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**JDPNYY** · 01-15-23, 07:37 AM

Can you even imagine that 11.8% of the voters did not vote for Mickey to go into the Hall of Fame. Those idiots should have immediately been banned from future voting.

**Tock Ada Shot** · 01-15-23, 07:46 AM

Originally posted by JDPNYY View Post

Can you even imagine that 11.8% of the voters did not vote for Mickey to go into the Hall of Fame. Those idiots should have immediately been banned from future voting.

Totally agree. Hard to believe for sure.

**ymike673** · 01-15-23, 11:21 AM

Originally posted by JDPNYY View Post

Can you even imagine that 11.8% of the voters did not vote for Mickey to go into the Hall of Fame. Those idiots should have immediately been banned from future voting.

How about Ford also not getting in on the first ballot a year earlier?

**JDPNYY** · 01-15-23, 11:25 AM

Originally posted by ymike673 View Post

How about Ford also not getting in on the first ballot a year earlier?

Also terrible, however, Mickey Mantle is a top 10 all time baseball player. If you don't vote for him, you are voting that there should not be a Hall of Fame. I want those names. I want them in the Worst Sportswriters Hall of Fame.

**ymike673** · 01-15-23, 12:55 PM

Originally posted by JDPNYY View Post

Also terrible, however, Mickey Mantle is a top 10 all time baseball player. If you don't vote for him, you are voting that there should not be a Hall of Fame. I want those names. I want them in the Worst Sportswriters Hall of Fame.

Unfortunately it's been that way for many players. 5% of the voters left Willie Mays off of their ballot. Jackie Robinson got in with just 77% of the vote.

**sjb23** · 01-15-23, 03:37 PM

My fascination/obsession with Mickey Mantle is what made me both a Yankee fan and a baseball fan.

It also got me playing the sport. I went to Bat Day for the first time in 1967, dreaming I would get a Mantle bat. Instead, I got a Tom Tresh bat-who really sucked that year.

Even though I was embarrassed that I was using a Tom Tresh bat, I remember getting some good hits with that bat lol. It had a fat barrel and a pretty wide handle - it felt perfect in my hands.

I idolized the man.

Whitey, to me, was always Mickey's sidekick. But he was a lefty, and so was I - so we had something in common.

I remember being at the stadium for his last start at home vs. Jim Palmer. I was 8 yrs old, and my dad had died a month before. I cried when Ford didn't come out for the 4th inning. I was expecting him to win a game for the Yankees and didn't understand why he was "quitting."

Yanks got whipped - Palmer pitched a one-hitter, lol. I cried going home, too.

**Tock Ada Shot** · 01-15-23, 06:45 PM

Originally posted by ymike673 View Post

Unfortunately it's been that way for many players. 5% of the voters left Willie Mays off of their ballot. Jackie Robinson got in with just 77% of the vote.

...and then there's Joe DiMaggio...

Baseball Hall of Fame voting shows its absurdity
https://www.pennlive.com/editorials/..._voting_s.html
Excerpts from the www.pennlive.com article:

"In 1953, Joe DiMaggio’s name appeared on the Hall of Fame ballot for the first time. Only 44.3 percent of voters, 117 of 264 total, placed him on their ballots, leaving him in eighth place. A staggering 147 “experts” did not think Joe DiMaggio was worthy of the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1953. Completed ballots included the names Bill Wambsgamss, Arky Vaughn, Gabby Street and others, now mostly forgotten."

"In 1954, DiMaggio finished fourth in the Hall of Fame balloting, but once again failed to pass the 75 percent threshold. Walter “Rabbit” Maranville, Bill Dickey and Bill Terry all made the grade and entered the shrine. Finally, in 1955, he finished at the top of the class and sailed in with 88.8 percent. And yet turning that number upside down, more than 10 percent of the voters did not believe that Joe DiMaggio should enter the Hall of Fame."
=============================================================================

...and then there's this...

Hall of Fame ballots need to be made public
https://www.mlb.com/news/bbwaa-needs...lic-c161336474
Excerpts from the www.mlb.com article:

"1936: Ty Cobb (98.2 percent), Honus Wagner (95.1), Babe Ruth (95.1), Christy Mathewson (90.7) and Walter Johnson (83.6)"
"1937: Cy Young (76.1 percent)", "1942: Rogers Hornsby (78.1 percent)", "1956: Hank Greenberg (85.0 percent)", "1962: Bob Feller (93.8 percent) and Jackie Robinson (77.5)", 1966: Ted Williams (93.4 percent)", 1969: Stan Musial (93.2 percent)", "1972: Sandy Koufax (86.9 percent) and Yogi Berra (85.6)", "1973: Warren Spahn (83.2 percent)", "1981: Bob Gibson (84.0 percent)", "1982: Hank Aaron (97.8 percent) and Frank Robinson (89.2)","1983: Brooks Robinson (92.0 percent)", "1989: Johnny Bench (96.4 percent) and Carl Yastrzemski (94.6)"...

...can anyone imagine Babe Ruth only getting 95.1%...HAH !!!

WHAT A JOKE IT ALL IS !

**HelloNewman** · 01-15-23, 11:36 PM

Originally posted by ymike673 View Post

How about Ford also not getting in on the first ballot a year earlier?

I think there may have been some sentiment among the baseball writers to hold back on Whitey that first year so he could go in with Mickey the next.

**HelloNewman** · 01-15-23, 11:41 PM

Originally posted by sjb23 View Post

My fascination/obsession with Mickey Mantle is what made me both a Yankee fan and a baseball fan.

It also got me playing the sport. I went to Bat Day for the first time in 1967, dreaming I would get a Mantle bat. Instead, I got a Tom Tresh bat-who really sucked that year.

Even though I was embarrassed that I was using a Tom Tresh bat, I remember getting some good hits with that bat lol. It had a fat barrel and a pretty wide handle - it felt perfect in my hands.

The Yankees had a lot worse hitters in the mid-to-late sixties than Tom Tresh. I wouldn't have minded getting his bat if I had ever been to bat day. It's certainly not like getting a Mickey but it beats hell out of a Ruben Amaro or a Charley Smith.

**HelloNewman** · 01-16-23, 12:08 AM

Originally posted by Tock Ada Shot View Post

...and then there's Joe DiMaggio...

(snip)

WHAT A JOKE IT ALL IS !

I may be remembering it wrong but I think there were some extenuating circumstances in the DiMaggio thing. I believe when he first went on the ballot, you could still be elected one year after retirement; Joe last played in 1951 and his first HOF election was January 1953. But ever since Lou Gehrig had been fast-tracked to the Hall so he could know he was in while still alive, no one had been elected as quickly as DiMaggio would have been in 1953, and it had become customary to make sure no one else got "Gehrig treatment."

Then, if I remember right, the rules were changed to the current 5-year waiting period. DiMaggio was "grandfathered" so he could still be elected in 1954, but now a lot of writers were unhappy with the "grandfathering" and felt the waiting period should apply to him too. So there were enough of those to bring him up short in 1954 as well.

1955 was still within the "grandfather" period but by then the resistance had weakened to the point where he got the requisite votes.

Don't get me wrong, I think he should have been voted in as soon as eligible. The point is, it wasn't so much that there were a lot of writers who actually thought he wasn't HOF material, it was more about some of the writers getting hung up on rules, customs and procedures.

**ymike673** · 01-16-23, 07:30 AM

Originally posted by HelloNewman View Post

The Yankees had a lot worse hitters in the mid-to-late sixties than Tom Tresh. I wouldn't have minded getting his bat if I had ever been to bat day. It's certainly not like getting a Mickey but it beats hell out of a Ruben Amaro or a Charley Smith.

I was lucky to get a Mantle bat once. But the other bat I wanted was the Stottlemyre bat. Just missed getting one at bat day.

**Tock Ada Shot** · 01-16-23, 02:54 PM

Originally posted by HelloNewman View Post

I may be remembering it wrong but I think there were some extenuating circumstances in the DiMaggio thing. I believe when he first went on the ballot, you could still be elected one year after retirement; Joe last played in 1951 and his first HOF election was January 1953. But ever since Lou Gehrig had been fast-tracked to the Hall so he could know he was in while still alive, no one had been elected as quickly as DiMaggio would have been in 1953, and it had become customary to make sure no one else got "Gehrig treatment."

Then, if I remember right, the rules were changed to the current 5-year waiting period. DiMaggio was "grandfathered" so he could still be elected in 1954, but now a lot of writers were unhappy with the "grandfathering" and felt the waiting period should apply to him too. So there were enough of those to bring him up short in 1954 as well.

1955 was still within the "grandfather" period but by then the resistance had weakened to the point where he got the requisite votes.

Don't get me wrong, I think he should have been voted in as soon as eligible. The point is, it wasn't so much that there were a lot of writers who actually thought he wasn't HOF material, it was more about some of the writers getting hung up on rules, customs and procedures.

Thank you for that update. Sincerely appreciate it.

Announcement

January 16, 1974: Whitey Ford & Mickey Mantle Elected to Hall of Fame

January 16, 1974: Whitey Ford & Mickey Mantle Elected to Hall of Fame

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