A Proposal to Save the Baseball Hall of Fame Voting Process from Itself

The Pro Baseball Hall of Fame has the highest standards for induction of the four major American sports. A player must pass an inconsistently applied standard for off-field behavior and then get 75 percent of BBWAA voting members to vote for them in any given year. That standard is the reason we got zero new Hall of Famers this year for the second time in less than a decade.

Outside of the boring nature of inductingzeroplayers into the Hall of Fame, there is nothing wrong with this result. There is, however, something fundamentally wrong with the process of selecting Pro Baseball Hall of Famers. If we don't fix the issue quickly, within the next decade or two, people may be too tired to care about who ultimately gets in anymore.

No players on the 2021 Baseball Hall of Fame ballot reached the necessary 75 percent for induction.https://t.co/kvWpbhsIfS-- SportsCenter (@SportsCenter)January 26, 2021

No players on the 2021 Baseball Hall of Fame ballot reached the necessary 75 percent for induction.https://t.co/kvWpbhsIfS

It is hard enough to get 75 percent of writers, most of whom are white Baby Boomer men, to agree on which players deserve induction based on merit. Once you throw silly words like "character" and "ethics" at them, they don't know what to do with themselves. Todd Helton seems to have been punished more for playing at Coors Field than Curt Schilling has been punished for encouraging and praising an armed insurrection of the United States government.

Where to draw the line is different for every writer and it has become abundantly clear that BBWAA members as a whole are not qualified to judge a man's character to the degree necessary to assess his worthiness for the Hall of Fame.

We are simply asking baseball writers to do the impossible: take your feelings about the player you watched and/or covered, determine whether he is worthy of enshrinement based on his on-field performance, and thentake every other intangible into account before you vote.

Omar Vizquel (on top of not being a Hall of Fame-worthy player, to begin with) has drawn some criticism for domestic violence allegations against him. Barry Bonds, in addition to a domestic violence past of his own, as well as Roger Clemens both, are docked for their use of performance-enhancing drugs. Curt Schilling has encouraged hanging journalists and praised the attempted overthrow of our system of government among other things. We need a filtration system that weeds out the "bad eggs" before they're eligible and allows the writers to simply vote based on what they saw on the field.

It is simple in theory, but perhaps more complicated in practice; what baseball should do is set up an ethics board that can address character concerns of Hall of Fame-eligible players. Players become eligible for the Hall of Fame five years after retiring. After three years, the players could come up for review by this board. Of course, most players would pass muster, but players like Schilling, Clemens, and Bonds would be the source of some heated debate.

As more players like Alex Rodriguez and others come up in future years, that type of board could more reasonably address character concerns. Once the board approves the player, they officially become eligible for induction after the usual five years. If the player is denied eligibility, they can appeal the decision and make their case as to why they still deserve consideration. Can you imagine someone like Schilling making his case in such a scenario?

This would allow for legitimate concerns to be raised in accordance with the Hall of Fame's infamously vague character clause, and just as important for players under scrutiny to address concerns and explain their actions. Once they pass muster, those players wouldn't have to worry as much about baseball writers being the final judges of character. Only once something like this happens can we again enjoy the result -- new players inducted annually -- rather than worry more about the process. It isn't working right now, but it can again. Instead of that magical weekend, every July being the source of controversy, it can once again be cause for celebration.