WORCESTER—One of Larry Lucchino’s many rules for life was, only say about 75 percent of what you want to say. With that in mind, it is easy to sum up this year’s ballot for the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Ichiro Suzuki yes. Dustin Pedroia no. And almost everybody else, as well.
This is the way the 2025 ballot will look from this particular perspective.
Suzuki, C.C. Sabathia, Manny Ramirez and Alex Rodriquez get an “X” next to their names. This will be the ninth time I have voted for Ramirez, the fourth time for Rodriguez. Neither are likely to ever garner enough votes to enter the Hall of Fame via the BBWAA ballot.
Suzuki is the classic Hall of Fame candidate. He is one of the best baseball players in world history, let alone the American League. It is unthinkable that any voter would have to think about Suzuki’s Hall of Fame credentials.
The only question about his candidacy is what percentage of the vote he gets.
Had he been a position player, Sabathia could have not hit his weight and still won a batting title. As a pitcher, he did put on a show with every start and made a lot of them throughout a memorable career that included six All-Star selections, one Cy Young Award and four other times with votes and votes in five Most Valuable Player tallies.
Unless baseball adopts the proposed six-inning rule for starting pitchers, and it should, we may never see another pitcher like Sabathia.
What about Pedroia?
He is what might be called a borderline Hall of Fame candidate. Might be called one except that those are mutually exclusive terms. Hall of Fame elections should be like presidential conventions; the nominee always wins in a landslide.
Pedroia was a great player who may have shortened his career by the way he played, with that game-to-game intensity. He finished with a .299 lifetime batting average. He went 2 for 21 in his final try at a comeback, in 2019. That cost him a .300 lifetime average. Five fewer at bats and that average would have been .300.
The difference between .299 and .300 is strictly symbolic. There are magic numbers in baseball, though, and .300 remains one of them.
Great is not good enough for the Hall of Fame. There is a level beyond that, a subjective level. Pedroia did not get there.
Manny Ramirez and Pedroia are joined on the ballot by former Red Sox Ian Kinsler, Billy Wagner and Hanley Ramirez. Kinsler has no chance. Hanley Ramirez should get some attention. Wagner is a separate case.
This is Manny Ramirez’s ninth year on the ballot and he got just 32.5 percent of the vote last season. He won’t make it in his last chance. Rodriguez is on again for the fourth time and got about 35 percent last season. His chances are better but he is still a longshot.
Both men had careers and a presence that should get them to Cooperstown. Clearly their positive tests for PEDs are keeping them out. You know the reasoning in this corner. Both were punished by Major League Baseball, but neither punishment was the death penalty given to Pete Rose.
Both men were put on the ballot by the BBWAA screening committee, which saw no problem with the candidacies. Finally, Gaylord Perry is in the Hall of Fame although he admitted throwing an illegal spitball.
Why is one form of cheating OK but another is not?
Wagner missed by five votes in 2024 and this is his final year on the ballot. History says that Wagner gets in this time. One question about his credentials, though.
In 2016, Wagner’s first year on the ballot, he received 10.5 percent of the votes. How did he get that much better in nine years? Did some researcher discover 50 more saves? How does that dramatic increase in support make any sense?
Luis Tiant was not on the ballot and has not been for years. He was on the veterans ballot, though, and did not make it. When he was an active candidate, I voted for him. Tiant’s presence was beyond statistical. People bought tickets just to see him pitch, and not just in Boston.
His support was very regional throughout the years, however.
There are other players like Pedroia up for election.
Carlos Beltran will likely make it in eventually. This is his third year on the ballot. Andruw Jones is a close call. Felix Hernandez will get some support.
Finally, a thought on how Hall of Fame voting is more than numbers.
Last year, both Bartolo Colon and Adrian Gonzalez were eligible. Colon won 247 games and pitched 3,461 innings. Gonzalez hit .287 with 317 home runs and 1,202 RBIs. He was a five-time All-Star and got MVP votes in eight different seasons.
Neither got the 5 percent necessary to remain as candidates.
Bill Ballou covered the Red Sox for the Worcester Telegram from 1997 through 2018. He has covered pro hockey in Worcester since 1994 and currently does a weekly column for the Worcester Red Sox. Ballou can be reached at vetgoalie@aol.com
