Baseball Hall of Fame ballots are beginning to trickle in as Cooperstown prepares to welcome its class of 2021. While recent ballots have featured no-brainers like Derek Jeter and Roy Halladay, this year’s offerings are relatively slim with voters left to pick between a slew of suspected or admitted steroid users (Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens and Manny Ramirez among them) and other fringe choices like Jeff Kent and Billy Wagner.
Apparently, Clark Spencer didn’t have the stomach for any of those selections. Rather than vouch for a player tainted by past steroid allegations, the former Miami Herald columnist submitted a minimalist ballot, casting his lone vote for Red Sox legend Curt Schilling of “Bloody Sock” fame. One of the most decorated postseason pitchers of all-time (as his three World Series rings would attest), public perception of Schilling has shifted dramatically in recent years as the former hurler has alienated many with his intolerant views.
Based solely on his career accomplishments, Schilling probably belongs in the Hall, though Spencer’s decision to only vote for Schilling, punting on the other nine players he could have also chosen, struck many as odd, bordering on inexplicable.
A certain segment of the voting base subscribes to the “Small Hall” theory and though Spencer has occasionally voted for the maximum 10 players, his ballot this year would seem to align with that school of thought. Members of the BBWAA (Baseball Writers’ Association of America) seem to have a more stringent criteria for Hall-of-Fame worthiness than voters in other sports, which would explain why it took three-time batting champ Larry Walker a decade to amass the required 75% of votes needed for Cooperstown enshrinement.
In Spencer’s defense, this year’s batch of potential HOFers isn’t a particularly strong one. With that in mind, the sports media field is littered with hard-working, knowledgeable writers who would KILL for a Hall of Fame vote. And Spencer essentially tossed his in the trash without giving it a second thought. Equally problematic is the fact Spencer hasn’t covered the sport in years, yet he’s still granted a vote while other, arguably worthier industry professionals are left to watch him waste his ballot. Spencer isn’t breaking any rules by voting for only one player, but there’s an off-putting, “look at me” quality to his type of performative stunt, not dissimilar to when his former Miami Herald colleague Dan Le Batard outsourced his ballot to Deadspin, a ploy that ultimately resulted in his expulsion from the BBWAA.
There are bound to be some who support Spencer’s decision to only vote in Schilling, citing the lack of quality candidates on this year’s ballot. Until Spencer comments on it, we’ll never know if he had an attention-seeking, ulterior motive (the lone voter who snubbed Derek Jeter last year was never revealed). But if that was his plan, it certainly worked.
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