My Hall of Fame Ballot

The ballots for the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame have been announced and there are a few notable first timers on the list. As many of you know I am a member of the Internet Baseball Writers Association of America and I will get a say in that ballot but I will save that ballot reveal for another day. Today I wanted to reveal who I would vote for if I had a vote in the BBWAA ballot.

Randy Johnson, Pedro Martinez, Carlos Delgado, Nomar Garciaparra, Gary Sheffield, Tony Clark and John Smoltz are among 17 newcomers to the ballot joining Craig Biggio who fell two votes shy last season among others. Don Mattingly will also appear on the ballot for the 15^th and final time in his eligibility this season while Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Sammy Sosa, Mark McGwire, Mike Piazza, Jeff Bagwell, and Time Raines make their returns to the ballot.

My ballot includes Johnson, Martinez, Smoltz, Mattingly, Mike Mussina, Bonds, Clemens, Biggio, Piazza and Raines. While I know many will disagree with the Mattingly pick I had to slide him in there as my 10^th and final selection. Many more will disagree with my picks who were linked to steroids and the entire steroid era but it’s referred to as an era because, and I use the term loosely, everyone was doing steroids. The Black Sox threw the World Series but it wasn’t called the Black Sox era it was called the Black Sox scandal because they were one of the only ones doing it. Everyone did steroids and no one should be punished for it before it was illegal in the game.