Mariano Rivera!!!!!

[dal4018]

He made history as the first ever UNANIMOUSLY ELECTED PLAYER INTO THE BASEBALL HALL OF FAME!!!!

[SuperHornet]

Meh. I'll take Sutter, Fingers, Eckersley, and Smith over Rivera any day of the week to close out a game....

[JoltinJoe]

Meh. I'll take Sutter, Fingers, Eckersley, and Smith over Rivera any day of the week to close out a game....

[Ivytalk]

Meh. I'll take Sutter, Fingers, Eckersley, and Smith over Rivera any day of the week to close out a game....

Why don’t you throw in Hoyt Wilhelm and Moe Drabowsky while you’re at it?

[GannonFan]

Hey, Rivera was fantastic, no doubt about it. Deserving of unanimous? Probably, but then again, there's been quite a few players that should've been that. All I know, I was glad to watch perhaps the greatest reliever of all time blow the save in Game 7 of the World Series in 2001 and then not be able to shut the door on the Red Sox in 2004. Even great players can be not so great in big moments.

[Chizzang]

Meh. I'll take Sutter, Fingers, Eckersley, and Smith over Rivera any day of the week to close out a game....

Dennis Eckersley has stated several times publicly
that Mariano Rivera is the best closer the game has ever seen



Eck seems pretty comfortable with that fact

[JoltinJoe]

Hey, Rivera was fantastic, no doubt about it. Deserving of unanimous? Probably, but then again, there's been quite a few players that should've been that.

With more writers making their votes public, it is becoming increasingly possible for bloggers to figure which voter(s) snubbed a sure-thing Hall of Famer, and then subject them to non-stop ridicule and abuse on internet message boards. In the old days, a writer could quietly settle some grudge and no one was the wiser about who did it.

Expect more unanimous choices in the future. But not Jeter. Expect one of those math league nerds to withhold his vote and then defend it by claiming Jeter was a poor defender -- which is a profoundly stupid thing to say. But these are the same guys who think Gene Tenace is a Hall of Famer.

[Ivytalk]

Hey, Rivera was fantastic, no doubt about it. Deserving of unanimous? Probably, but then again, there's been quite a few players that should've been that.

With more writers making their votes public, it is becoming increasingly possible for bloggers to figure which voter(s) snubbed a sure-thing Hall of Famer, and then subject them to non-stop ridicule and abuse on internet message boards. In the old days, a writer could quietly settle some grudge and no one was the wiser about who did it.

Expect more unanimous choices in the future. But not Jeter. Expect one of those math league nerds to withhold his vote and then defend it by claiming Jeter was a poor defender -- which is a profoundly stupid thing to say. But these are the same guys who think Gene Tenace is a Hall of Famer.

Throw in Joe Rudi, and you’ve got a deal!

[Gil Dobie]

With more writers making their votes public, it is becoming increasingly possible for bloggers to figure which voter(s) snubbed a sure-thing Hall of Famer, and then subject them to non-stop ridicule and abuse on internet message boards. In the old days, a writer could quietly settle some grudge and no one was the wiser about who did it.

Expect more unanimous choices in the future. But not Jeter. Expect one of those math league nerds to withhold his vote and then defend it by claiming Jeter was a poor defender -- which is a profoundly stupid thing to say. But these are the same guys who think Gene Tenace is a Hall of Famer.

Throw in Joe Rudi, and you’ve got a deal!

...and not without Sal Bando.

[GannonFan]

Hey, Rivera was fantastic, no doubt about it. Deserving of unanimous? Probably, but then again, there's been quite a few players that should've been that.

With more writers making their votes public, it is becoming increasingly possible for bloggers to figure which voter(s) snubbed a sure-thing Hall of Famer, and then subject them to non-stop ridicule and abuse on internet message boards. In the old days, a writer could quietly settle some grudge and no one was the wiser about who did it.

Expect more unanimous choices in the future. But not Jeter. Expect one of those math league nerds to withhold his vote and then defend it by claiming Jeter was a poor defender -- which is a profoundly stupid thing to say. But these are the same guys who think Gene Tenace is a Hall of Famer.

Who do you think is unanimous? Rivera was the only guy I thought was really a unanimous pick. Jeter's not the same kind of player at his position that Rivera was - don't take that as a knock, Jeter is a sure-fire first ballot HOF'er. But unanimous is a really big thing. I do take your point that transparency means that you are less likely to have errant votes like in the past, but there are still plenty of guys who don't publish their votes and it just takes one to make it not unanimous.

[SuperHornet]

Whoever voted against Bench was an idiot....

[JoltinJoe]

I do take your point that transparency means that you are less likely to have errant votes like in the past, but there are still plenty of guys who don't publish their votes and it just takes one to make it not unanimous.

Yes, but there are so many public votes now such that a little sleuthing might make it possible to determine who omitted a player from their ballot. Griffey was three votes short of unanimous, and a number of bloggers began the process of deducing the identity of those voters. The number of public votes was critical to that process, which became a bit of an obsession. They didn't crack the Griffey riddle, but next time they might.

[GannonFan]

I do take your point that transparency means that you are less likely to have errant votes like in the past, but there are still plenty of guys who don't publish their votes and it just takes one to make it not unanimous.

Yes, but there are so many public votes now such that a little sleuthing might make it possible to determine who omitted a player from their ballot. Griffey was three votes short of unanimous, and a number of bloggers began the process of deducing the identity of those voters. The number of public votes was critical to that process, which became a bit of an obsession. They didn't crack the Griffey riddle, but next time they might.

Then it just cheapens the process. Rivera is arguably the best reliever ever, but there's no way you get close to consensus that Jeter is the best SS of all time. If we start seeing more unanimous selections then it takes a little shine off of something that should be reserved for the really truly all time greats.