Chicago Baseball Podcast

Cooperstown granted Adrian Serrano at least part of his Soxivus miracle on Sunday, as Minnie Miñoso was elected off of the Golden Days Era ballot.

There was a lot of good (Minnie!) and some bad (Dick Allen falls short!), and Joe Resis and Brett Ballantini join in the fun, talking ballots and even winding up with a little bit of SSS Veterans’ ballot chat:

• Bittersweet timing, but Minnie is finally in. How much did the Negro Leagues recognition earlier this year play a role?
• Another thing the Golden Days Era Committee got right (unlike the Early Baseball Committee) was taking a loaded ballot and making sure four players got in — is this the new trend?
• Allen fell one vote short, for the second straight try; not if but when for him, but jeez, it’s been 21 ballots for him now
• Will Billy Pierce gain support similar to Minnie’s in future elections?
• Southpaw speed round: Who gets in the Hall first, Mark Buehrle or Pierce?
• SSS has pivoted on how it puts together its “loaded” Veterans’ ballots; should Cooperstown take note?

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On the heels of last week’s Meet the Players podcast with Adrian Serrano, Brett Ballantini is right back at it today with another site stalwart, Zach Hayes. Get to know Zach a bit by revisiting his Meet the Players article that originally ran last July, as you listen to the podcast:

• While Brett was trying to grow a playoff beard in 2000, Zach was getting his first memories of the White Sox, brief though that “playoff run” was
• Kismet: Zach and Brett were both in attendance at Mark Buehrle’s perfect game — Zach in fact in Brett’s previous season ticket section!
• You might think a baseball intellectual like Zach would pick any movie but Major League as his fave diamond flick, but you’d be wrong. Our ace analyst explains himself
• So, is Buerhle a Hall-of-Famer? Both Zach and Brett try to squelch amusement and disgust at the mere question
• What’s the key to taking dry analysis and injecting it with color enough that an average fan can grasp it? Zach knows it, as evidenced in his work here, and he shares some thoughts (hint: no, he doesn’t really like the numbers as much as the storytelling)
• You heard it here first: To SEE RED in 2022, the White Sox will bring back the baby blue zipper roadies and the red pinstripes
• Zach WILL NOT be Nightengaled
• Finally: room for optimism regarding this latest labor impasse? In fact, for reasons freely shared here: yes.

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Boy howdy, we’re back, and when not modeling delicious South Side Hit Pen White Sox ware, we’re trying to catch up with the breathless pace of Hot Stove action. Including two big White Sox moves!

Ahem.

In the second half, we dig into the likely outcomes of the Golden Days Era ballot, announced on Sunday, and debate whether Minnie Miñoso or Dick Allen will make the cut this time.

It’s a jam-packed podcast:

• Did Rick Hahn forge the agreement with Kendall Graveman, then just put his phone on DO NOT DISTURB?
• Hey, Leury’s back!
• Indeed, friends, those blood-curdling screams you heard wafting up from down south were Chrystal’s plaintive cries for impact players
• Slick pivot, Detroit, from the riches of Carlos Correa to the no-look tags of Javy Báez
• Is it Minnie Miñoso’s time to finally shine by being enshrined? Or will Dick Allen get the call on Sunday? Both? Neither?
• The utter aggravation of election worthy Hall-of-Famers ... when they’re dead and unable to bask in the glory
• Rest in peace, LaMarr Hoyt, Winning Ugly ace
• Bonus round: Wake up to the horrors of domestic violence, MLB

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A true maverick of the metrics world, Adam Darowski (Hall of Stats, Sports-Reference, Building the Ballot podcast) joins Brett Ballantini on our 75th program, reviewing four White Sox on the precipice of the Hall of Fame and pulling back to take a look at the processes that have created such a backlog of great candidates.

We start with some broad Hall of Fame discussion, then hone in on the four White Sox on the Golden Days Era ballot, with results announced on December 5:

• The emotion that drove Adam to start Hall of Stats a decade ago, and how some of his anger toward the flawed election process has tempered over time
• Darowski’s preferences: big Hall, small gatekeeping
• The process and emotions behind the groundbreaking change, led by Seamheads and validated by Baseball-Reference, to officially elevate the Negro Leagues to major status
• After years of the “unelected till dead” habit of Hall voters, are we on the precipice of a direction change, with the experts making an effort to enshrine living legends?
• Is it Minnie Miñoso’s time to finally shine by being enshrined? It seems a no-brainer, but ... not so fast
• Adam executes an apropos “Minnie rant” that illustrates how ludicrous it is that the White Sox legend is still not a Hall-of-Famer
• Worthy of mention: Minnie show-and-tell
• The most likely White Sox player to get in? Per Adam’s gut, it’s Dick Allen. Adam also reminds us that DICK ALLEN COULD CRUSH THE BALL
• Looking at worthiness, not likelihood or any oddsmaking, Darowski tabs Billy Pierce fourth on his ballot. While the great southpaw won’t be elected next month, increased awareness of his greatness (e.g., a near-identical regular season career as HOFer Whitey Ford) could bode well for his future immortality
• And we take a detour to examine the career of Jim Kaat, a brief but tremendous White Sox hurler. His 16 Gold Gloves simply have to be a typo. Through at least one lens, Kaat is the most likely to make the cut this vote.
• Oh yeah, and during the podcast, we did claim Adam off of waivers, so he will be bringing his punk rock chops to band rehearsal, and ... well, actually, we can’t afford him, but we made the claim anyway. Hopefully, we can at least talk again soon!

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With the results of both our South Side Sox Hall of Fame results and the BBWAA election of David Ortiz, we’re wrapping up all our Hall talk with this podcast, featuring the Indianapolis Field Office of Chrystal O’Keefe and Joe Resis, with moderator-trying-not-to-erupt-in-expletives Brett Ballantini:

• The pros and cons of Ortiz in on the first ballot
• The hypocrisy of Ortiz in on the first ballot, vis-a-vis at least Barry Bonds
• Bye-bye Bonds, Roger Clemens, Sammy Sosa, Curt Schilling
• Mark Buehrle survives ... but so does Torii Hunter
• A rollout of our new vote this week, Best Baseball Movies, released concurrent with this podcast: Favorites, sleeper picks, least favorites
• White Sox news: Welcome, Oscar Colás and Erick Hernández! How soon can you make it to the South Side?

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