It’s Hall of Fame season, and on Purple Row, that means you get to exercise your rights as a citizen and cast a fake Hall of Fame ballot that includes only Juan Pierre. I love democracy!
We posted a community ballot the past two offseasons. In our first round, 122 community members cast ballots. And, according to the real life threshold of 75%, we “elected” Larry Walker, Jeff Bagwell, and Iván Rodríguez. Because the real life vote put Bagwell and Rodríguez in the Hall of Fame, they weren’t included on last year’s Purple Row ballot.
More community members participated last year, 265. That’s great, and I hope we have more this year. But that overall increase may have led to a decrease in votes for Walker. He only received 66% of the community’s support last season. Only Chipper Jones broke the 75% threshold. That means that three guys who received official election — Jim Thome, Vladimir Guerrero, and Trevor Hoffman — didn’t get the honor of our fake election.
Of the 19 players to appear on the ballot for the first time in 2017, only three received the necessary 5% to make it to their second round: Omar Vizquel, Scott Rolen, and Andruw Jones. This year, 20 players appear on the ballot for the first time, including former Rockies players Juan Pierre, Jon Garland, and Roy Oswalt.
Oh, and Todd Helton too. He’s also on the ballot.
You can either vote on this page or follow this link. Once again, we’ll follow Hall of Fame ballot protocol, which means each ballot can contain up to 10 names. The ballot will be open for two weeks, and we’ll follow up with the results soon thereafter. Real ballots are due on December 31, and the 2019 inductees will be announced on January 22.
Happy voting!