Today three former MLB players made their way into the National Baseball Hall of Fame. All three players were on the ballot for the first time and will soon be forever enshrined in Cooperstown.
Former Atlanta Braves pitchers Tommy Glavine and Greg Maddox both went in with over 90% of the votes. Former 1B/DH Frank Thomas who played most of his career for the Chicago White Sox got in as well with just under 84% of the vote.
While all three players had terrific careers and have numbers which compare well to the other members of Cooperstown in their respective positions, there is also something that they had going for them that some of the other nominees did not. What is that you say? All three players consistently had their games nationally broadcast on cable television. Living outside of Boston I grew up watching the Braves as we only had basic cable and you had to pay extra for NESN. Yes, Friday night games were on channel 38, but just about every night of the week you could tune in to TBS to see local boy Tommy Glavine and his team play.
Back then, another great channel to get a sports fix was WGN out of Chicago. You didn't need to pay any extra to see Chicago sports teams even if you lived across the country. Although I mostly remember seeing the Cubs on WGN, it appears the White Sox were back to being broadcast by them in the 90s after having a falling out in the years before.
Now not that I think any of these players shouldn't be in the HOF, I just have to wonder if the ballots weren't stuffed due to them being household names all across the country compliments of TBS and WGN.
While all three players had terrific careers and have numbers which compare well to the other members of Cooperstown in their respective positions, there is also something that they had going for them that some of the other nominees did not. What is that you say? All three players consistently had their games nationally broadcast on cable television. Living outside of Boston I grew up watching the Braves as we only had basic cable and you had to pay extra for NESN. Yes, Friday night games were on channel 38, but just about every night of the week you could tune in to TBS to see local boy Tommy Glavine and his team play.
Back then, another great channel to get a sports fix was WGN out of Chicago. You didn't need to pay any extra to see Chicago sports teams even if you lived across the country. Although I mostly remember seeing the Cubs on WGN, it appears the White Sox were back to being broadcast by them in the 90s after having a falling out in the years before.
Now not that I think any of these players shouldn't be in the HOF, I just have to wonder if the ballots weren't stuffed due to them being household names all across the country compliments of TBS and WGN.
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