Baseball Bloggers Alliance support Alomar, Blyleven for Hall of Fame

Though summer is when memories are made in baseball, winter is when those memories take their place in history. Cooperstown is the mecca of baseball history. The home to the National Baseball Hall of Fame is a picturesque town in New York that is isolated from the commercial interests that have come to define our nation. A trip to the lakefront village is a trip into both America’s and baseball’s past.

And each July, the small town lights up to pay tribute to America’s pastime. The journey to that summer Sunday begins in less than a week when the Hall of Fame announces its newest members. The Hall will announce the results of this year’s ballot Jan. 5.

Before that day comes, debates will be held and cases will be argued. Baseball Bloggers Alliance has released its own ballot for this year’s candidates. Roberto Alomar and Bert Blyleven were chosen as the most worthy candidates to join baseball’s immortals. The results and process are explained below in the BBA press release.

Alomar and Blyleven are the most likely to gain entrance into the Hall after barely missing the 75 percent minimum required last year. Alomar fell just eight votes short of the total he needed and Blyleven missed by only five votes. Both were great players and deserving candidates.

Former Cards slugger and current hitting coach Mark McGwire earned 44.16 percent of the vote from the BBA. McGwire will likely get much less support from the BBWAA on the actual ballot. He has never received more than 23.7 percent of the vote and many believe that number will only fall after he finally admitted to using performance-enhancing drugs early this year.

Redbird Rants will have more Hall of Fame coverage leading up to and following the announcement.

BBA RECOMMENDS ALOMAR, BLYLEVEN FOR HALL OF FAME

Second baseman Roberto Alomar and starting pitcher Bert Blyleven were named today as the recommended 2011 Hall of Fame class by the Baseball Bloggers Alliance.

Alomar, who is on the ballot for his second year, and Blyleven, looking at his fourteenth time, both finished just shy of the BBA’s recommendation in 2010 at just a fraction under the 75% threshold.  As was the case last year, both Alomar and Blyleven received the same amount of votes from the BBA membership in 2010, but this time it was enough to push them into the recommended status.

Both players received 117 votes out of the 154 ballots cast, resulting in a 75.97% approval rate.  Again echoing the vote taken at the end of 2009, shortstop Barry Larkin was the third man in the balloting, missing selection by being named on just 70.78% of the ballots.

The Baseball Bloggers Alliance’s vote has no impact on the official vote taken by the Baseball Writers of America and the members of the Hall of Fame.  However, the BBA has been often a predictor of awards granted by the writers, matching their selection in fourteen of the sixteen major awards in the last two postseasons combined.

The final voting results are as follows:

Roberto Alomar, 75.97%
Bert Blyleven, 75.97%
Barry Larkin, 70.78%
Jeff Bagwell, 62.34%
Edgar Martinez, 59.09%
Tim Raines, 54.55%
Mark McGwire, 44.16%
Lee Smith, 38.96%
Alan Trammell, 35.71%
Don Mattingly, 33.12%
Larry Walker, 31.17%
Fred McGriff, 27.27%
Jack Morris, 25.97%
Rafael Palmerio, 20.78%
Dale Murphy, 16.23%
Dave Parker, 12.34%
Harold Baines, 10.39%
Kevin Brown, 9.09%
John Franco, 7.14%
Tino Martinez, 5.19%
John Olerud, 5.19%
Al Leiter, 4.55%
Bret Boone, 3.90%
Juan Gonzalez, 3.90%
Marquis Grissom, 2.60%
Benito Santiago, 1.30%
Bobby Higginson, 0.65%
Charles Johnson, 0.65%
Kirk Rueter, 0.65%
Carlos Baerga, 0.00%
Raul Mondesi, 0.00%
BJ Surhoff, 0.00%

The Baseball Bloggers Alliance was established in the fall of 2009 for the purpose of fostering collaboration and communication among bloggers from across baseball.  The BBA has quickly grown to its current membership of 256 blogs, including some of the most prominent blogs on the internet, spanning all major league teams and various other general aspects of the game.

More information about the BBA can be found at their website,www.baseballbloggersalliance.com, or by contacting the founder and administrator of the organization, Daniel Shoptaw, at founder@baseballbloggersalliance.com.