A Thank You to 128 Baseball Writers

For the second year in a row, Mark McGwire received 128 votes for induction in to the Baseball Hall of Fame. Last year, that was enough to earn him 23.5% of the vote. Apparently someone forget to send in their ballot this year as the same number of votes bumped McGwire up to 23.6% of the vote. None of this means anything to most sports fans, after all, the real story is that Goose Gossage finally got elected after 9 years on the ballot, and Jim Rice did not (even when everything in the Boston sports world is going right, Rice can't catch a break). But McGwire, as many of you know, will always hold a special place in my heart, or at least on my mantle, as I followed his career religiously, from his 1985 Topps USA Baseball Card to the moment he was pinch-hit for in the 2001 playoffs (by Kerry Robinson!). I even rooted for him during a pro-am celebrity golf tournament that represented his last moment in the sun before those fateful moments before congress.

In any case, to the 128 voters (127 + Jayson Stark) who deemed McGwire worthy, thank you. At this rate, he will still be on the ballot when Clemens and Bonds become eligible...unfortunately for you O's fans reading this, Brady Anderson will not. He received one less vote than David Justice, zero.


Complete 2008 Baseball Hall of Fame Voting Results

Rich "Goose" Gossage 466 (85.8%)
Jim Rice 392 (72.2%)
Andre Dawson 358 (65.9%)
Bert Blyleven 336 (61.9%)
Lee Smith 235 (43.3%)
Jack Morris 233 (42.9%)
Tommy John 158 (29.1%)
Tim Raines 132 (24.3%)
Mark McGwire 128 (23.6%)
Alan Trammell 99 (18.2%)
Dave Concepcion 88 (16.2%)
Don Mattingly 86 (15.8%)
Dave Parker 82 (15.1%)
Dale Murphy 75 (13.8%)
Harold Baines 28 (5.2%)
Rod Beck 2 (0.4%)
Travis Fryman 2 (0.4%)
Robb Nen 2 (0.4%)
Shawon Dunston 1 (0.2%)
Chuck Finley 1 (0.2%)
David Justice 1 (0.2%)
Chuck Knoblauch 1 (0.2%)
Todd Stottlemyre 1 (0.2%)
Brady Anderson 0
Jose Rijo 0