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I saw a tweet earlier about Dan Quisenberry being included on some new Hall of Fame ballot, so I immediately headed over to the great Joe Posnanski's blog since he was a fan and friend of Quiz's and I was sure he'd have something to say about the matter. Indeed he did. It turns out that the ballot in question is called the "Expansion Era ballot" despite having a cutoff date of 1973, a year when no expansion took place. Poz rightly pointed out that it should be called the "Designated Hitter Era". I then learned that in addition to Quisenberry, 11 other candidates are up for consideration, including old number six himself, Steve Garvey.
The way the voting goes down is conducted by a group of sixteen men, including eight Hall of Famers, four executives (read: Selig's buddies), and four old writers. As with the regular ballot, a player has to receive 75% of the possible votes. While just about anything can happen with such a small sample size, I still don't see Garvey getting elected, no matter how much lasagna Tommy Lasorda tries to bribe the other 15 voters with.
Two other players with Padres ties are included on the ballot. Underrated catcher Ted Simmons was Bud Black's bench coach in 2009 and 2010, and Tommy John is the namesake of the surgery all of our pitchers have to get as a rite of passage. Along with the four aforementioned players, Davey Concepcion and Dave Parker are also eligible, as are four managers and two executives. The skippers are a real mixed bag of the worst humanity has to offer. With Bobby Cox, Tony LaRussa, Billy Martin, and Joe Torre, you've got a wife beater, a drunk driver, a guy I won't speak ill of because he's deceased, and worst of all, a Dodger. As far as the executives, Yankees owner George Steinbrenner and union leader Marvin Miller were both nominated posthumously.
If I had to guess I'd say that Miller and all of the managers except for Martin will make the cut, with all of the players left hanging as they were on real ballots. Which of the 12 candidates do you think will garner the dozen votes needed for entry?
