Baseball Hall of Fame Eligibility Rule Change

A week ago, the Baseball Writer's Association of America (BBWA) announced the list of eligible players for the Baseball Hall of Fame ballot and new rule changes.

Among the changes, after a player retires, after the five year grace period after their retirement, they are eligible to remain on the ballot up to 10 years, compared to the previous allotment of 15 years. Currently three players are beyond the 10 year period (Lee Smith, Don Mattingly, and Alan Trammell), but will be allowed to remain on the list until the 15 years is up, under a grandfather clause.

I am torn by this rule. I am under the belief that if a player is good enough to be voted into the Hall of Fame, that it is the duty of the writers to elect them as soon as they can. Some writers will purposely hold off on players and let them remain on the list for several years, before deciding to vote for them. This is wrong. The only time I think a writer should refrain from voting a player in when they are eligible, is when they believe that over 10 players deserve to legitimately be voted in, but are constricted by the fact that they can only vote up to 10 players. In this case, they must choose who they think are the top 10 players eligible for the Hall of Fame out of the 10 plus players they feel should go. Within a 10 year player, I think if done right, all players eligible who should be in the Hall of Fame, should have been voted in already.

Unfortunately, the writers don't always see things this way. The most recent case being Bert Blyleven. While his stats proved he deserved to be in the Hall of Fame, he could never manage to gather 75 percent of the votes that it took to get in. It wasn't until his 15th and final year of eligibility, before he received enough votes to be inducted. Players such as Bert Blyleven and Jack Morris had to almost campaign like a politician to be voted in by the writers. Morris couldn't garner enough votes by year 15.

This year will be year 15 for "Donnie Baseball" Don Mattingly, who has refused to hit the radio and television sports talk shows to sway the writers in his favor. Mattingly will most likely fall of the ballot, but not without serious consideration. His stats shows a great career and he was one of the few players in baseball history to have the title of "Captain" in a Yankees uniform, but they don't quite show that he was a Hall of Famer. I do believe that after his 21st year of retirement, when he is eligible to appear on the Expansion Era Committee ballot, he should receive some serious consideration.

With the new rule in effect, the player that will be first up against the 10 year cutoff point, will be Mark McGwire. He is currently on his ninth ballot this coming year and if the past elections have been any indicator, he will probably not receive near enough ballots this time around either.