1992 was the first Hall of Fame vote I was old enough to fully appreciate and have an informed opinion about. Tom Seaver headlined that freshman class, and it would have been all kinds of crazy if he had not been voted in. I imagine the same could have been true even earlier, if guys like Ernie Banks, Willie Stargell, Johnny Bench and Yaz hadn’t gotten in on the first ballot, but I didn’t see those guys in their prime. I acknowledge that there are many, many great players who didn’t get in immediately, and that always surprised me when I either learned about it for players before my time, or witnessed it myself. In my mind, it should be very easy to determine whether a guy belongs when he is first eligible, but that is just my opinion. I don’t believe writers (and fans) should vote based on whether a guy is worthy of being a “First Ballot Hall of Famer”, but I suspect they do. Either you did enough on the field to be in the Hall of Fame, or you didn’t. It should not be so difficult that a guy has to wait 20 years after retirement, or even 10, to make that determination.
I mean, what are these writers doing with all their time, that they can’t plan ahead for the next ballot and make their decision on who’s getting in??