This year, for the first time in my life, I had a vote for which players deserved to be in the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
This is how it works: 1. They mail you a list of players who are eligible; 2. You can vote for as many as 10 of those names; 3; You mail it back (with postage already paid for, which is an awesome perk since I haven't used a stamp in 15 years).
The names were I voted for were: David Ortiz, Alex Rodriguez, Curt Schilling, Barry Bonds, Manny Ramirez, Todd Helton, Scott Rolen, Billy Wagner, Gary Sheffield and Roger Clemens.
Why those guys? I'm saving the explanations for another day. Let's be honest, with this Major League Baseball lockout we really should be spacing out the baseball conversation.
What I do want to broach is how I revealed these names.
On the ballot there is a box identifying whether or not you want your ballot to be made public. Most don't mind. And with the help of the great Ryan Thibodaux (@NotMrTibbs) we get a chance to track all the votes, trends and mindsets as each submission emerges.
Some writers get put in the crosshairs of critics, leading to the kind of heavy conversations that often evolve from spirited debate into downright vitriol. Especially this time around. That's just part of the deal.
Really through this weight-of-the-world process we often lose sight of why this game means so much to so many. That's where Batting Stance Guy comes in.
His real name is Gar Ryness and I have known him since 2009. That was when, in the early days of WEEI.com, we paid for him to take a three-stop flight to Fort Myers, Fla. from Los Angeles to come to Red Sox spring training. There he supplied us with a tidal wave of batting stance imitations, including a session where the majority of the team gathered around him and simply called out teammates to mirror. Jacoby Ellsbury was called out for constantly agreeing with strike calls against him. Jason Varitek sprinting to the dugout after striking out got a load of laughs. Kevin Youklils' emerged as a BSG hallmark. And, of course, there was the David Ortiz pre-at-bat, spitting-on-the-batting-glove routine.
Daniel Bard took a crack at his own routines with Gar looking on, while Josh Beckett stoically waited out the imitation of Mike Napoli's home run against him. Good times.
A few months later, he was David Letterman's guest.
Since then, Gar has been a constant within the inner-sanctum of MLB teams, both inside and outside their clubhouses. What he does simply scratches right where most baseball fans, and players, itch. (That was surfaced once again when he swung by JetBlue Park a couple of years ago, getting stopped by a then-Single-A minor-leaguer named Ryan Fitzgerald, who got together with the batting stance expert to construct the perfect set-up and swing.)
He makes people enjoy baseball. That was on my mind when asking him to execute my Hall of Fame ballot reveal.
As has always been the case with Gar, he went above and beyond, going so far to sacrificing a sock to simulate Schilling.
As it turned out what he did was more than just help a first-time voter make the process much more than simply putting pen to paper and running to the mailbox. Batting Stance Guy made a lot of folks - including myself - pause and have some fun during a time when baseball isn't exactly oozing entertainment.
You can debate my picks all the live-long day. Go ahead. But what you can't argue with was what Gar helped remind us - why we cared about this game to begin with.