Baseball Hall Of Fame 2023 Looks Scary

I look forward to the Hall of Fame every year and last year was rather uninteresting for me so this year should be better, right? I’m not so sure about that.

There’s a lot of controversy on this ballot, and when you look at some of the names you understand why. Other names may not have the controversy but when you read some of the names you laugh a little. I mean, who is voting Jacoby Ellsbury into the Hall of Fame? That’s a name Yankee fans don’t even want to hear ever again.

Then there are the exciting names but not for the right reasons. We have several candidates on the ballot that were either busted for cheating or admitted to doing it. Some of the cheating scandals are fresh in everyone’s memory, including the beat writers who vote and some are further in the past….but that shouldn’t matter.

At least it doesn’t matter in my world. Alex Rodriguez is on the ballot for the second time after receiving 34% of the votes last year and it looks like he should get more votes this year but will likely fall short of the 75% needed. He had so much talent, and we all know the choices he made….but so do the writers. I think he would’ve had a lot of accomplishments without cheating and he could’ve made it to the Hall the right way. 

Then we have Carlos Beltran who is on the ballot for the first time but his role in the Astros cheating scandal is still on beat writers minds so it will be interesting to see exactly how many votes he gets. I still appreciate what he did for us when he was a Yankee, but when he went to the Astros and was the mastermind behind the scandal it made me lose respect for him. 

I can’t get excited about either Beltran or Rodriguez being on the ballot. I guess it’s a good thing I don’t have a vote in all of this. I value integrity too much to give them the honor of a place in the Hall of Fame. It’s hard for me to see a name and get excited about it this year but I am anxious to hear all about each beat writer’s choices in the future.