If Only Greg Maddux Had Stayed and Other Hall of Fame Bullets

greg maddux rookie cardYesterday, the BBWAA released its Hall of Fame balloting, revealing that Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine, and Frank Thomas had surpassed the 75% threshold in their first time on the ballot. Good for them, nuts for everyone else, and reactions from all around …

  • The Cubs’ organization offered its love for Maddux, upon the news of his election. “I join my family, the Cubs organization and Cubs fans in congratulating Greg on this tremendous honor,” Cubs Chairman Tom Ricketts said in a statement. “He is one of the greatest pitchers of all time and a tremendous competitor who earned the nickname ‘Mad Dog’ whenever he took the mound. Greg’s near-unanimous selection to Baseball’s Hall of Fame is the ultimate salute to an extraordinary career.”
  • The congrats to Maddux, of course, is bittersweet for anyone who remembers how the two sides parted ways before the 1993 season. By all accounts, Maddux’s demands before hitting free agency were more than reasonable, and he never wanted to leave. But, leave he did, and it is with the Braves that he became a superstar. And that’s whose hat he’ll be wearing when he enters Cooperstown. What might have been.
  • Maddux, himself, shared some love for the Cubs’ organization in a conference call yesterday, per Cubs.com. He says he tried to stay back in 1993, and he was happy to have a chance to come back 11 years later. Jon Greenberg writes about the Cubs’ colossal mistake in letting him go.
  • Myles writes about the much-discussed non-Maddux vote. He’s got several possible explanations for the omission.
  • The infamous “bought” Deadspin ballot? It belonged to Dan Le Batard, who didn’t actually accept any payment for his ballot – he just wanted to participate. I don’t have a doubt in my mind that his move was at least partially motivated by the desire for attention, but the negative backlash he’s getting from other writers is disappointing. The Deadspin ballot was actually pretty legit, and if there are writers out there permitted to send in blank ballots or vote solely for Jack Morris, then who cares if Le Batard wants to come up with his ballot this way?
  • FanGraphs on the greatness of Greg Maddux, the greatness of Tom Glavine, and the greatness of Frank Thomas.
  • A Baseball Prospectus study on whether there’s an appreciable difference between the votes of folks who reveal their ballots publicly and those who do not. Short version? Yup. Seems like anonymous voters are much more likely to not vote for the PED guys, and much more likely to vote for the Don Mattingly/Lee Smith types.
  • Sammy Sosa, who saw his vote total drop to 7.2% this year, is in serious danger of falling off of the ballot next time around – as Rafael Palmeiro did.
  • Grant Brisbee discusses how Craig Biggio missed out.
  • written by

    Brett Taylor is the Lead Cubs Writer at Bleacher Nation, and you can find him on Twitter at @BleacherNation and on LinkedIn here. Brett is also the founder of Bleacher Nation, which opened up shop in 2008 as an independent blog about the Chicago Cubs. Later growing to incorporate coverage of other Chicago sports, Bleacher Nation is now one of the largest regional sports blogs on the web.

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