Murray Chass, a once-great baseball reporter turned bitter crank, recently revealed his 2013 Hall of Fame ballot in a blog post in which he proudly stated that he did not vote for Craig Biggio or Mike Piazza because he believes that they used steroids. It was the kind of thing that was written specifically to rile up baseball bloggers, and did exactly that. Both Rob Neyer and Craig Calcaterra took the bait, and now Chass has fired up his blogging machine yet again to repond to their critiques. In this one, he succinctly sums up everything that is so broken and dysfunctional about the Hall of Fame voting process.
There's no need to wade too deeply into Chass' deep pool of bullshit, but attention needs to be called to his closing thoughts (emphasis mine):
Finally, an announcement that will disappoint Neyer, Calcaterra and the reader who, like those two bloggers, said they were delighted that this was the last time I would be voting for the Hall of Fame. Sorry, guys I never made it definite.
I said "barring a change in my thinking," this could be my last vote. My thinking has changed, and all of you critics can blame yourselves. How could I relinquish my vote knowing how much it annoys you? I plan to vote a year from now even if I just send in a blank ballot. You would love that.
Anyone still want to argue that the Hall of Fame election process isn't a mockery and a farce that deserves to be subverted in every way possible?