The Baseball Hall of Fame pitches a shutout

And will there ever be another Royal elected?

Twitter/@NotMrTibbs Baseball Hall of Fame Tracker

On an anticlimactic Tuesday, the Baseball Hall of Fame revealed the results of the 2021 balloting. No one was elected.

If there’s a silver lining to this damned pandemic, there are still members waiting for enshrinement as last year’s class is still waiting in the wings. There will be an induction…someday. Thanks, Covid.

The Baseball Hall of Fame is oft-maligned and with good reason, but I still enjoy the museum, along with all the debates that come with it. The Hall is flawed, as most museums and guardians of history are. I understand the arguments that voting and enshrinement needs to be overhauled or revamped. It’s an imperfect process of what many wish was a perfect institution. I don’t have the answers. I’m not sure I even have a suggestion!

Still, I think the writers generally do a decent job. And 75 percent remains a helluva threshold to clear. It’s not easy, getting elected. (Full disclosure: I am a member of the BBWAA, but am not scheduled to have a ballot for the Hall of Fame for at least eight years. I seriously doubt I remain in good standing for that long.)

Four of the top five in the balloting this go-round have some…flaws. Curt Schilling received the highest percentage and promptly attempted to cancel himself. Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens remain tied at the Cream (or is it the Clear?) and saw their chances of enshrinement by the writers go from zero to sub-zero. Omar Vizquel isn’t a Hall of Famer to start, and recent allegations that have come to light certainly won’t help those who would be on the fence.

Voting is difficult. It should be difficult. And I can cop out here and say I have no idea how I would’ve voted if a ballot had landed in my mailbox.

It’s this time of year I get to thinking that it’s odd the Royals don’t have more players in the Hall of Fame. Don’t get me wrong…I don’t think any former Royal has been slighted. (Maybe one. Keep reading.) I’m just basing this off the fact the franchise has won enough at times to be one of the most successful expansion teams in the history of the game and has been in existence for over 50 years. They have one Hall of Famer. One!

The Royals have had players wear the uniform who made it into the Hall (Harmon Killebrew, Gaylord Perry, Orlando Cepeda) but they each played a season or less for the Royals; Kansas City was literally their last stop on the way to Cooperstown. Whitey Herzog was inducted as a manager, but the bulk of his success came across the state in St. Louis where he won three NL pennants and one championship. His 822 wins with the Cardinals is almost exactly double the 410 wins he accumulated with the Royals.

It won’t come as a surprise that if you look at their expansion peers, the Royals lag in inductees. The Padres have never won a World Series, but have three players represented (Dave Winfield, Tony Gwynn, Trevor Hoffman) in the Hall. Ditto the Expos (Gary Carter, Andre Dawson and Tim Raines). Somehow they didn’t get Vladimir Guerrero who was inducted as an Angel. The Brewers (initially known as the Seattle Pilots) have just one World Series appearance and two Hall of Famers (Robin Yount and Paul Molitor).

Of course, the Royals are the most successful franchise of the four; it’s not even a matter of debate. They have four AL pennants and two World Series. The other three from their expansion class? A total of four pennants and one World Series combined. You obviously would rather have the titles over the Hall of Famers. That’s wholly reasonable. But it’s just a little skewed that a franchise with the success of the Royals hasn’t had at least one other signature player that you can nationally identify with the franchise.

That could change when Carlos Beltrán becomes eligible, but it’s unlikely he would enter as a Royal. Despite having played almost the same amount of time for the Royals and the Mets, his career really seemed defined by the time he spent in Queens—Gold Gloves, Silver Sluggers, All-Star Games and playoff appearances.

Maybe the Royals have a better chance with Zack Greinke. He’s been quite the nomad since departing Kansas City in a trade prior to the 2011 season, never spending more than four seasons in one city. You can make the argument that his best single-season came in Kansas City in 2009, but his best years came with the Dodgers. He feels like one of those guys who has a cap without a logo, pleasing no one.

Those two will have their day on the ballot. Let’s get back to the Royals’ Hall of Fame slight. Billy Wagner received 46.6 percent of the vote this time, a significant bump from his last year total of 31.7 percent. It was his sixth year on the ballot. He’s come a long way since polling around 11 percent in each of his first three years.

Any time a reliever gains traction in the process, I can’t help but think of Dan Quisenberry.

From 1980 to 1985, Quis:

• Finished in the top 5 in Cy Young balloting five times.

• Finished in the top 10 in MVP voting four times.

• Led the league in saves five times.

• Led the league in appearances three times.

It was a different game, especially for top relievers who often threw for multiple innings. In fact, Quis topped 100 innings in each season between 1980 and ’85, with the exception of the strike-shortened season of 1981. He did it with a sinker that hitters just couldn’t loft. He didn’t miss bats, averaging just 3.1 SO/9 during his heyday (I said the game was different), but he surrendered just 0.5 HR/9.

The bar is high for a reliever to gain entry into the Hall and deservedly so. When you think of the gold standard, you obviously turn to Mariano Rivera was dominant for so many years. There’s also Dennis Eckersley and Rich Gossage who both also enjoyed extended periods of relief dominance. That’s rare. Quis’s time was brief. He struggled in the postseason in 1985 and lost his job as the closer the following year. From ’86 to the time he retired in 1990, he saved just 27 games. He suffered the fate so many modern closers seem to suffer in that longevity just escapes them. In this sense, Quis is like the Sandy Koufax of relievers.

This isn’t to say that I believe Quis should be in the Baseball Hall of Fame. But when you look at guys like Bruce Sutter and Lee Smith and then modern closers like Wagner…it’s just a damn shame Quis lasted only a year on the ballot with 3.8 percent of the vote. He deserved a longer debate.