Roberto Alomar And Bert Blyleven Get Elected To Baseball Hall of Fame

I don’t think there has been a player’s Hall of Fame candidacy debated as much as Bert Blyleven’s. I don’t think there was a day that went by over the last couple of months where we didn’t see a Blyleven for the HOF article or a Blyleven vs. Jack Morris post.

The Blyleven vs. Morris debate was beaten to death over the last couple of months. It was getting tiring to be honest.

Well, we don’t have to worry or hear about the Blyleven debate anymore because on Wednesday he was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Blyleven, in his 14th year on the ballot, received 79.7 percent of the vote and will join Roberto Alomar, who received an amazing 90 percent of the vote to be only two inductees into this year’s HOF class.

Blyleven pitched 22 seasons in the Major Leagues for the Minnesota Twins, Texas Rangers, Pittsburgh Pirates, Cleveland Indians and California Angels.

He compiled a 3.31 ERA, 1.19 WHIP, and 3,701 K’s in 4,970 innings. He finished in the top-five in the Cy Young voting three times and his 3,701 K’s rank fifth all-time.

I think the Blyleven induction shows the power of the Internet and how much of a voice blogs and underground sites actually have. Blyleven received 17.5 percent his first year on the ballot.

But through the power of advanced statistics and a groundswell of support from the baseball Internet community, Blyleven’s popularity increased.

But for me, this goes back to the point I have made about the HOF from Day 1. What exactly did Blyleven do over the 14 years to jump from 17.5 percent to 79.5 percent? EITHER YOU ARE OR AREN’T A HALL OF FAMER! This whole 15 years of voting process is comical to me.

I believe Blyleven is worthy of the HOF, but if it takes you 14 years to figure that out, then he probably isn’t a HOF’er. I just don’t see how a guy improves without doing anything on the field.

Now Alomar is a different case.

The only reason he didn’t get in last year is because some people wanted to punish him because of his spitting incident and some people (like Marty Noble) wanted to punish him for his piss-poor play with the New York Mets.

Alomar received 73.7 percent of the vote last year, but now this year had a higher vote percentage than Ernie Banks, Mickey Mantle and Joe DiMaggio.

Not really sure how that works.

Alomar played 17 seasons with the San Diego Padres, Toronto Blue Jays, Baltimore Orioles, Cleveland Indians, New York Mets, Chicago White Sox, and Arizona Diamondbacks. Wow, who remembered Alomar played on the Diamondbacks? Not me.

Alomar is the only player in Major League history with 2,700 hits, 450 steals, 200 HR’s, and a Gold Glove. He should have gotten into the HOF last year, but some people have an agenda.

The next highest vote getter was Barry Larkin with 62.1 percent of the vote. How he gets 62.1 percent of the vote and Alan Trammell only gets 22.3 is beyond me. With a very weak first-time eligible class next year, look Larkin to get in.

Two guys who will be getting a major Internet push over the next couple of years will be Jeff Bagwell and Tim Raines.

It’s already started with Bagwell, and Raines jumped seven percent this year. I feel both will get in eventually.

Congratulations to Blyleven and Alomar on their HOF inductions. Both are well-deserved.

You can follow The Ghost of Moonlight Graham on Twitter @theghostofmlg