New Hall Class

Bert Blyleven

The Clarion Content salutes the newest members of the baseball Hall of Fame, the incomparable Ricky Henderson and the slugging Jim Rice. Regular readers know we lobbied for the Rice selection. We were quite pleased he got in by a slim margin yesterday. Henderson is the all-time leader in the most important statistical category, runs scored, he was a no-brainer.

The Clarion Content's editorial staff has often been accused of being a "large" Hall supporter, that is to say we have to broad a willingness to accept guys into the Hall. We are convinced our position is relatively moderate. Talk about a big Hall of Fame, here from the New York Times is an article supporting the removal of the 5% rule. This rule states that a player must receive at least 5% of the vote in each year of eligibility or his name is removed from the ballot. The Clarion Content isn't so sympathetic to author Dan Rosenheck's case for Bobby Grich or Darrell Evans, or even one of our all-time favorite players Dwight Evans. It is after all the Hall of Fame, not the Hall of the Really Good.

Currently on our list of guys on the outside looking in who we would support their candidacies for the Hall of Fame: Bert Blyleven, Jack Morris, Tommy John, Andre Dawson and Tim Raines. (We would listen to arguments for Sweet Lou Whitaker.)