Alomar, Blyleven elected to Hall

Possible HIV patient Roberto Alomar and Bert Blyleven were elected to baseball’s Hall of Fame today.

That’s great and I’m happy for them, they deserve it. However, there’s one problem I have with the voting: how does Mark McGwire get more votes than Don Mattingly? Big Mac got 115 votes (19.8 percent, down from 23.7 percent in 2010) while Hitman received 79 votes (13.6 percent, down from 16.1 percent in 2010). That’s atrocious. In case you don’t know, a player needs 75 percent of the votes for election.

How can Donald Arthur Mattingly get fewer votes than a disgraced steroid user who was only going to the Hall for one thing — home runs? That’s gotta be a joke. Don’t get me wrong, this post is not meant to be a knock on McGwire. I love him about as much as I’ve ever loved a non-Yankee. I think he is a classy guy and a great role model (sans the steroid issue), but for him to be more Hall-worthy than Donnie is absurd.

Let me also say that I am a Mattingly apologist. I do not care what evidence you have against it, I think he should be in the Hall of Fame. Call me a homer, call me a shithead, call me an ignorant bastard, again I do not care. I will defend him til the day I die.

On another note, the fact that Tino Martinez got votes is a joke. The six writers that voted for him should never be allowed to vote again. I love Tino, but if he wasn’t on those Yankees championship teams he wouldn’t even be in consideration. However, he only got six votes (one percent) so he won’t be on the ballot next year. That’s one problem solved.