Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - The Hall of Fame is Classless in 2021

Episode Date: January 28, 2021

Yes, the Hall of Fame is classless this year. But only in the purest sense of the word, since there is no Hall of Fame Class of 2021. No one was elected, and the Veteran's Committee didn't convene at all. D.C. talks about the three big names that everyone looks at this time of year -- Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, & Curt Schilling -- and also talks about a couple others whom he feels are deserving. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Welcome to Locked-on Mariners, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Here's your host, D.C. Lundberg. Hall of Fame, or a day, gang, I am D.C. Lunberg here to pilot another edition of Locked-on Mariner's, part of the Locked-on podcast network, or of course, T-L-O-P-N or T-Lopin. Please remember to download, rate, and subscribe to this program using whichever podcasting app that you personally care to use. Ask your smart device to play Locked-on Mariner's podcast or any program here on Tlapping. The Hall of Fame class of 2021 was announced yesterday from the plaque gallery of the Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts. And it was a very interesting class.

The only man who was elected was former Mariners outfielder Ryan Radmanovich. Congratulations! No, no, no. I'm sure that you know by now that no one was elected. In addition, the Veterans Committee postponed their 2021 vote for a full year because of the virus that's going around. So there's no Hall of Fame class of 2021. They are classless, just in the purest sense of the word, you know. However, there still will be a Hall of Fame ceremony this summer in Canton.

Last year's ceremony was canceled also because of the virus, so last year's honorees will be honored this summer if it doesn't get canceled, of course. Today we're going to talk about some of the voting totals of some of the bigger names that are on the ballot. There are three names that everyone's been looking at for the past few cycles, Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Kurt Schilling. Let's get Schilling out of the way first since he has unique reasons for continuing to fall short. It's hard to talk about Kurt Schilling without getting into politics. Something I swore I would never do on this program.

And I'm going to continue to not discuss politics. I don't remember where I got this, but I heard this way before I got into podcasting. That is, if you discuss politics, you will automatically piss off half your audience, and I'm not willing to do that. So I'm not touching any of this with a 10-foot pole. You can form your own opinions on Kurt Schilling on that front, but this is obviously what's keeping him out of the hall. In 2020, he garnered 278 votes, which was 20 votes shy of enshrinement that year, 70% of the total. And in case you don't know, 75% is the required threshold to gain entry into the hall.

And yes, gang, I know it's in Cooperstown. I've been there. Schilling gained seven votes in 2021 and 1.1 percentage votes. that's basically no move. He was 16 votes shy of enshrinement this time. And again, I'm not going to talk about Schilling's off-field issues in depth. I saw a piece on MLB Network yesterday where Bob Costas had said that Al Michaels told him that while broadcasters talk their way into the Hall of Fame,

Schilling, quote, may have talked his way out of the Hall of Fame, end quote. And yeah, that's true. There are a whole lot of people who don't like Schilling. And let's not forget that the voting pool for the Hall of Fame is the baseball writers association of America. If you're not good to the press, you have a tougher time getting into the Hall of Fame. Barry Bonds may be suffering from that a little bit as well, in addition to his other issues. It was also speculated that poor press relations was partially what kept Jack Morris out

of the hall until the Veterans Committee gave him the nod. Back to Schilling, though. Most are saying that if Schilling would have kept his opinions to himself, that he'd be a surefire slam dunk Hall of Famer. I'm not willing to call him a slam dunk. Hall of Famer. I used to kind of be on the fence with him based on his numbers alone. Let's go over some of these numbers. 216 wins seems low for a Hall of Famer. I never really gave much credence to win totals when thinking about who should or should not be in the Hall of Fame. Sheldling is a good

example because he played on some really bad Philadelphia Phillies teams in the 1990s. He's got a career ERA of 346, which is slightly on the high side for Hall of Famers, but he also played played in an era where offence was very high. He struck out 3,116. That's an average of 211 strikeouts per season. He walked 711. That's an average of 48 walks per season. That's pretty good.

His career average is two walks per nine innings. That's really good. 8.6 strikeouts per nine innings, also pretty good, and a strikeout to walk ratio of 438. He led the league innings pitched twice. He led the league in complete games three. times. He led the league in, let's see, those are strikeouts twice. He has three 300 strikeouts seasons, 1997, 1998, and 2002. He also has led the league in whip twice. So,

you know, do with those numbers what you will. I'm not calling those slam dunk Hall of Fame numbers. Like I said, I kind of used to be on the fence. But I do think these are Hall of Fame numbers. And the question is whether the off-field stuff is enough to keep him out of the Hall of Fame in the eyes of enough voters, and it has been so far. I'm not going to rehash what we've already talked about. Will he get in? At this point, I really don't think so. And again, it's all the insulary off-field issues that he brings on himself. Next year is his last shot, and frankly, I'm surprised that he gained at all this time. Joel Sherman did say on MLB Network that even though Schilling is not well-liked, to put it mildly, Sherman did point out that the vast

majority of voters still voted for him. But I just don't see him gaining almost four percentage points on his final ballot. He was at 71.1 this time. Bonds and Clemens are probably going to take up quite a bit of time, just like Schilling did. So we're going to save them for the second half of the show and talk about Omar Viscal next. His vote total went down this year. In 2020, he garnered 52.6% of the vote. But this time he managed 49.1. That's a difference of 3.5 five fewer votes. However, in 2020, he made an almost 10-point jump over 2019, 9.8% to be exact. His vote total this year, the fact that he went down rather, may be a product of the fact that there were 14 ballots that were returned completely blank. I don't know. The writers do play games while voting for the Hall of Famers, which is a big reason there's been only one unanimous choice.

This was Viscal's fourth attempt. So he's got six more chances. Considering he was over 50% last time, I do still think he's got a good shot to make it eventually, but it'll be a few more years. I personally do think he's deserving. His defense was as good or better than Ozzy Smith's, and his offense was better than Ozzie Smith ever was.

And don't get me wrong, Ozzie Smith set the standard by which all short stops will be measured defensively. His defense was off the charts good, and shortstop is maybe the most important position defensively. on the field. For those reasons, yes, I'm glad Ozzy is in the hall. I think he deserves to be there. But if Ozzy is there, then Omar certainly deserves to be there as well. We are going to do the trivia corner, and yes, we are doing a hall pass. Today's subject enjoyed a 17-year major league career as an infielder.

He has a 290, 356, 500 slash line. He's got 377 home runs, 560 doubles 1,518 runs batted in. He has one MVP award. He is a five-time All-Star, a four-time Silver Slugger, and aside from his MVP win, he placed in the MVP voting one, two, three, four, five, six other times. Yes or no, on his Hall of Fame credentials, I will tell you who this is right after this word from betonline.ag. The NFL playoffs are in a full swing and the NBA season's underway as well, not to mention

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Hashtag bet online. The Hall Pass. This is ordinarily where I tell you. you who the Hall Pass subject is, but I'm going to hold off on that because I'm going to talk about this person in the second half of the show, though I'm sure a lot of you know who it is. If you got a question or a comment, please do send it over to Lockdown Mariners at gmail.com. I will reply to it on the air in an upcoming mailbag segment. Questions and comments on any subjects are encouraged.

Please keep them family appropriate, as this is a family show. And I said earlier, I don't discuss politics on the show, so no political questions either, if you would please. Lockedon Mariners at gmail.com, once again, is that a day. Address Locked-on Mariners' review of the 2021 All-O fame balance, so to speak. We'll continue after this word from Rock Auto. Rock Auto.com is a family business gang, serving auto parts customers online for 20 years. Go to rockato.com to shop for auto and body parts from hundreds of manufacturers.

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Amazing selection, reliably low prices. all the parts your car will ever need. Rock Auto.com. Welcome to the second half of Locked-on Mariners. Here once again is your host, D.C. Lundberg. Thank you very much, Joey Martin. You know, ladies and gentlemen, you're going to get more of the sports news you need

in less time with our new Locked On Today podcast. Peter Bukowski hosts Locked On Today, which is a daily podcast breaking down the biggest stories with analysis from our local experts. Start your day with all the sports news, news you need it under 20 minutes. Subscribe to Locked on today, today, wherever you get your podcasts. And now we're going to continue to talk about Hall of Fame in 2021, so to speak.

But this is unusual. We still have the Hall Pass subject outstanding. And this, ladies and gentlemen, I'm sure a lot of you figured this one out. He was on the Hall of Fame ballot. He gained a little bit. This was Jeff Kent. Jeff Kent hit 290. He slugged 500, 377 home runs, mostly as a second.

Baseman. When you think of second baseman, these are not second base numbers. These are numbers more befitting, a left field, or a third baseman. The guy was a great RBI man. He has an MVP win. He had 100 or more RBIs. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, eight, times. He hit 20 or more. One, five, six times. He hit 30 or four, five, six times. He hit 30 or more. Five, six times. He hit 30 or more. more doubles. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten times. He had 40 or more doubles, one, two, three, four times, all in a four year stretch between 1999 and 2002, his last four years with the Giants. And these, and he was driving in these runs on the same team that Barry Bonds was on. So he hit with the base, and he was hitting behind Bonds if memory serves a lot of the time. So he was hitting with the base is empty and still managed to drive in over a hundred runs. multiple times. From 1997 to 2005,

every single season he drove in 100 or more runs, except for 2003, and he drove in 93. He was very close to 100 runs batted in. Also, usually when you have a second baseman who hits like this, his defense isn't very good. And while Kent was certainly no Gold Glove Award winner, he really wasn't very bad. He was a league average second baseman defensively,

though this perception of poor defense, offense is what's keeping him off of a lot of ballots, or at least that seems to be the generally accepted rule of thumb when it comes to his Hall of Fame voting totals the last several years. I think Jeff Kent does deserve to be in the Hall of Fame. This year he garnered, let's see, 32.4% of the vote, which is actually up from 2020. It's a 4.9 percentage point swing, 21 more votes. However, I think he's running out of time if memory serves. Yeah, this was his eighth time on the ballot. He's only got two more shots at it, so I don't really see him getting in via the Writers Association, but he's a strong candidate, I think, for the Veterans Committee in the

future. Now for Bonds and Clemens, I would not classify what's keeping them out as off-field issues since their issues affected their on-field performance. Last year, Bonds accumulated 241 votes, equaling 60.7%. This time, he got to be. gained seven votes, just as Kurt Schilling did, and also gained an identical 1.1% going to 61.8. Last year, Clemens got one more vote than Bonds, 242, 61%. This go-around, he gained five votes, and a total this year was one fewer than Bonds, and he gained 0.6%. Like Schilling, both of these men were on their penultimate ballot,

and the last few cycles, they've really stalled out. And, gang, I would not vote for them if I had a vote. I have stated my opinions on PED users on this show before. The best example of this is the show I did just after Robinson Konoa's busted for the second time. If you want my opinions, if you want to hear that show, I do encourage you to go back and listen to that one. And I realize there are going to be players who were never linked with PEDs or who otherwise slipped through the cracks who get enshrined into the Hall of Fame.

I'm sure that there were a few in there now who never got caught and covered their tracks well enough. The system is not perfect. Next year is the last chance for both of them, and since they gained pretty much nothing this year, as they gained almost nothing last year, I don't think they're going to make it next year. If one or both of them did, however, I would be very interested to see how the crowd at the ceremony accepts them

since they are so polarizing. Schilling too, but I don't think he's getting it. getting in either. Speaking of Bonds specifically, there are people out there who want to separate Bonds' career and only consider his numbers prior to 1999. During those 13 years, 1986 through 1998, he played 1,898 games. He slashed 290, 411, 566. Those are fantastic numbers. He hit 411 home runs, 403 doubles. He slashed 290, 411. stole 445 bases. He walked 1,357 times, and that's against 150 strikeouts. He was an eight-time All-Star during that period, won three MVP awards, and had a

second place finished in 1991 to Terry Pendleton, and placed in the MVP voting every year from 1990 through 1998. He won seven silver sluggers and eight gold gloves. He also led the National a league in walks multiple times, on base percentage multiple times, OPS multiple times, hit a league leading 46 home runs in 1993. It's a shame because he did not need PEDs to be historically great, but I personally cannot separate the two careers. If he would have retired after 1998, you know, to me those are Hall of Fame numbers. It is a shame, ladies and gentlemen. Ha, yeah, that is unfortunately the note on which we're going to end today's program. Next time I'm at. Will Beady fan mailbag, however.

If you would like to submit a question, our comment and remember the email address is Locked on Mariners at gmail.com. Clive Braithwaite-Wa-Forth will be here to read the emails, as he always does. And joining us will be Ted Baxter, boobber frangle, and a giant pretzel. Thanks for listening, ladies and gentlemen.

This is your first episode, or whether you're a long-time listener. I appreciate each and every one of you. Please join us next time. This is Joey Martin for Locked-on Mariners, part of the Locked-on podcast. Podcast Network.