Reactions to the 2010 Hall of Fame announcement and a look ahead

As you can see below from my previous post, this year's vote went almost exactly as I had hoped! I plan to make the journey to Cooperstown in New York for the Hawk's induction ceremony. I'm now hoping that the Cubs will retire #8 later this summer.

I expected that Bert Blyleven would join him, but he came up painfully short--a mere 5 votes. He will certainly get in next year, along with Robbie Alomar. I was somewhat surprised to see Barry Larkin only garner a little more than 50% of the votes, but that number bodes well for his chances in the future. Edgar Martinez's vote totals show that a significant percentage of Hall voters are amenable to a full-time DH joining the ranks of baseball's elite. It was also encouraging to see Tim Raines' numbers increase this year--he is very underated and warrants induction.

Next year's ballot will include these worthy players, along with some interesting first-time candidates, including Jeff Bagwell, John Franco, Juan Gonzalez, Larry Walker, and Rafael Palmeiro. I think only Bagwell stands a reasonable chance of making it on the first ballot, but Palmeiro's vote total will be quite interesting.