Baseball Bloggers Alliance Recommends Alomar, Blyleven for Hall of Fame

If the Baseball Bloggers Alliance had their way, Roberto Alomar and Bert Blyleven would begin working on their speeches. In those speeches, they’d likely thank whomever came up with the idea of rounding.

The 115-member BBA was polled on their Hall of Fame preferences, using the standard ballot presented to the Baseball Writers of America, who make the official choice. Forty-seven members responded, applying their own criteria to their choices.

Alomar and Blyleven both received 35 of the 47 votes, which worked out to 74.468%. This means that, with rounding, both just reached the 75% threshold that would be needed for induction under the BBWAA rules.

Alomar is a first-time candidate on the baseball writers’ ballot, while Blyleven has been something of a cause celebre among those that discuss the Hall of Fame voting for some years now.

The closest runner-up in the BBA voting was Barry Larkin, who in receiving 34 votes fell one shy of a enshrinement recommendation.

The voting was as follows:

Roberto Alomar 35, 74.468%
Bert Blyleven 35, 74.468%
Barry Larkin 34, 72.340%
Tim Raines 33, 70.213%
Edgar Martinez 26, 55.319%
Andre Dawson 22, 46.809%
Mark McGwire 22, 46.809%
Alan Trammell 20, 40.426%
Don Mattingly 13, 27.660%
Lee Smith 13, 27.660%
Fred McGriff 12, 25.532%
Jack Morris 9, 19.149%
Dale Murphy 8, 17.021%
Dave Parker 5, 10.638%
Harold Baines 4, 8.510%
Robin Ventura 4, 8.510%
Ellis Burks 2, 4.255%
Kevin Appier 1, 2.128%
Andres Galarraga 1, 2.128%
Pat Hentgen 0, 0.000%
Mike Jackson 0, 0.000%
Eric Karros 0, 0.000%
Ray Lankford 0, 0.000%
Shane Reynolds 0, 0.000%
David Segui 0, 0.000%
Todd Zeile 0, 0.000%

The Baseball Bloggers Alliance was formed in the fall of 2009 to encourage cooperation and collaboration between baseball bloggers of all major league teams as well as those that follow baseball more generally. As of this writing, the organization consists of 115 blogs spanning 29 of the 30 major league squads as well as those that focus on general baseball writing.

The BBA is in no way affiliated with the Baseball Writers of America nor do they have any say in the selection of Hall of Fame inductees.
This is an official press release from the Baseball Bloggers Alliance.