It’s D-Day for Edgar
I’m afraid there will be no joy in Mariner Nation today.
From all indications, ultra-popular MAriners icon Edgar Martinez will fall short in his first year of eligibility for the Hall of Fame. The Class of ’10 will be announced at 11 a.m. (PT), televised by MLB Network and streamed by MLB.com.
I had been holding out hope that a large majority of my long-time baseball-writing colleagues — at least 75 percent of them — put an “X” in the box next to Edgar’s name on the Hall of Fame ballot.
My hope diminished a little bit after talking to or getting e-mails from seven of the most recent scribes inducted into the HOF as J.G. Taylor Spink Award winners and only four of them voted for Gar. My hopes were dashed a lot more this morning when I logged on to my home page (MLB.com of course) and saw how my BAM colleagues voted.
Of the 14 eligible voters, only three of us — Barry Bloom, T.R. Sullivan and myself — voted for Edgar. And three out of fourteen is not conducive to being selected.
The good news is that Martinez surely will get far more than the five percent needed to be on the ballot next year and history tells us that the chances are pretty good that he eventually will make it to Cooperstown. There is a 15-year window of opportunity before the Veterans Committee takes over.
I am 100 percent certain that Martinez is a Hall of Famer and Randy Johnson agrees.
I asked him during Tuesday’s national conference call announcing his retirement about what he knew about the current HOF candidates and went to bat for his former Mariners teammate.
“I know one player coming up (for vote), Edgar Martinez,” he said. “I’m hoping he gets a lot of consideration. I know it has been debated whether a DH is worthy of that. During my time, I’ve never seen a better hitter, a better pure hitter, than him.
“That’s no disrespect to other teammates I’ve had or people I’ve played against, but anyone from that era who watched Edgar realizes what a good hitter he was. I’ll be pulling for him, because I know what he meant when I was on the mound.”
That’s a pretty solid endorsement, wouldn’t you say?
— Jim Street
Street's Corner 
Hi Jim, you?re one of my favorite writers to read on MLB, you have great insight, but I have a bone to pick?how in the world did you not vote for Alan Trammell for the HOF? I see you voted for Larkin, but not Tram, the leader and best player on the best and most dominating team of the 80?s. Let me ask you this, would the Tigers have ever traded Trammell for Larkin straight up, ever? No. Let?s take it a step further; would the Tigers have traded Trammell for Ozzie Smith straight up? Never. I don?t get how Smith is a 1st ballot HOFer, and Trammell is stuck in the 20% range. Is the HOF vote just a popularity contest, like prom queen or student council president in high school, or do people actually look at stats? Has anyone even compared Ozzie Smith (Mr. 1st ballot HOFer), to Trammell? Trammell smokes him in almost every single offensive category, and don?t give me the defense. Trammell was a 4 time GG winner. The only thing I can see, is that Trammell didn?t do back flips.
Jim, please please please do me a favor, and look at Trammell?s stats next year when it?s time to vote. I bet you might be surprised what you find. Trammell is one of the 10 best SS to ever play the game.
Keep up the great work, and let?s get ready for some baseball!!!!