of two vote totals that were less than the support garnered by Biggio this year. Following his runoff defeat, by the way, Joe Medwick won induction the next year (1998) the old-fashioned way – he earned it with a support total of 84.8%.

Meanwhile, Craig Biggio is left twisting in the wind.

Questions: If the BBWAA has the power to call special runoff elections in years of all candidates failing to qualify, why didn’t they do so last year? Was Biggio’s vote percentage in the high 60%s too low for consideration? Has MLB and the Hall of Fame simply given the BBWAA blanket power to do this induction process any way they see fit to do it? If so, they need to be thinking about establishing some kind of overview body that has the guts to insist upon criteria, transparency, and the general bleeding of arrogance from a program in which big egos in small minds have the power to rob those who’ve already earned their rights to be duly honored for greatness in the game. We don’t need a capricious system which sometimes aids those who fail to qualify by the installation of a playoff ballot because it suits the needs of the BBWAA – and other times leaves even more qualified candidates (based on actual vote support) twisting in the winds of fate and gossip-mongering minds.

Now, much as we love Mr. Biggio’s character and talent, we shall try to let this subject marinate for a while, but please keep up the flow of your own comments and questions.

And have a nice weekend.