Fame is fleeting

Once again the baseball writers voting for Hall of Fame entry have shown their complete ignorance of the game in making this year’s voting a travesty. As it was in 2006 with Bruce Sutter, the writers have voted in only one player and in both years it has been a relief pitcher. And both years, as in recent years, they have all but disregarded the great players of the game such as Andre Dawson, Bert Blyleven, Jim Rice and Harold Baines, whose statistics and impact on the game far outweigh Rich Gossage and Sutter.

The Hall of Fame voting needs to be revamped completely so that more deserving players gain entry without waiting for over a decade, if ever. My solution would be to have voting done by only Hall of Fame members and by high-ranking MLB executives. If baseball writers must be a part of the voting process, they must have a minimum of 20 years of baseball coverage experience, not just the 10 years that is the current guideline, as it is clear that the younger writers have no insight regarding the great players of the 1970s and 1980s.

Mark Cortes

Northridge