Better late than never for Blyleven, Alomar

I’ve spent so much time (and two blog posts) on the guys that didn’t make it into the Baseball Hall of Fame that I haven’t congratulated the two deserving players who did become members of the exclusive club: Roberto Alomar and Bert Blyleven.

For Blyleven, the 14th time was a charm. He finally cleared the 75% hurdle for induction this year after coming painfully close last year, falling less than a percentage point shy of election. Despite lingering doubts about his resume and whether he was dominating enough to be considered a Hall of Famer, Blyleven’s candidacy got a nice boost in recent years from the rise of the stat geeks, who continue to insist that wins and losses don’t tell the whole story.

Alomar only had to wait one year, but it shouldn’t even have been that long. His Hall credentials were never in doubt, but the voters decided to punish him for the infamous spitting incident with John Hirschbeck and his subsequent disclosure of the umpire’s personal sorrow over the death of his son. But Alomar long ago asked for and received forgiveness from Hirschbeck, who for years has been one of his biggest supporters. Alomar is also dealing with some very questionable issues in his personal life, but those have nothing to do with his performance on the baseball field.

So two guys who deserve to be in the Hall of Fame finally got in. Perhaps they’ll be joined next year by Barry Larkin and Jack Morris, two players who have the credentials to be in the Hall, but are still waiting for that call.

Thanks to ConspiracyofHappiness via Wikipedia for the photo.