Our Hallmark Moments

America has chosen its next leader, but 2008 still has a big election left. December includes the annual voting for induction into the National Baseball Hall of Fame, with pundits and fans conducting the campaign debates. No one loves baseball more than the Observers, and one of them has a say in who goes to Cooperstown.

Artie:I've been going to big-league games for 50 years and finally I get to see a Hall of Fame ballot! How'd you get that?

Frank:I get one every year from the BBWAA.

Artie:Sounds like a horror-movie villain laughing maniacally.

Frank:It's the Baseball Writers' Association of America. Each city with a major-league team has a chapter, and the members are selected writers for newspapers, wire services and some Web sites that cover the team daily.

Artie:So being a gasbag isn't enough?

Frank:Sorry. I got my BBWAA card in 1990, but it takes 10 years of membership to get a Hall of Fame vote. After leaving the Journal Sentinel in '07 I moved into lifetime membership, which lets me keep my vote.

Artie:Sweet! And how do players get on the ballot?

Frank:Everyone who played at least 10 seasons is evaluated by a screening committee five years after they retire. The best go on the ballot. A guy needs at least 5% of the votes to stay on and 75% for induction, with a maximum of 15 years on the ballot.

Artie:And after that?

Frank:There's a veterans category, voted on since 2001 by the living Hall of Famers. They've voted four times and elected no one, to the dismay of Ron Santo. The former Cub third-sacker was nine votes short of 75% this month out of 64 ballots.

Artie:On this year's BBWAA ballot I see 23 names.

Frank:Ten are there for the first time: Jay Bell, David Cone, Ron Gant, Mark Grace, Rickey Henderson, Jesse Orosco, Dan Plesac, Greg Vaughn, Mo Vaughn and Matt Williams.

Artie:Our Brewer heroes, Sac Man and Vaughnie!

Frank:They better enjoy it now. Last year there were 11 first-timers and only Tim Raines made the 5% cut out of 543 ballots. Guys like David Justice, Chuck Knoblauch, Shawon Dunston and Brady Anderson were one-and-done.

Artie:In this bunch of first-timers, only Henderson looks like a certain Hall of Famer, ain'a?

Frank:I'll vote for him, but I'll hold my nose. Rickey's the all-time leader in runs (2,295) and stolen bases (1,406), he has the season record for steals (130) and he passed the 3,000-hit threshold (3,055). But he was a jerk, the poster boy for the "me first" attitude, and he hung around for the express purpose of compiling those stats.

Artie:I see the BBWAA sends you data on the candidates. Among the first-timers, Grace should get more than 5% with his .303 batting average. And maybe Cone, although he pitched 17 years and didn't get to 200 wins (194).

Frank:Among the holdovers, Jim Rice got 72% last year and this is his final ballot. I think he'll get over the top when the tally is announced in January.

Artie:Right behind him was Andre Dawson at 66%.

Frank:In some years I've voted for Dawson (.279, 438 HR) but not Rice (.298, 382 HR) because Dawson was a terrific outfielder and Rice did a lot of DH-ing. But now I vote for them both.

Artie:There's Dave Parker. A career .290 hitter, 339 homers, two batting titles.

Frank:For me, Parker comes up just short of Rice and Dawson. He got only 15% last year. Some guys slowly rise to induction, like Goose Gossage last year. But this is Parker's 13th year.

Artie:How about Alan Trammell? Four-time Gold Glove shortstop, seven years at .300 or better.

Frank:He got 18% last year and I don't expect a big change. Same thing with Dale Murphy: two-time MVP in the '80s with Atlanta, 398 homers, but a .265 hitter.

Artie:Harold Baines and Tim Raines have some good numbers, but not good enough.

Frank:Same for Don Mattingly. As a Yankee fan I love him, but his bad back cut his career short.

Artie:Now for the other pitchers. One in particular!

Frank:I know, it's your favorite Dutchman, Bert Blyleven. This is his 12th year, and last year he got 62%.

Artie:He ranks fifth all-time in strikeouts with 3,701. He's ninth all-time in shutouts (60) and had 242 complete games. He had 287 wins, just shy of the magic 300. True, he had 250 losses, but he pitched for some poor teams. His lifetime ERA is 3.31.

Frank:I've voted for Bert the last couple of years. For a while I couldn't decide among Blyleven, Tommy John, Jack Morris and, a few years back, Don Sutton and Jim Kaat. They were all "many seasons, high numbers," but were they compilers rather than truly outstanding? Sutton, who reached 300 wins, finally made the Hall. Kaat is in the veterans area now, and for me Morris and John don't quite match Blyleven.

Artie:I disagree. Morris and John are Hall-worthy, too.

Frank:The top reliever on the ballot is Lee Smith, and he has my vote. He had 478 saves, third all-time, and a 3.03 ERA.

Artie:Hey, we have only one name left: Mark McGwire. I know he got less than a quarter of the votes in his first two years on the ballot.

Frank:The main reason, of course, is that he's assumed to have been a steroid user. Sadly, he ducked the issue at a congressional hearing in 2005. But he has my vote.

Artie:You think he was clean?

Frank:No, but Major League Baseball didn't take action on steroids until 2003, when a testing program finally began under the labor agreement. Before that, everyone just ignored the issue.

Artie:Still, how do you judge McGwire's accomplishments?

Frank:By the numbers. Lots of guys used steroids but didn't hit 583 homers, eighth all-time. McGwire hit a homer every 10.6 at-bats, which is the best all-time. He had 1,414 RBIs, only 37 fewer than Rice, in 6,187 at-bats, more than two thousand fewer than Rice.

Artie:Impressive, you bet, but tainted.

Frank:McGwire probably used steroids, and that's bad. Many players have used amphetamines, another thing MLB took a long time to ban. Hall of Famer Gaylord Perry threw spitballs, and so did other pitchers. Sammy Sosa wasn't the first guy to cork his bat. Lots of players bend the rules or push the envelope. Where do you draw the line, especially in matters of assumptions rather than hard evidence?

Artie:But didn't McGwire hurt the sport?

Frank:Nobody thought so in 1998, when he and Sosa were rescuing the sport from the effects of the 1994 strike. Everyone-the commissioner, team owners, the players' union, the media, the fans-shoved suspicion aside and enjoyed the home-run race. Mac and Sammy put fannies in seats, money in coffers.

Artie:All right, but then why isn't Pete Rose in the Hall?

Frank:MLB banned Rose from any role in the sport because he gambled on baseball. And the Hall said anyone under such a ban could not be on the ballot. If MLB bans McGwire or Barry Bonds or anyone else, so be it. But as long as someone's on the ballot and I think he's qualified, I'll vote for him.

Artie:Any chance of a Big Mac ban?

Frank:None. This is surprising, but McGwire-unlike Bonds, Sosa, Roger Clemens and more than 80 others-wasn't named in the "Mitchell Report" on drug allegations. And anyway, Bud Selig said in April that no one in the report would be disciplined. He said, "There is little to be gained at this point in debating dated misconduct..."

Artie:Sounds like Gilda Radner, as Emily Litella: "Never mind."

Frank:Or like a guy who said in 2005, "I'm not here to talk about the past."

Artie:Namely, Mark McGwire?

Frank:Exactly. If MLB doesn't want to make ethical judgments, it shouldn't expect the BBWAA to do its dirty work.

Artie:So be it. Big Mac gets my vote, if I had one.

Frank:I'm also voting for Blyleven, Dawson, Henderson, Rice and Smith. Voters can't pick more than 10.

Artie:On my "wanna-ballot," I'll match your picks and add John, Morris, Parker and Trammell. Might as well pretend to the max!