I have always been baffled at the manner in which Major League Baseball elects its Hall-of-Fame.

Firstly, some of the baseball writers of America take this as a joke... I know it was only one vote, but the one guy who voted for Walt Weiss two years ago has got to be shunned, and forbidden from ever placing a vote again. Clearly, this guy is picking his candidates out of a hat...

And it is for that reason that worthy candidates like Jim Rice are not elected. But surprisingly, my rant today will not focus on Mr. Rice... Nay, it is centered around a few other candidates not elected who get less press.  

Bert "Be-Home" Blyleven -- This guy has 287 career wins and played on many, many bad teams. He had the best overhand curveball I've seen in my lifetime (with Barry Zito, Dwight Gooden and David Wells also making the short list). He ranks 5th ALL-TIME in strikeouts... And yet he can garner only 50% of the vote... I don't get it... If this guy was on some good teams of the '70s and '80s he would have had 330 wins and his candidacy would be a shoe-in.  

 Rich "Goose" Gossage -- Maybe Bruce Sutter was slightly before my time (I do remember him, but not all that vividly). But to the best of my childhoold memories (and beyond) Gossage was the more dominant pitcher. And Gossage had much more longevity than Sutter. He pitched into the '90s I believe... I think that there were much more deserving picks than Bruce Sutter and it is a grave injustice that he got into the Hall before his more dominant counterpart, the Goose.  

And Finally, the most deserving candidate to be snubbed (in my humble opinion):  

 Andre Dawson-- Maybe it is because I grew up in Montreal in the early 1980s as a huge baseball fan, but to me it is a grave injustice that Andre Dawson  is not in the Hall of Fame. This guy put up huge numbers, and could have been even better if he wasn't playing on concrete in the Olympic Stadium. He was a great outfielder in both centerfield and rightfield.   Look at the following stats:

8-time All-star

Rookie of the Year 1977

MVP 1986

8 Gold gloves

4 Silver sluggers

top 10 MVP 4 times

 top 10 batting average 5 times

 top 10 Slugging % 8 times

top 10 OPS 6 times

Top 10 runs 4 times

top 10 hits 6 times

top 10 total bases 10 times (league lead twice)

 top 10 doubles 3 times

 Top 10 triples 4 times

Top 10 Home Runs 9 times (league lead once)

Top 10 RBIs 8 times (league lead once)

Top 10 Stolen bases 3 times  

 And finally, one of three players to hit 400 career home runs and steal 300 career bases...

 The others? Willie Mays and Barry Bonds...  

The following is a list of players who have 1,000 career extra base hits:  

Aaron

Bonds

Musial

Ruth

Mays

Palmeiro

 Gehrig

F. Robinson

Yastremski

 Cobb

Speaker

 Brett

Foxx

T. Williams

 E. Murray

Winfield

Ripken

R. Jackson

Ott

Griffey

 Rose

Dawson

Schmidt

Sosa

 Hornsby

Banks

  Of those 26 players, 6 are not in the Hall of Fame:  

1) Barry Bonds - still active. Even despite steroids will probably still make it;

2) Raffy Palmeiro - Would be Hall-of-Famer, may not make it but only because of steroids;

3) Pete Rose - Banned

4) Ken Griffey Jr. - Active.  Future Hall of Famer

5) Sammy Sosa - See Palmeiro.

6)  Andre Dawson- Voters will not elect him for some unexplainable reason.  

Of these six guys, the only one currently eligible for the Hall of Fame is Andre Dawson and he is barely receiving 50% of the vote. The other players of his generation on that exclusive list (Brett, Murray, Winfield, Ripken and Schmidt) were all first ballot selections. People obviously forget how good Andre Dawson was..

He is the very definition of a  Hall-of-Famer...  

The baseball writers need to give him his due...