Posted on 12/23/2018 7:55:10 AM PST by EdnaMode
Leave it to a Red Sox scribe to rain on Mariano Rivera’s historic quest.
Bill Ballou, of the Worcester, Mass., Telegram, spent about 1,500 words Saturday arguing that the Yankees legend shouldn’t receive a bid into the Hall.
We checked the calendar. April Fools’ is months away.
“...The Save — the baseball kind — is the lowest-hanging fruit on the game’s statistical tree,” Ballou writes. “Closers are its naked emperors.”
Ballou continuously bashes the role of the closer, and even brings up Craig Kimbrel for sake of argument.
(Excerpt) Read more at nydailynews.com ...
Mariano Rivera is simply the best relief pitcher in baseball history. Stupid Red Sox fan can’t put his Yankee hate aside for one minute to vote for a no doubt Hall of Famer.
I might be willing to say Rivera was one of the five best relievers of all time. I might put Lee Smith and Rollie Fingers ahead of Rivera.
I agree——and a classy guy too.
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his career ops was .555
I think it’s fair to mention that the writer is not depriving Rivera of unanimously getting in because the writer is not sending in his ballot.
I don't know about that. But Mariano Rivera fulfilled his role better than any other player who played that role. I think that's about the definition of a Hall of Famer.
There’s not much to do in Worcester on the weekends, so why not plot vengeance on obscure baseball players?
ERA+ of 205, best ever.
Walks and hits per inning pitched, 1.000, third best ever. Top two are Addie Joss and Ed Walsh.
Postseason ERA in 96 games, 0.70
Of course he belongs in the Hall.
Payback for the Ted Williams vs. Joe DiMaggio flap?
The writers need to be removed from the HoF selection process - especially since their ranks are now filled with ESPN-style SJW’s. It’s only a matter of time before HoF candidates are being blackballed for making “heteronormative remarks” in high school.
Eh. It’s all part of baseball’s weirdness anyway. Nobody gets in unanimously cause Babe didn’t get in unanimously. Tradition.
Mariano Rivera was given a very gracious ceremony and gifts when he played his last game in Fenway Park and was warmly received by the fans. Red Sox fans had enormous admiration, and considerable affection for Rivera, even if he often frustrated us. He was a true sportsman and a great competitor.
Same goes for Jeter, and a number of other Yankee players, for Joe Torre, and Joe Girardi. A-Rod, not so much, though his work on Fox Sports Network has been surprisingly good. If he had admitted he messed up when he slapped the ball out of Bronson Arroyo’s glove, Red Sox fans probably would have admired him, too.
I don’t know anyone who has ever even read the Worcester Telegram, much even heard of Bill Ballou.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_1P4DEawdY
Dom, Dom DiMaggio, he’s better than his brother Joe.
With 38 saves in 1973 after returning from a Jan. 1971 heart attack, one could argue that John Hiller was one of the best relievers of all time with 87 wins and 125 saves......but he’ll ever get in the HOF
The Red Sox writer’s name is not “Bill,” it’s Wally Ballou as any New Englander knows.
(“Wally Ballou” was a fictional character voiced by Bob Elliott, father of actor Chris Elliott ((Something About Mary)), of the comic radio duo of “Bob and Ray ((Goulding)).”)
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=wd-nx9YaKsM
“of the comic radio duo of “Bob and Ray ((Goulding)).”)
I actually remember listening to Bob and Ray-——good times.
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I agree about writers having the votes. In the words of a friend who tells me, “No Hall of Fame is valid as long as it admits umpires, owners, and broadcasters.” The HOF has been cheapened to be a large popularity contest.
I would note that Lee Smith was voted in (finally) and will be inducted next season, by the veteran’s committee.
The individual vote should be stripped, not the broad group of writers, until they show a pattern as a group.
Just read your profile.
I grew up in Brighton and went to high school with Walter Schroeder’s sister. (in the late 40s)
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I wish Bill Ballou mailed his ballot leaving off Rivera as a protest to the New York sportswriters who block Curt Schilling’s path to the Hall of Fame because Schilling is a Conservative.
As the most effective postseason pitcher in baseball history, Schilling has a more compelling claim than the reliever.
The truth is both players are worthy. It’s the fault of the SJW sportswriters.
Also, what was that smear against Craig Kimbrel about? Kimbrel is baseball’s best reliever since Rivera and has been for a long time.
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