Based on its voting record during the past five years, I would not be shocked if the Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA) votes Casey Blake into the Hall of Fame on the first ballot. In this scenario, the candidacy of Tim Raines ends with a whimper, and Manny Ramirez is tossed into a box in the basement labeled, “tainted”.
There are other Hall of Famers who deserve overwhelming support — Mike Mussina, Edgar Martinez, and Jeff Bagwell come to mind — but I’d like to focus on the case of the two left fielders not named Barry.