Sez Me …

With very little reluctance, this was going to be my final year voting for the Baseball Hall of Fame — if Trevor Hoffman didn’t get in.

Apparently living on the wrong coast, I’m too old to continue throwing up my hands — and I have a bum shoulder.

But the Hall announced Wednesday that the great Padres closer, a terrific human being, a credit to his team, profession and city, who outworked stage dancers to keep fit, and later in his game developed an impossible pitch, is in.


So I’m still in.

On his third try — it was a joke he had to wait so long — Trevor finished fourth in the balloting of 422 baseball writers, behind Chipper Jones, Vlad Guerrero and Jim Thome, with 79.9 percent of a vote in which 75 percent is required for induction (about 6 percent more than he received a year ago).

Just what qualified him now? Did he collect more saves during retirement? I’d vote for Trevor if he did what he did over his career in Miami, where he began as a shortstop. He was a Himalaya among pebbles.

Games basically were over when he appeared.


I’ve said this before. If I don’t vote for a player the first time he makes the ballot, I’m never voting for him. You can vote for 10. I can’t remember voting for 10.

To vote, you must be a member of the Baseball Writers Association of America for 10 years. I’ve been a voter for 33 years. I don’t like the process. I don’t know how it can be fixed, either.

But, as evidenced by the two-year shun of Hoffman — primarily because closers to some writers are considered ball boys — many of them have no idea what they’re doing and shouldn’t be voting at all.

One anti-Hoffman voter explained in print: “Closers are specialists, and specialists need to go beyond being among the best of their era to get my vote. Hoffman was great at pitching one inning for teams that were more often than not mediocre.”


I fail to see what being on mediocre or bad teams has to do with it. If anything, gathering 601 saves on mostly bad-to-average teams is more impressive than Mariano Rivera doing it on Yankees powerhouses.

Jones, who got a higher percentage of votes than Willie Mays — and just about everyone ever — joins three fellow Braves (plus a GM and manager) in the Hall who won one ring. Guerrero had one. Thome none.

The above writer did, however, cast a vote for Edgar Martinez. Specialist? Edgar, a terrific batsman, was a designated hitter. If a DH isn’t a specialist, what is? Edgar never won anything, either.

I will not vote for a DH. You don’t pick up a fielder’s glove, you don’t play baseball.


Get used to closers. The exorbitant pitching ace will go the way of the carburetor. One day, we may see nine “closers” over nine innings. We are navigating along that course.

Trevor Belongs. He just belonged sooner, is all. …

Cheaters in the Hall? If you were a teacher and caught a student cheating on a test, would you give the kid an A? …

Problem is, there has to be at least one player in the Hall who had some sort of pharmaceutical enhancement. The wicket is sticky. …


Twenty Hall voters completely left Ted Williams off the first ballot. …

From Tracy Ringolsby: Jack Morris is the only HOF pitcher who never threw to a pitcher in a regular season game. …

You know the Pro Bowl is serious when Drew Brees is on the field doing pre-”practice” exercises with his kids. …

The Brady-Belichick Patriots haven’t scored in the first-quarter in any of their seven Super Bowls. …


If Derek Jeter played for and didn’t run the Marlins, he’d get rid of himself. Fire sale? This is baseball’s Three Mile Island. ...

Trevor going into the Hall isn’t a cure for what ails San Diego sports, but it’s a help. Weeks into 2018 we’re already better than 2017. …

I’d welcome an XFL team, but I’m afraid they’d name it the Gulls and after 56 years it would move to Yuma. …

If the NFL isn’t very good, what will XFL football be like? …


Bob Costas, not big on football, says he didn’t want to be a part of NBC’s Super Bowl coverage. But the best studio guy ever not leading the network’s Winter Olympics team is like the Dodgers not starting Koufax in the Series. ...

The NFL never will have a team in Athens. Greece’s national anthem has 158 verses. If players knelt for that, they wouldn’t be able to walk for a month. ....

Stink O’ The Week Segment: Journalism is dying. If not for journalists (Indianapolis Star), “Dr.” Larry Nassar still would be free to molest little girls. …

Nassar says he’s sorry. No, he isn’t…


Before Michigan State President Lou Anna Simon submitted her “resignation” over the Nassar scandal, the school’s Magoo board of trustees, seeing no dirt under her nails, gave Simon a hall pass, saying she’s a great fundraiser, getting the basketball arena built. Colleges. Nothing matters but higher learning. …

Universities, among all institutions, should listen to kids crying for help. ...

In his disappointing State of the State speech, Jerry Brown failed to mention he’s backing San Diego’s Bullet Bike Lanes. …

Rashaad Penny stock jumped many dollars in the Senior Bowl …


Meryl Streep would be nominated for an Oscar playing one of the Stooges. ...

Vegas is about to get yet another arena, an 18,500-seater. Our Civic Theater, not exactly the Paris Opera House, opened in 1965.

sezme.godfather@gmail.com; Twitter: @sdutCanepa

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