A shocking turn of events. Or not all: I think he should be in, have long stopped being surprised he’s not and try to spend the least amount of time possible thinking about it. It’s only the be all and end all if you care at all.
The one thing is – I know everyday, we know more about baseball than we knew the day before. Know what effect different things have, how to better rate what a player has done, how to tune oout some of the interference. With Santo, and with others like him, I gotta think I’d rather not have the benefit of the improved knowledge and just do one vote. It’d be unfortunate for someone to be rejected who’s later realized to be qualified, but it’s cruel to annually (or biannually) reject someone because you can’t come to a consensus and never will.
Speaking of unsurprising things treated as news: why was everyone surprised the Cubs didn’t offer Kerry arbitration? A Kerry Wood without draft pick penalties attached stands a better chance of getting a long term deal. It would have been better for the Cubs to get something for signing Kerry and I think he’s going to do fine either way), but Hendry was pretty clear the goal here wasn’t making the Cubs better*, it was to make Kerry some money. Kinda bizarre goal for the GM of a team, but a honest one.
* – at least in the short term, I’m sure this can be spun around into some selling point for future free agents.
The truly sad thing is that some day, after Ron dies, the Veteran’s committee will finally vote him into the Hall. And they’ll pat themselves on the back for it.