2009 Baseball Hall of Fame ballot

2/01/08 12:00 PM EST
2009 Baseball Hall of Fame ballot
Rickey Henderson among 10 new candidates

By Baseball Writers' Association of America / MLB.com

Rickey Henderson, the all-time leader in runs and stolen bases, and three teammates from the 2001 World Series champion Arizona Diamondbacks - Jay Bell, Mark Grace and Matt Williams - are among 10 new candidates on the 2009 Hall of Fame ballot that went in the mail this week to more than 575 voting members of the Baseball Writers' Association of America.

Former American League Most Valuable Player Mo Vaughn and American League Cy Young Award winner David Cone were other newcomers to the ballot, which with 23 names is the smallest in history.

They join 13 holdovers from the 2008 balloting in which relief pitcher Rich "Goose" Gossage was elected in his ninth year of eligibility. Former Boston Red Sox slugger Jim Rice, the AL MVP in 1978, was 16 votes shy of the total required in the previous election.

Candidates must be named on 75 percent of the ballots cast to gain entry into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y. Rice was on 72.2 percent of the 543 ballots cast. For election, 408 votes were necessary. Rice had 392. Gossage was on 466 ballots (85.8). The only other players named on at least half the ballots were former National League MVP Andre Dawson with 358 (65.9) and the fifth-place career strikeout pitcher Bert Blyleven with 336 (61.9).

Henderson, who played 25 seasons for nine clubs, including four separate tours in Oakland, scored 2,295 runs and stole 1,406 bases in his career while batting .279 with 3,055 hits and 2,190 walks, second on the all-time list. Of Henderson's 297 home runs, 81 occurred leading off games, a record. He also holds the single-season mark for stolen bases with 130 for the A's in 1982. Henderson was a member of two World Series title teams with Oakland in 1989 and Toronto in 1993 and was the AL MVP in 1990.

Bell, Grace and Williams, all former Gold Glove winners, were central figures on the D-Backs' victory over the New York Yankees in the 2001 World Series. Williams was a home run and RBIs leader, Grace a .303 career hitter and Bell scored more than 1,000 runs.

Vaughn was the AL MVP in 1995 for the Red Sox when he led the league in RBIs with 126. The first baseman batted .293 with 328 home runs and 1,064 RBIs in a career cut short to 12 seasons due to an arthritic left knee. Cone, the 1994 AL Cy Young Award winner with Kansas City, had a 194-126 record with a 3.46 ERA and 2,668 strikeouts in a 17-season career that included time with both New York teams, Toronto and Boston. The five-time All-Star was a 20-game winner and league strikeout leader twice apiece and pitched a perfect game for the Yankees in an inter-league game against Montreal in 1999.

Greg Vaughn, Mo's cousin, is among the other first-year candidates on the ballot, along with fellow outfielder Ron Gant and relief pitchers Jesse Orosco and Dan Plesac. Others returning to the ballot in addition to Rice, Dawson and Blylven are pitchers Tommy John, Jack Morris and Lee Smith; outfielders Dale Murphy, Dave Parker and Tim Raines; first basemen Don Mattingly and Mark McGwire; outfielder-designated hitter Harold Baines and shortstop Alan Trammell.

Candidates may remain under consideration for up to 15 years provided they are named on at least five percent of the ballots cast. This is the 15th and final season on the ballot for Rice and John.

Writers with 10 or more consecutive years' experience make up the electorate, which must return ballots by a Dec. 31 postmark. Votes are counted jointly by the BBWAA's Jack O'Connell and Ernst & Young partner Michael DiLecce. Results will be announced Monday, Jan. 12, 2009, on the Websites of the Hall of Fame at www.baseballhalloffame.org and the BBWAA at www.baseballwriters.org.

The ballot: Harold Baines, Jay Bell, Bert Blyleven, David Cone, Andre Dawson, Ron Gant, Mark Grace, Rickey Henderson, Tommy John, Don Mattingly, Mark McGwire, Jack Morris, Dale Murphy, Jesse Orosco, Dave Parker, Dan Plesac, Tim Raines, Jim Rice, Lee Smith, Alan Trammell, Greg Vaughn, Mo Vaughn, Matt Williams.

This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

12/01/08 12:05 PM EST
Trammell's legacy grows with time
Former Tigers great enters seventh year of Hall eligibility

By Jason Beck / MLB.com

2009 candidates • Harold Baines • Jay Bell • Bert Blyleven • David Cone • Andre Dawson • Ron Gant • Mark Grace • Rickey Henderson • Tommy John • Don Mattingly • Mark McGwire • Jack Morris • Dale Murphy • Jesse Orosco • Dave Parker • Dan Plesac • Tim Raines • Jim Rice • Lee Smith • Alan Trammell • Greg Vaughn • Mo Vaughn • Matt Williams

Maybe time is becoming more merciful for Alan Trammell's legacy. Whether it comes soon enough to help his chances at the Hall of Fame is another question.

Seven years into his candidacy for the Hall, Trammell seemed mired down the list of candidates as far as percentages. After back-to-back years of increasing vote totals, he was selected on just 13.4 percent of ballots in 2007, his lowest mark ever. In short, Trammell appeared set in history as half of one of the greatest double-play tandems to play the game, and one of the most recognizable faces for one of the greatest single-season teams in recent history, rather than one of the greatest shortstops of his generation.

"Maybe people are looking at us as not exactly superstars, but a team," Trammell said a few years ago. "That's the way we were taught and that's the way we played every day."

Then came last year and an impressive jump. With 18.2 percent of voters selecting him, he had the highest total of his career.

He'll need a lot more before Cooperstown becomes a legitimate consideration. But there's at least hope that the change in momentum marks a larger change in consideration for where Trammell ranks among the game's great shortstops.

His spot in Tigers history is unquestioned.

The Tigers certainly were hoping for greatness from him when they drafted the scrawny athlete out of high school in the second round in 1976. A year later, he was in the Major Leagues, a September callup at age 19, sent to Detroit to change up the middle infield. Fittingly, he made his big league debut on the same exact date as his second baseman, Lou Whitaker, and they recorded their first Major League hits that day.

Together, they'd be teammates for 1,918 games, more than any other duo in American League history. They led the AL in double plays as rookies in 1978, merely the start of their accomplishments. Whitaker won the American League Rookie of the Year that season, with Trammell finishing fourth largely on his defense.

Trammell steadily progressed as a hitter until he earned the first of six All-Star selections on his way to a .300 average and 65 RBIs in 1980. His offensive production dropped in the strike-shortened 1981 season then plummeted in 1982, when he entered the All-Star break barely hitting above the Mendoza Line. He hit better than .300 in the second half, and he later pointed to that as when he really emerged as a hitter.

Trammell earned AL Comeback Player of the Year honors in 1983, but it was the Tigers' championship run in '84 that cemented his place in history. After returning to the All-Star Game for the first time in four years, he was at his best in October. He tripled, homered and drove in three runs in the AL Championship Series, then tied a five-game World Series record with nine hits. His two home runs accounted for all four runs scored in a 4-2 win over the Padres in Game 4, moving Detroit to within a win of its first world title since 1968.

Not surprisingly, Trammell was named World Series MVP that year. More shocking was the season he had in 1987. Shifting from second to cleanup in the order with Lance Parrish gone, Trammell obliterated all of his offensive standards, batting .343 with 205 hits, 28 homers, 105 RBIs and 109 runs scored. Only a 47-homer season from Toronto's George Bell kept Trammell from the AL MVP, the first controversial snub of his career.

That earned Trammell the first of his three Silver Slugger Awards in a four-year span. Only two Hall of Fame shortstops, Ernie Banks and Robin Yount, hit more home runs than Trammell's 185 career long balls.

But his bat never overshadowed his glove. He won four Gold Gloves in a five-year stretch from 1980-84 before Tony Fernandez and later Omar Vizquel put a stranglehold on the award. When Trammell retired in 1996, his .977 fielding percentage was higher than any Hall of Fame shortstop at the time.

"He didn't have the flash that Ozzie Smith did, but he was an excellent defensive player, day in and day out, over the course of his career," Hall of Fame broadcaster Ernie Harwell said. "I can't think of anyone else I'd want the ball hit to with the game on the line."

That explains in part why it was a bitter pill for many Tigers fans when Trammell fell far short of Hall of Fame induction in 2001, the year Smith made it in. Trammell's candidacy has struggled to find traction ever since.

His place in history will probably be as part of a tandem rather than on his own merits. But he's fine with that.

"I actually enjoyed that it was both of us," Trammell said, "that it was Lou and Tram. That really hasn't happened in the history of baseball. We were a long-running double-play combination and we went about the way of business that was our way. Maybe we didn't get recognized, but that's not what we played for. We were taught the game the right way. We were very happy. But to be known as that kind of duo is very special. Nobody can take that away."

Jason Beck is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

12/01/08 12:05 PM EST
Hall support for Morris slowly building
Workhorse starter won World Series titles with three teams

By Jason Beck / MLB.com

Jack Morris has long since accepted that he might not get to Cooperstown after several years of disappointment.

"I've come to the realization that if I don't make it, then I don't make it," Morris said a few years ago. "The only thing that changes in my life is that I'd get a lot more money and when I walked by, people would say, 'There goes a Hall of Famer.'"


2009 candidates
• Harold Baines
• Jay Bell
• Bert Blyleven
• David Cone
• Andre Dawson
• Ron Gant
• Mark Grace
• Rickey Henderson
• Tommy John
• Don Mattingly
• Mark McGwire
• Jack Morris
• Dale Murphy
• Jesse Orosco
• Dave Parker
• Dan Plesac
• Tim Raines
• Jim Rice
• Lee Smith
• Alan Trammell
• Greg Vaughn
• Mo Vaughn
• Matt Williams

The funny thing is, though, that several years on the ballot have led more Hall of Fame voters to accept Morris.

Little by little, support has quietly grown for Morris, whose credentials as the winningest pitcher of the 1980s and a hero in the postseason have received more attention each winter. As a result, what had been the case of a ballot also-ran now could be changing towards an eventual Hall of Fame dark horse.

A few years ago, Morris spent most of his interviews on the Hall of Fame making the case for his friend Bert Blyleven, who has gone from an unpopular pick to the brink of the magical 75-percent mark for induction. Now, Morris has the momentum to potentially follow Blyleven's course up the ballot.

Morris' aura was built on winning, and his success in the '80s carried over to the game's greatest stage. He won three World Series with three different teams and started the series opener for each of them. His Game 7 performance for the Twins in 1991, dueling John Smoltz over 10 scoreless innings on three days' rest, still stands as one of the greatest single-game performances in the history of the Fall Classic.

Beyond that, working complete games in one out of every three starts for his career showed an ironman status just as baseball was embracing the roles of specialized relievers beyond the closer.

"Jack has had that wonderful, wonderful postseason success," former pitcher Frank Tanana once said. "His postseason heroics are pretty well-documented. You can say that if Jack Morris hadn't done that, he probably wouldn't be close. But because he's had those postseason hurrahs, he's receiving a lot of votes."

He doesn't have nearly enough for induction yet, but his total is climbing. He was selected on 42.9 percent of ballots last year, the highest percentage of his nine years under consideration. It marked a jump of nearly 6 percent from a year earlier.

As it stands, he's the best chance at an inductee from the great 1984 world champion Tigers, a group whose only Hall of Famer so far is manager Sparky Anderson. Coincidentally, Anderson once called Morris the greatest pitcher he'd ever managed.

Morris broke into the Majors with the Tigers in 1977, the same year that Alan Trammell, Lou Whitaker and Lance Parrish made their big league debuts. Together, they'd form the core of one of the greatest single-season teams of their generation, winning 35 of its first 40 games and never looking back on the competition. One of those wins was a Morris no-hitter in a nationally televised game against the White Sox on April 7, 1984.

Lost in the aura of that game was the fact that Morris flat-out dominated opponents throughout Detroit's 35-5 sprint out of the gate. He went 9-1 in that stretch, and his loss was a 1-0 defeat in which he threw a five-hitter. He threw five consecutive starts of nine innings at one point in that stretch, not including the no-hitter, and ended up with eight complete games plus one other nine-inning performance out of his first 14 starts. Ironically, it was the only season from 1980-1991 in which he didn't reach double digits in complete games.

The debate that has always followed Morris is his career 3.90 earned-run average and whether it should keep him out of Cooperstown. He had five seasons in which he ranked among the top 10 in the American League in ERA, but never finished better than fifth. On the other hand, he finished among the AL's top 10 in most earned runs allowed nine times, topping the league in 1990.

Essentially, then, Morris' career has come down to two different debates. First, were his teams great because he pitched on them, or was he great because of his teams? Second, was Morris' high ERA the result of pitching to the scoreboard on days when his team had a big lead and he could afford to give up an extra couple runs?

A study from Joe Sheehan of Baseball Prospectus years ago found that Morris' run support was only a tenth of a run better for his career than that of his teammates, and he threw a complete game in nearly one-third of his starts, ahead or behind. However, he enjoyed many more games with five or more runs of support relative to his total games pitched than his peers in the American League. There was no pattern, Sheehan found, as to his ERA and the size of the lead that he had.

Morris has no apologies for the way he pitched. When he had a lead, Morris the pitcher was a lot like Morris the person: He was more direct than deceptive.

"If I had a three-run lead, I was throwing fastballs down the middle trying to get the inning over," Morris said. "If I threw a fastball down the middle and they hit it out, they hit it out."

That will always be the debate surrounding Morris, who would almost rather be left out for being cantankerous with the media. The difference now is that more voters are coming around to his side.

Jason Beck is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

Wooo Tramm!

I would seriously like to see Morris and Trammell get the consideration they deserve this year!!

Go Tram and Morris, you two were great players! Hope ya make it!


Tram and Sweet Lou


Jack Morris

Love them socks and stirups


Why can't players wear their socks like that

gs78 wrote:

Love them socks and stirups


Why can't players wear their socks like that

I agree, they make the uniforms look great!

GoGetEmTigers wrote:

gs78 wrote:

Love them socks and stirups


Why can't players wear their socks like that

I agree, they make the uniforms look great!

They look so ridiculous with pants down to their shoes

Be interesting to see who gets in this year

better be a

Hope so

Depends on how the voting goes


I bet Henderson gets in for sure

He might be the only one though


I can see a lot guys falling short if the voting is split over several candidates

gs78 wrote:

GoGetEmTigers wrote:

gs78 wrote:

Love them socks and stirups


Why can't players wear their socks like that

I agree, they make the uniforms look great!

They look so ridiculous with pants down to their shoes

....or up to their KNEES like a pair of Kulats(sp?)!!

My "ballot"
1. Bert Blyleven
2. Rickey Henderson
3. Alan Trammell
4. Andre Dawson
5. Dale Murphy
6. Dave Parker
7. Jim Rice
8. X
9. X
10. X

Only 7 deserving players so I'll cast 3 blank votes.