Rough Day For Former Yankees In HOF Voting

Barry Larkin being the only player elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame was the big story yesterday.  The smaller ones, and the ones more pertinent to this blog, were the results of 2 former Yankees on the ballot.  And they weren't good.

Donnie Baseball had another weak showing, garnering just 17.8% of the vote.  It was up from his vote total last year but still nowhere near what he'll need to get elected.  And in his 12th year of eligibility, it's unlikely that we'll see Mattingly get the call unless the Veteran's Committee is feeling generous in the future.

Bernie Williams also didn't fare that well, picking up just 9.6% of the votes in his first year on the ballot.  The one bit of good news for Bernie is that he's the only first-year player who earned enough votes to stay on the ballot next year.  That bad news?  Voters don't take into account one's music career.

Truth be told, I never really gave Bernie much thought when it came to HOF contention.  His overall body of work doesn't scream Hall of Famer, but when you dig into the numbers, his peak years are pretty damn good.  From 1996-2002, Bernie posted 5 consecutive ASG selections ('97-'01), 4 consecutive Gold Gloves ('97-2000), a Silver Slugger Award ('02), and a batting title ('98).  His lack of top 5 MVP votes probably hurts his cause, but the 4 rings and postseason numbers should help to counter that.  Based off of his 9.6% this year, Bernie is the longest of longshots to make it in.  But based off his resume, a case can certainly be made.