Anybody been for hall of fame induction day? When biggio gets in here in a couple of weeks I am considering going. I have never been at all much less to see inductions. So is it worth going ? Should I just go on a normal weekend instead? Love to hear if it is worth getting up there for. Fwiw, biggio was and still is my favorite baseball player

I've never been. But if your favorite player is getting in (and you have the means), I can't imagine any scenario where it wouldn't be worth it!

Good point. Just concerned because that weekend could be too crazy. The museum part is small isn't it? Seems like a lot of people in the crowds too. Just hoping someone would say it is so worth it or that it is chaos

This will change dramatically, but here are the results through almost 15% of known ballots:

Baseball Think Factory

Updated 6:15 ~ 83 Full Ballots ~ (14.5% of vote ~ based on last year) ~ As usualBBWAA ballot digging is welcome!

98.8 - P. Martinez
98.8 - R. Johnson
88.0 - Smoltz
81.9 - Biggio
79.5 - Piazza
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72.3 - Bagwell
63.9 - Raines
60.2 - Schilling
45.8 - Bonds
44.6 - Clemens
42.2 - Mussina
27.7 - E. Martinez
21.7 - Trammell
16.9 - McGriff
14.5 - Lee Smith
13.3 - Kent
7.2 - L. Walker
7.2 - McGwire
6.0 - Sheffield
6.0 - Sosa
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1.2 - Garciaparra
1.2 - Mattingly
1.2 - Pete Rose (McWrite-In)

I'm shocked Smoltz is so high.

I'm shocked Alan Trammell is so low.

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When biggio gets in here in a couple of weeks I am considering going.

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I've been considering it as well. Seems like it would be a great time and a cool experience to see a guy you grew up watching get inducted.

Also, great link Mr. Ackar!

We'll find out in 5 days, but Biggio looks to be a lock with 84% through the first 100 known ballots. Bagwell looks to be just short this year which should trend well for next year with only Hoffman and Griffey being the big names to join the 2016 ballot. Billy Wagner also appears for the first time next year, but I see him getting the Lee Smith treatment.

updated:

Updated: Jan 2: 7:20 ~ 111 Full Ballots ~ (19.4% of vote ~ based on last year) ~ As usualBBWAA ballot digging is welcome!99.1 - R. Johnson
98.2 - P. Martinez
89.2 - Smoltz
83.8 - Biggio
79.3 - Piazza

69.4 - Bagwell
63.0 - Raines
58.6 - Schilling
44.1 - Mussina
44.1 - Bonds
43.2 - Clemens
27.9 - E. Martinez
23.4 - Trammell
16.2 - McGriff
16.2 - Lee Smith
13.5 - Kent
9.0 - L. Walker
8.1 - Sheffield
6.3 - McGwire
5.4 - Sosa
-
2.7 - Mattingly
1.8 - Pete Rose (Write-In)
0.9 - Garciaparra
0.9 - Delgado

agree with Akard. Biggio getting in. looks very good for Bagwell next year

Hopefully Bagwell keeps climbing after his votes dropped last year. It would have been awesome to see Biggio/Bagwell go in the Hall together, but with this year's ballot it wasn't going to happen.

33% update:

Updated: Jan 6: 7:50 ~ 188 Full Ballots ~ (32.9% of vote ~ based on last year)

98.9 - R. Johnson
97.9 - P. Martinez
87.2 - Smoltz
84.6 - Biggio
76.1 - Piazza

63.3 - Raines
62.8 - Bagwell

Johnson could challenge the all-time top vote receivers:

1. Tom Seaver (98.84 percent)
2. Nolan Ryan (98.79 percent)
3. Cal Ripken Jr. (98.53 percent)
4. Ty Cobb (98.23 percent)
5. George Brett (98.19 percent)
6. Hank Aaron (97.83 percent)
7. Tony Gwynn (97.61 percent)

Maybe I just don't understand the baseball voting, but how could the guys on that list not get a vote from everyone? Is it just writers doing it on purpose?

In the past, some have made the excuse that no one deserves 100% of the vote, so they purposely do not vote for that candidate. Others, recently have submitted blank ballots (which count) or just vote for guys like Alan Trammell, to protest the steroid era. I have heard of one guy this year say that since there are more than 10 deserving HOFs on the ballot, and Johnson and Pedro would be elected regardless of his vote, he chose to help other players out.

Dumb writers who don't think anyone should get in first ballot.

Dumb writers who think no one from this era deserves in.

Smart writers acting cute and trying to use game theory to vote for 10 other guys they think are deserving, knowing the guys at top will get in with or without their vote.

It will be nice once Biggio gets in. I went to Cooperstown about 4 years ago and there was very little Astros presence. Nolan Ryan was really the only Astros stuff that was there other than the team locker where every team has a spot.

I'm guessing to visit on induction day you would probably have to stay in Albany and commute to Cooperstown. C-Town is tiny.

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Maybe I just don't understand the baseball voting, but how could the guys on that list not get a vote from everyone? Is it just writers doing it on purpose?

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Think about who's filling those ballots out...sports writers. For writing about sports every day, they are seriously some of the dumbest people about sports.

Hall of fame should be voted on by players in the hall and former managers/gms. Baseball writers are poons and hacks. Who made them God?

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Hall of fame should be voted on by players in the hall and former managers/gms. Baseball writers are poons and hacks. Who made them God?

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The National Baseball Hall of Fame did.

Updated: Jan 6: 12:10 ~ 197 Full Ballots ~ (34.5% of vote ~ based on last year) ~ As usualBBWAA ballot digging is welcome!
99.0 - R. Johnson
97.5 - P. Martinez
85.8 - Smoltz
84.8 - Biggio
75.6 - Piazza

64.0 - Raines
62.9 - Bagwell
50.8 - Schilling
43.1 - Bonds
43.1 - Clemens
36.0 - Mussina
29.9 - E. Martinez
24.9 - Trammell
21.3 - Lee Smith
16.2 - McGriff
14.2 - Kent
9.1 - Sheffield
7.6 - L. Walker
6.1 - McGwire
5.1 - Mattingly
-
4.6 - Sosa
2.0 - Garciaparra
1.5 - Delgado
1.0 - Pete Rose (Write-In)
0.5 - Percival

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1. Tom Seaver (98.84 percent)
2. Nolan Ryan (98.79 percent)
3. Cal Ripken Jr. (98.53 percent)
4. Ty Cobb (98.23 percent)
5. George Brett (98.19 percent)
6. Hank Aaron (97.83 percent)
7. Tony Gwynn (97.61 percent)

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Proof that slightly more than 1% of baseball writers need to be shot.

I expect Piazza to fall out, but Biggio to stay in barely. Smoltz is atbest the 7th or 8th most deserving on this ballot.

I don't really understand the love for Pedro Martinez. I mean, he was good and probably deserves to be in, but with 97% of the votes? Are you kidding me? He only had 219 career wins. Randy Johnson had almost 100 more wins than he did. As comparison, Smoltz had 213 wins, and he was a closer for 7-8 seasons...

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Hall of fame should be voted on by players in the hall and former managers/gms. Baseball writers are poons and hacks. Who made them God?

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I agree with this 100%. One year, ESPN's NFC East "expert" received a vote for the HOF. Dafuq? Why is that acceptable? It's also completely unfair as the big markets will always get the nod over the small markets.

I have an uncle who is a sports writer for one of the big Texas newspapers, and the dude is a hack! Whenever I see him and talk sports, he's so off base, it's not even funny. That's the kind of people that get to vote on this.

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I don't really understand the love for Pedro Martinez. I mean, he was good and probably deserves to be in, but with 97% of the votes? Are you kidding me? He only had 219 career wins. Randy Johnson had almost 100 more wins than he did. As comparison, Smoltz had 213 wins, and he was a closer for 7-8 seasons...

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And Sandy Koufax had "only" 165 wins. Do you think he sucks too?

I started to draft a reply, even pulled up the BRef pages for each to pull some stats on how great Pedro was. Then I re-read and saw the entirety of his logic was wins, and decided not to bother.

Pedro's career ERA+ of 154 (a measure comparing his ERA to the league average with adjustment for ballpark) is the highest of any starting pitcher in baseball history. That seems pretty good.

I mean, his entire 1997-2002 run is absolutely insane. One of the best 6 year stretches by a pitcher ever. Maybe the best.

Johnson, P. Martinez, Smoltz and Biggio elected.

Agree with all of that...but at 97%?

Biggio HOF!

B**** only got 55.7%. Slight increase and not even as high as it was 2 years ago. Its not looking good for him.

Johnson, 97.3 percent
Martinez, 91.1
Smoltz, 82.9
Biggio, 82.7
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Mike Piazza, 69.9
Jeff Bagwell, 55.7
Tim Raines, 55
Curt Schilling, 39.2
Roger Clemens, 37.5
Barry Bonds, 36.8
Lee Smith, 30.2
Edgar Martinez, 27
Alan Trammell, 25.1
Mike Mussina, 24.6
Jeff Kent, 14
Fred McGriff, 12.9
Larry Walker, 11.8
Gary Sheffield, 11.7
Mark McGwire, 10
Don Mattingly, 9.1
Sammy Sosa, 6.6
Nomar Garciaparra, 5.5
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Carlos Delgado, 3.8
Troy Percival, 0.7
Aaron Boone, 0.4
Tom Gordon, 0.4
Darin Erstad, 0.2

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Agree with all of that...but at 97%?

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Yes, at 97%. Higher career WAR than Nolan Ryan in 9 less seasons. I'm not sure you comprehend how much better Martinez was than his contemporaries at his peak. He put up Bob Gibson 1968 numbers at the height of the steroid era. His 1998-2000 numbers boggle the mind.

As Joe Posnanski wrote today, the whole reason for having a Hall of Fame is so that guys like Pedro can be put in it.

Not surprising that the vote total was around 90, though. As you (ironically) point out, the BBWAA contains a number of unqualified voters who actually think that wins are a meaningful statistic by which to measure greatness. And I'm sure that there are those who look at Pedro's frame, his 96 mph fastball in 1999 and his 82 mph "heater" in 2009, and go "hmm."

Bonds and Clemens being in the 30% range is so ridiculous. I don't care what drugs they did, they were the best players from that era.

Congrats to Biggio, one of my favorite players of all time.

I'm shocked that Nomar stays on the ballot. Who thinks that Nomah is a Hall of Famer?