Hall of Fame: The Borderline Five

OK, so there are five players left on my ballot ... and I'm exhausted. I have written about 15,000 words about the Hall of Fame already this week, and I'm not even through the entire ballot? You have got to be kidding me.

No, it's worse than that. I have left what are, for me, the five toughest calls. If you read Thursday's installment of Hall of Fame Week, then you know that I have used up eight of my 10 Hall of Fame votes (I have never entirely understood why the Hall of Fame limits writers to 10 ... but they do). So I have two votes left and five players who in my mind all have both strong Hall of Fame cases AND serious flaws in their Hall of Fame cases. I voted for two of the five. I suspect these final two will not match many other ballots.

Here we go:

Hall of Fame: The Eight Definites

In my mind, there are eight players on this year's ballot who are clearly above my Hall of Fame standard. That does not mean that they are without their flaws. A couple of them have significant flaws ... I refused to vote for one of them for a while until my thoughts about him and what he did crystallized somewhat.

In any case, when I first got the Hall of Fame ballot I gave it a quick glance and counted the players who seemed like easy Hall of Fame choices. These were the eight who came up.

Hall of Fame: The Second Round

OK, so this is the second round of Hall of Fame week -- these are players who, for me, are good enough to merit some extra consideration for the Hall of Fame but players who didn't quite make it to the final cut.

Hall of Fame: The First Round

Every year, the ballot features a few players who, frankly, look kind of silly on a Hall of Fame ballot. The funny thing about most of these players is that they are probably better than we remember. For instance, last year Todd Zeile was on the Hall of Fame ballot. Todd Zeile? He did not receive a vote, to no one's surprise.

But you know what? Todd Zeile was a good player. He got 2,000 hits in the Major Leagues. He drove in 90-plus runs five times. He played five positions, and even pitched a couple of innings.

He was not a Hall of Famer, not close to a Hall of Famer, but that's precisely the point, isn't it? To play 10 years of Major League Baseball -- a qualification just to get on the ballot -- means you must be one of the very best baseball players on earth .

You are better and more determined than all those players whose baseball lives stopped in little league, all those good enough to make their high school teams but no more, all those who went on to play college at some small school, all those good enough to go to a Division I school but were not drafted, all those promising and resolved young players drafted or signed outside of North America who stalled in the low end of the minor leagues, all those who topped out low Class A, in high Class A, in Class AA, in Class AAA, all those who made it through it all to get to a cup of coffee in the big leagues, all those who worked their way up to a small and temporary role in the big leagues, all those who endured and became regulars in the big leagues for two or three or four years before being retired.

To achieve so much ... to reach the very height of your profession ... it is an extraordinary thing to be a baseball player with 10 years of big league experience, an even more extraordinary thing to achieve enough to get on the Hall of Fame ballot. And then, you get there and it is STILL still miles and miles and miles to go before you get to the Hall of Famers. It is still the gap between Todd Zeile and Cooperstown.

Here are the 12 players on this year's ballot who are clearly not Hall of Famers, but they are worth spending a few minutes remembering:

Hall of Fame Week

You know how crazy I am when it comes to writing about the Baseball Hall of Fame. Well, this is Hall of Fame week -- the ballots are due by Dec. 31. And I have been writing ... and writing ... and writing. I really need to see a doctor or something. In any case, I have written so much about it, that I have decided it's probably best to just split up the writing throughout the week.

So that's what I'm doing.

Today: The Intro
Tuesday: The Easy Nos
Wednesday: The Close But Not Quites
Thursday: The Definitive Hall of Famers
Friday: The Borderlines Guys Who Keep Me Up At Night

I don't imagine you will be rushing to the computer at 6 a.m. and constantly refreshing this blog in anticipation ... but at least this way you know what is coming.

The Agony of Defeat

The worst ending in the history of sports happened on January 4, 1981 on a frigid day in Cleveland, Ohio. This is an indisputable fact. The Cleveland Browns trailed the Oakland Raiders 14-12 with less than a minute remaining in the game. The Browns had the ball at the Oakland 13. See that number? Thirteen? Don't tell me that the "13 is bad luck" concept is just a myth. Apollo 13. Friday the 13th. Ralph Branca wore 13. And the Browns had the ball on the Oakland 13.

I was 13 years old.

Stuff that's coming up

Here is a list of stuff that I hope to have up for your holiday reading in the next couple of weeks. As with all the "Stuff that's coming up" posts ... there are no promises and no guarantees.

-- 32 worst sports endings. This will be up any time now.

-- My Hall of Fame ballot (with a special Morris-Blyleven section just for my SI colleague Jon Heyman).

-- My favorite loser.

-- The iPad Review (I am required by law to put this on the list).

-- The latest infomercial atrocity.

-- What baseball prospects mean.

-- Thoughts on the Beatles.

-- The (last?) great hope for newspapers.

-- Ms. Pacman and Galaga and why we cared.

-- The Buck O'Neil Award.

-- "A Personal Matter."

Uh Oh

As you might expect: There is a lot of back and forth going on in Kansas City over the Zack Greinke trade. And I think there will be a lot of back and forth about it for a long time yet. There is some anger -- some of it pointed at the Royals, some of it pointed at Greinke -- and there is a pretty wild range of opinion about whether the Royals got enough in return.

The Greinke Trade

A few years ago, Bill James told me something I had never thought about before but now think about all the time, especially after trades like this one: Every single baseball team has prospects. Every one. The best teams. The worst teams. The smartest teams. The dumbest teams. They all have prospects. Not only that -- every team has enough prospects to fill out a Top10 list. You never see a team's "Top 7 Prospects" list because the team did not not have enough to fill out 10. No. They all have 10.

Not only THAT but every year Baseball America puts out its wonderful and indispensable prospect handbook -- and every team has THIRTY prospects listed. Even the worst minor league system of the last 30 years will produce 30 prospects in the Baseball America book.

This is worth remembering. Sunday, the Milwaukee Brewers traded four young players -- all four, I think, still fit the definition of "prospect" -- to Kansas City for Zack Greinke. The Royals also moved one of my favorite blog topics, Yuniesky Betancourt, to Milwaukee in the deal. The Royals have now traded away or released three of my favorite blog topics -- Greinke, Betancourt and Brian Bannister. Hmm. It's almost like they don't want me writing about them anymore.*

*Though the Royals were nice enough to pick up Jeff Francoeur, who will probably inspire a post or two.

The Social Network

A few years ago, Gary Smith wrote one of my favorite magazine pieces. It was called "Crime and Punishment." The main character in the story is a one-time high school basketball star named Richie Parker, who was convicted of sexual abuse after high school. The complex story is about the many efforts to both save and punish Parker for what he did.

There is a line in the story that I have thought about many times. Toward the end, Parker talked about how much he had learned from the pain and the hope and the fear of what would happen ... but Gary did not use most of what Richie Parker said. Here is Gary's explanation: "And he said a lot more, but it would be improper to let him do it here, for it might mislead the reader into thinking this was a story about Richie Parker."

I have often wondered if Gary did the right thing using that line. Part of me thinks that it should have gone unsaid -- that comes from the "if you have to explain a joke, it didn't work" school of thinking. But another part of me remembers the jolt of recognition that clicked in me when I read the line the first time. I don't think the story would have had quite the same power for me if he had left it out.

All of which is just my excuse to say this: Despite how it may look, the following story is not about really Jose Canseco.

Being There With Greinke

Russian Diplomat: "Tell me, Mr. Gardiner, do you by any chance know Krylov's fables? I ask this because there is something, there is something Krylovian about you."
Chauncey Gardiner: "Do you think so? Do you think so?"
Russian Diplomat (with a pleased smile): So you know Krylov?
(He leans forward to say a few words in Russian. Chauncey Gardiner laughs knowingly).
Russian Diplomat (happily): So you know Krylov in Russian, do you?
-- Being There

* * *

I have written about Zack Greinke many times, for many years, and there's one thing I can say without even the slightest doubt: I have no idea what's going on in his head. Of course, you never really know what's going on in anybody's head, and that often includes your own. But with Greinke ... I feel confident in saying that I'm not even close.

RIP Bob Feller

One of my earliest memories was seeing Bob Feller in a jacket and tie. My father took me to some sort of morning meeting in Cleveland -- a small room, in my memory, filled with metal folding chairs placed in uneven rows -- and Bob Feller stood behind a lectern (and perhaps in front of a chalkboard; for some reason I see a chalkboard). I do not remember a single thing he said. I only remember him standing in the front of the room, and the awe he inspired, and my father telling me this: "That's Bob Feller. He threw the ball faster than anyone who ever lived."

Great Four Man Rotations (w/Bill James)

OK, let's start with some history. There are two teams in baseball history that had four pitchers who made at least five starts and went to the Hall of Fame. It's a fun piece of trivia. But it's just that -- trivia. To be honest, it's never really happened that a team had four Hall of Fame starters.

The Expendable Brendan Ryan

"(Brendan) Ryan became expendable for the Cardinals after they acquired infielder Ryan Theriot from the Los Angeles Dodgers last month. Theriot was billed immediately as the Cardinals starting shortstop, and they let other teams know that Ryan was available."

-- From Derrick Goold's story on the Cardinals trading Brendan Ryan to Seattle for a Class A reliever.

I wrote this on Twitter: I can rarely remember reading a baseball notion quite as comical as Brendan Ryan becoming expandable BECAUSE the Cardinals acquired Ryan Theriot. I'm sure that there are other reasons Brendan Ryan really became expendable -- most of these having to do with manager Tony La Russa -- but sure enough they keep pushing the Ryan Theriot thing.

Blogger Ethics

Been putting together a few quick baseball thoughts -- was going to throw them together into one massive blog post. But then I thought that it would make me look so much more productive if I separated them and posted them throughout the day. So that's what I'll do. We start with the Murray Chass saga.

* * *

"Tom Verducci wrote in his SI.com blog that contrary to what I wrote, he voted for (Marvin) Miller. I have no first-hand knowledge of that fact any more than I had of my reporting that he didn’t vote for Miller. The Hall of Fame does not disclose how its committee members vote. However, in this instance I will take Verducci’s word."

-- Blogger Murray Chass

I think we have all learned to appreciate the art of the apology in sports over the last few years. Lord knows we have had to hear a bunch of them. But I have to give it up to Murray Chass, a New York-based blogger, for inventing something that seems kind of new and promising: The snide apology.

The One Day Event

To your right, you will see a poll asking for your opinion on the greatest one day event in American sports. This is actually a tie in to something I did for the magazine this week -- my first backpage column. More on that in a bit.

In any case, I tried to explain this on Twitter but it's not easy to explain things in 140-character chunks so let me try to explain what I'm after here.

Genius Recommendations

I miss lousy music. Yes, I know, that's a ridiculous thing to say, it sounds like Dana Carvey's grumpy old man character from Saturday Night Live ("Everything today is improved ... and I DON'T LIKE IT!"). And anyway, lousy music seems an odd thing to miss because, of course, I can get it any time I want. I have more access to lousy music today than anyone ever has in the history of the world. If I wanted to listen to John Tesh or Kenny G, I could do so in about five clicks. Give me seven clicks, I could probably listen to them TOGETHER. I can get lousy music any time I want.

Royals Sign Francoeur (Of Course)

Let's start with the thing I like about the Royals' signing of Jeff Francoeur: It's honest. And by "honest" I don't mean "predictable," though, of course, the signing is also comically predictable. People have been predicting that the Royals would sign Francoeur or trade for Francoeur or steal Francoeur in the middle of the night pretty much since the day Royals general manager Dayton Moore took over and made clear his goal of making Kansas City a baseball suburb of Atlanta. Also, Francoeur was one of the few established players utterly incapable of getting on base the Royals had not yet reeled in.

This was going to happen sooner or later.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

This one's personal. Very personal. This is an essay about my daughter and Harry Potter. There is not much sports in it, though there is some Bill James and some Quidditch and even a quick mention of relief pitching. But mostly it's about a Dad and a daughter and imagination. You have been warned.

Dandy Don

We hear all the time about people who are "one of a kind." We especially hear this when they die. I think that's right and proper. I'm sure you have been to a funeral or two in your life where you get no sense of the person who died, no memory to cling to, no idea about their favorite ice cream flavor or what phrase they repeated again and again or what music they might sing along with or what TV shows they loved to watch or what joke made them laugh unexpectedly hard or what is the one thing they loved doing most of all. These empty funerals always make me saddest of all, because I think we all really are one of a kind, at least in some way, and the hope is that people will notice and maybe even remember.

Texpensives

I have this theory about job offers: I think employers have this special and secret chart they use so that they can offer you PRECISELY as much money as it will take to make your decision ridiculously hard. They will never offer so much money that you go, "Oh, that's a no-brainer*." And they will never offer you so little that you think, "Well, that's humiliating, forget that." Nope, they will find the perfect middle, they will offer salaries that are just enough to keep you tossing and turning all night.

*Except in John Grisham books.

The Greatest Player Not In The Hall

There is something about the Baseball Hall of Fame -- all Halls of Fame, really -- that people don't really like talking about. Somebody has to the best player not in it. There's no way around this. It can be a big Hall of Fame or a small one. It can be an inclusive Hall of Fame or one as exclusive at Augusta National. Wherever you draw your line of greatness, there are remarkable people left outside.

For many years, Ron Santo's identity was wrapped up in being left outside. He was, simply, the greatest player not in the Baseball Hall of Fame. This is not to say that he was a better baseball player than Dick Allen or Minnie Minoso or Bert Blyleven or Ken Boyer or numerous other terrific players who have not yet been elected and inducted. That is a matter opinion. This is not to say he was a more egregious oversight than any of these players or others. That too is opinion.

Travel Day

This was my Wednesday without too much embellishment:

6:30 a.m.: Get to the airport in plenty of time for my 7:30 a.m. flight into New York. I have numerous things going on in New York -- including my Friday appearance as guest on E-Street Radio -- and am alert and ready to go. When I arrive at the gate, I see TSA agents going through every single carry on bag by hand. It turns out that the X-Ray machines are broken. I do not know that having an agent examine my underwear and deodorant will be among the happier moments of the day.

The Heat Of The Moment

Tonight, it ends. Oh, sure, LeBron James obviously will go on, the Miami Heat obviously will go on, the drama will go on, the daily speculation about coach Erik Spoelstra's job will go on, the calls for Pat Riley to come back will go on, the boos, the complaints about the boos, the over-analysis of the boos, the on-the-record sniping, the anonymous sniping, the marveling about how lousy a team the Heat are, the expectation that the Heat will still come together, the parade of daily stories and reports by the 987 writers and broadcasters embedded with the team ... all of it will go on.

But it seems to me that tonight, the story really ends. Tonight LeBron James returns to Cleveland. Tonight my hometown will unload whatever emotions are left over from James' callous (The) Decision (Powered By ESPN) to leave Cleveland and take his talents to South Beach. Tonight will be a charged night.

And Saturday the Miami Heat play at home against Atlanta -- and are infinitely less interesting.

Wash Your Sins Away (The Car Ride Essays)

In 2008 Texas Rangers manager Ron Washington led all of baseball with 20 Intentional Walks that bombed. Bill has been keeping this intentional walk stat for a while now. He breaks down all intentional walks into three categories:

1. Good -- these are the intentional walks that "work."

2. Not Good -- these are the intentional walks that don't quite "work" -- a run scores -- but doesn't lead to a big inning.

3. Bomb -- big innings.