Induction Requires Deduction

For a week or so, I have been taffy-pulled by people telling me how appropriate it is that Reggie Jackson have the baseball Hall of Fame spotlight all to himself and by people scolding me about all the other oughta-be Hall of Famers who got robbed.

As one of the 400-plus voters, I am not the least bit bashful about acknowledging that I cast my votes in the last election for Orlando Cepeda, Steve Garvey, Phil Niekro, Tony Perez and the one and only Reggie, who has never before been more one and only.

I was surprised that Niekro was unsuccessful on the first ballot, but not to worry, he’ll get there. I was not surprised that Cepeda was unsuccessful, this being his 14th appearance on the ballot. I still assume that the 10-month stretch Cepeda served in a Florida federal prison for drug trafficking is responsible for thumbs-downing a man who batted .300 nine times and hit 379 home runs.

“I paid my dues, but some people still are punishing me,” Cepeda recently told a San Francisco reporter, who responded by publishing the address of the executive secretary of the Baseball Writers’ Assn. of America so that Cepeda’s admirers “can be heard.”

This is as absurd as encouraging Motion Picture Academy members to write to the accounting firm that tabulates the ballots to insist that their favorite actor be voted an Oscar. All that the secretary of the BBWAA does is count the ballots. He does not mail personal letters saying: “Dear Mike: Here is your 1993 ballot. Oh, by the way. Vote for Orlando Cepeda.”

What he does do is include a complete ledger of statistical information on everyone whose name appears on the ballot. This provides indisputable evidence of a player’s good deeds, thus justifying his admission into the Hall. However, it also proves once again that numbers can be juggled and interpreted any way you like.

Every player on this ballot, and every person who admires a particular player on this ballot, can point to certain vital statistics and say, with a harrumph: “If so-and-so is in the Hall of Fame, then he should be in, too.” Well, I’ve got news for everybody--everybody on this ballot has impressive statistics. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be on the ballot.

Ron Santo is always on the ballot. I adore Ron Santo. He was a swell third baseman. He clubbed 342 homers. He was a fine fielder. But Santo played 15 seasons (Perez, for example, played 23), had 2,254 hits (Vada Pinson, for example, had 2,757) and batted .277 lifetime (Bill Madlock, for example, batted .305). If I vote for Santo, what about Perez, Pinson and Madlock?

Look at those four batting championships Madlock won. Yet, be honest, was Bill Madlock a Hall of Famer? If he was, what of Ken Boyer, who also hasn’t made it to the Hall? Or how about Ron Cey, who got only eight votes, despite a better average than Santo, more homers than Boyer and more hits than Madlock?

Ah, but what of Santo’s making 10 All-Star teams?

See? This isn’t easy. Should we induct everybody? What of this business where a pitcher who wins 300 games should make it automatically? Does this mean if Bert Blyleven stops at 298, he’s out? Or that I absolutely must vote for Don Sutton next season but not for, say, Jim Kaat, who worked for 25 seasons, won 16 Gold Gloves and had 118 more victories than Sandy Koufax?

Kaat was on this year’s ballot and didn’t come close. Why? It was partly because Kaat pitched longer than any pitcher in baseball history and yet won 283 games, which was 35 fewer than Phil Niekro, who pitched for nothing but lousy teams.

Here are some other equations:

One, as a voter, should I not vote for someone on his first ballot if such greats as Joe DiMaggio failed to be inducted on his first chance? Or is this being petty? Nine voters chose not to put an X next to Hank Aaron’s name on his first ballot, yet the other 400-odd voters shouldn’t be held responsible for the lunacy of a few. Anyone not voting for Aaron needs a keeper.

Two, as a voter, should I vote for certain players as a friendly gesture? We may vote for up to 10 a year. One East Coast reporter always votes for a Jerry Remy or some such player so that Remy could someday tell his grandchildren that he received support for the Hall of Fame. Someone this year cast a vote for Bill Campbell, a pitcher who will never again appear on a ballot.

I feel guilty now about not voting for Cey. The Penguin at least belongs on the ballot. But, because of non-support, he no longer will be. Ron Cey was a hell of a player.

As for his former teammate, Steve Garvey, I was astounded that a man who batted .319 in 28 World Series games and .393 in 10 All-Star games, a man who holds major league records for highest career fielding percentage (.996) by a first baseman and the National League record for consecutive games played (1,207) and a man who had more hits than Reggie Jackson (in two fewer seasons) with a batting average 32 points higher than Jackson’s would fall so far short of the votes necessary for induction.

Garvey will get my vote. For how long? For as long as I have one.