Bert Blyleven's not going to the Hall

The Bert Blyleven quest to join the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown will last at least another year. The National Baseball Hall of Fame election results were announced this afternoon, and for the 11th straight year, Blyleven did not receive enough votes for induction. He did, however, receive his highest percentage of Hall of Fame votes since making the list. He was picked on 61.9 percent of the ballots (336 votes), but he needs 75% to make the Hall.

In fact, only one player was chosen from the ballot by the 543 members of the Baseball Writers' Association of America. After nine years on the ballot, reliever Rich "Goose" Gossage received 85.8 percent (466 votes) to finally earn selection.

Other vote getters that I found interesting:
Jack Morris 233 42.9%
Mark McGwire 128 23.6%
David Justice 1 0.2%
Chuck Knoblauch 1 0.2%

Knoblauch on Fame Ballot

I guess George Mitchell's report on performance enhancing drugs in major league baseball is not all that big of a deal. The news of the report has vanished out of the media and I see that one of the offenders even made it on to the Hall of Fame ballot…Chuck Knoblauch. This is Knobbers first time on the ballot and it will be interesting to see if the voters take into consideration the steroid use report or even the fact that Chuck Knoblauch has been a no-threat player for the past 10 years. Sure in the mid 90’s Chuck Knoblauch was hall of fame material, but the Chuck Knoblauch of late may not be.

Rondell White makes the naughty list

I haven’t talked about George Mitchell's report on performance enhancing drugs in major league baseball, but it seems like everyone else is. Every baseball blog in America is fired up about this report and what it says about their favorite team.

For the Twins, Rondell White made the steroid use list and his $3,500 cancelled check was even published in the report. White is scheduled to retire this winter so it’s not that big of a deal and frankly he didn’t have a record breaking season or anything so he probably got ripped off anyway. Four other former Minnesota Twins players, including all-star second baseman Chuck Knoblauch, were linked to steroid use in the report. Knobbers allegedly bought steroids in 2001 while with the New York Yankees…I always knew he was a bad apple. I can say one thing for certain about this report, it is keeping the MLB front page news during the off-season – do you suppose they believe in the any press is good press philosophy?