My BBA 2016 Hall of Fame Ballot

Every year in early January I have the honor and privilege of voting for the Baseball Hall of Fame as a member of the Baseball Bloggers Alliance.



The BBA asks us to vote, like the BBWAA, for up to 10 players to be inducted into the HOF, and will put any player who gets the required 75% of the into nomination for the HOF.


Here are my 10 players that I voted for on my BBA ballot...


Allan Trammell


Mike Piazza


Ken Griffey, Jr.


Tim Raines


Edgar Martinez


Fred McGriff


Trevor Hoffman


Jeff Bagwell


Curt Schilling


Larry Walker




There it is, my ballot.


Now, it's not perfect, there are more players that I could've voted for, but that's the ballot.


A few things....


I didn't vote, nor will I ever, for Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Mark McGwire, or Sammy Sosa.


I believe the steroids era has ruined sacred baseball records, and has therefore permanently harmed the game and the baseball players who did the right thing and play on their God given abilities alone.


I also don't belive in grouping players like Piazza and Bagwell into "supposed" PED/Steroids users just because they played at the same time as Bonds and other abusers...no one ever includes Ken Griffey Jr in the bunch, and rightfully so...Griffey Jr. probably had the sweetest swing ever.


Players like Trammell, Edgar Martinez are HOF baseball players who numbers get over shadowed by steroids and ped users that put up video game numbers.



I could've voted for Garry Sheffield...500+ home runs is still, to me, an automatic HOF vote, but I believed also that Fred McGriff, Tim Raines, Edgar Martinez are better players than Sheffield.



Mike Mussina isn't a HOF pitcher...people who try to tell me he's a HOF guy better show me he's a better pitcher than Jack Morris, who belongs in the HOF.



No one ballot is right, or wrong, but I believe in voters responsibility as well, and writers who refuse to hand in ballots, submit blank ballots, or vote for just one player, as a protest in balloting, those writers voting privilege should be revoked...forever.



Ken Griffey Jr. will come as close as any player ever has to getting 100% of HOF votes, but someone will, as usual, leave him off their ballot, or, worse, leave their submitted ballot blank.


If Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Joe DiMaggio, Ted Williams, WillieMays, Al Kaline, etc., can't get 100% of the votes, then, as the old writers say, noone should.



As a old school fan, I never get that, but that's part of the BBWAA problem.



Good Luck to all the eligible players who played the game the right way.


PLAY BALL!