The One Vote Gang

When voting for the 2010 Hall of Fame was released last week, one question arose from within baseball circles.  How in the hell did David Segui actually receive one vote? 

A valid question.  Segui wasn’t a bad player but isn’t someone you’d expect to see enshrined next to names like Willie Mays and Mickey Mantle.  Yet one of the esteemed members of the BBWAA Hall of Fame voting panel felt strongly enough about Segui to circle his name on the ballot this year.  Someone apparently was sure that David Segui, he of 7 teams in 15 years, deserved to go down as one of the all time greats in baseball history. 

Unfortunately for Segui, he came up about 400 votes short of gaining entry into Cooperstown, but in the process joined what is becoming an equally esteemed group of players.  It includes those players who played long enough to gain entry on the Hall of Fame ballot and did just enough throughout their career to get one solitary vote before disappearing from the Hall of Fame conversation for good.  They are known as the “One Vote Gang“.

Over the past 20 years, there have been 54 men inducted into the the OVG, some of whom seem like they were destined for more than the solo vote and some of whom truly make one question how the person who cast the vote didn’t have his privileges revoked immediately.  Today, with some help from Baseball-Reference.com’s  database, we unveil some of the notable names that make up the One Vote Gang and speculate as to why we believe one voting member deemed each of them Hall of Fame worthy…even though none of the other 538 voters did. 

Greg Luzinski 1990
Suspected reason for his vote: One voting member had nightmares about this gorilla dismembering him upon finding out he was not on his ballot.  Don’t act like you wouldn’t do the same.

Jerry Remy 1990
Suspected reason for his vote: Someone just had a gut feeling that Jerry would go on to do things that quite frankly were Hall of Fame worthy, such as authoring the book “Wally the Green Monster and his Journey through Red Sox Nation” enjoyed by children and meatheaded Red Sox fans equally. 

Richie Hebner 1991
Suspected reason for his vote: According to baseballlibrary.com, he set the MLB record for most NLCS losses in the history of the league.  And damn it, it’s about time Richie caught a break.###MORE###

Burt Hooten 1991
Suspected reason for his vote: Simply put, the Hall of Fame is woefully short on guys named “Burt”. 

Jim Sundberg 1995
Suspected reason for his vote: A voter drained a twelve pack of Schlitz on ballot night and thought he was circling the name “Ryne Sandberg”.  Easy mistake really. 

Chet Lemon 1995
Suspected reason for his vote: Come on, his name is Chet Lemon, does anyone really need a reason?  His Hall of Fame plaque could just say “Chet Lemon was a baseball player named Chet Lemon” and that would be sufficient.

Terry Kennedy 1997
Suspected reason for his vote: Some voters value old school stats like RBI and HR.  Some voters value more modern stats like Win Shares and OPS+.  And apparently one voter values how well someone’s tan comes across in their Diamond King card.

John Candelaria 1999
Suspected reason for his vote: Let’s face it, it would be awesome to see them try to make a bronze bust that looks like this.

Bob Welch 2000
Suspected reason for his vote: Because one voter looked through his career stats and said to himself “Holy shit, Bob Welch won 27 games in 1990.  That’s four more than Gibson ever won in a single season.  Bob Welch is better than Bob Gibson!”

Bruce Hurst 2000
Suspected reason for his vote: Three words – Nintendo. RBI. Baseball. 

John Kruk 2001
Suspected reason for his vote: The real question is how in the hell does John Kruk only get one vote? 

Lenny Dykstra 2002
Suspected reason for his vote: Because in 2002, when this ballot was turned in, one of the voters was banking on making boatloads of money thanks to Dykstra’s “Nails Investments” and it only seemed right to repay him.  8 years later, with Nails Investments long gone and Dykstra reportedly living in his car due to his immense financial woes, that voter is probably regretting it.  

Darren Daulton 2003
Suspected reason for his vote: Via his unique ability to astral travel, Daulton actually went to another dimension, one in which he was actually a BBWAA member, and cast the vote himself

Cecil Fielder 2004
Suspected reason for his vote: Seriously, the guy hit numerous balls on the roof of Tiger Stadium despite being so out of shape that he could barely jog around the bases without a water break.  That kind of versatility is Hall worthy.

Terry Steinbach 2005
Suspected reason for his vote: Despite mediocre stats, he was a legitimate pioneer in the field of face shield attachments for a batting helmet.

Jesse Orosco 2009
Suspected reason for his vote: Longevity has to count for something, right?

Although their career’s were not prosperous enough to warrant a spot in Cooperstown, they have done enough in the game to earn a spot in an equally prestigious circle – the One Vote Gang. 

And for that they should be proud.

Click for the full OVG roster from 1990-2010. 

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