Detroit — The 11 longtime newspaper writers tasked with creating the just-released Modern Baseball Era Hall of Fame ballot are taking some serious heat this week.
Namely, baseball fans and experts across the country, and not just in Detroit, are dismayed by the exclusion of legendary Tigers second baseman Lou Whitaker for consideration.
The Historical Overview Committee was limited to 10 names on the ballot, to be reviewed by another panel at next week's winter meetings at Disney World. And they settled on 10 names that didn't include Whitaker, even though his statistics — old-school and new-age, particularly Wins Above Replacement (WAR) — would objectively put him atop any such list.