It’s baseball’s newest and best holiday: Hall of Fame Outrage Day
The first Hall of Fame vote happened in 1936. Five players were elected, and what great players they were: Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, Honus Wagner, Christy Mathewson and Walter Johnson.
You know who didn’t get elected that day? Cy Young. He only received 111 votes from a much younger version of the Baseball Writers Association of America. That’s 49.1 percent of the vote, not even close to the necessary 75 percent.
You know who else didn’t get elected? Lou Gehrig, who earned a meager 22.5 percent of the vote. Put that in your ice bucket and dump it, kids.
It’s really a shame there was no Twitter in 1936, because we, the outraged Hall of Fame public of 2015, have no way to fully understand the outrage baseball fans felt in 1936. They had to be outraged, right? Isn’t that what this Hall of Fame announcement day is all about?
Sure, it’s about honoring baseball’s best players — to some degree at least. As long as they didn’t play in the wrong era. Or as long as we’re not inducting too many players. Or as long as a player played the game the right away … according to a totally arbitrary factor some dude thought of and turned into his personal HOF mantra.
Woah there, Outrage Hulk, chill out, put your shirt back on. The 2015 results haven’t even been announced yet. (That’s happening at 2 p.m. ET, by the way). You still have plenty of time to rage. Don’t waste it on the stuff that outraged you last year.
We can’t be sure about the year 1936, but we can tell you undoubtedly that in 2015, a big part of the Hall of Fame vote is letting yourself feel the outrage. It’s part of the reason to look forward to Hall of Fame announcement day.
Why Hall of Fame Outrage Day isn’t a holiday yet, we don’t know. Baseball fans should get the day off and just fume once the ballots are announced until they run to the nearest highway overpass to scream about why the Hall of Fame is a sham.
Yeah, yeah — Randy Johnson, good for him, but show me the idiot voter who put Don Mattingly on his ballot but not Pedro Martinez. Quick, let’s all craft the perfect 140-character putdown for that guy. Yeah, that’s what Hall of Fame Outrage Day is all about.
Hall of Fame Outrage Day is about getting indignant about any ballot that’s not up to your own personal standard. It’s about turning a vote for Barry Bonds into a wide-ranging moral indictment of the person who had the gall to vote for MLB’s all-time home run leader. It’s about seeing a voter get on his/her high horse, then getting on a higher horse to knock them down.
Before you ask, no, we’re not on a high horse. We’re on the ground, watching, hoping nobody falls and hurts themselves. And believe us, there are a handful of results that could send people falling into a fit. Among them:
• Five players are selected, as some of the public ballots suggest. That would be Johnson, Martinez, John Smoltz, Craig Biggio and Mike Piazza — the first time since 1936 that five players were chosen by the BBWAA. Wait, so you think these guys are as worthwhile as the Babe and Ty Cobb and Walter Johnson? C’mon. Learn your history. OUTRAGE!
• Only three players get in. Really? With all 34 possibilities on the ballot? Look at the baseball writers, making themselves the story again and not just honoring the game like they should be doing. Who anointed them the gatekeepers anyway? OUTRAGE!
• The PED guys — Barry Bonds, Rogers Clemens, etc. — still don’t get enough votes to sniff Cooperstown. Oh, so now these baseball writers are the moral authority!? They think they’re perfect?! OUTRAGE!
• The PED guys get more votes than last year. So now we’re just encouraging kids to cheat and get ahead by any means? What about the sanctity of the game? OUTRAGE!
If you think this Hall of Fame Outrage Day declaration is full of too much condescension, we kindly disagree. It’s just the right amount. We’re fully embracing Hall of Fame Outrage Day this year.
Because the truth is, it’s better than the alternative — hitting yourself over the head with a Louisville Slugger for 12 hours straight.
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Mike Oz is an editor for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @MikeOz
