January 25th, 2023 at 8:00 am 
by Ron Cervenka When the 2023 Baseball Hall of Fame ballot was released back on November 21, 2022, you didn’t have to look at it long or hard to notice two very important things:
- There were several confirmed cheaters on it;
- There was one name on it of a player who absolutely positively deserved to be in the Sacred Halls of Cooperstown.
(National Baseball Hall of Fame)
Lo and behold, on Tuesday evening when the Hall of Fame Class of 2023 was officially announced (as voted on by the Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA), none of those confirmed cheaters made it into the Hall and that one player did.
That one player is (now) 47-year-old Scott Rolen who, in his sixth year of eligibility (out of 10), received 76.3 percent of the 75 percent votes required to achieve baseball immortality.
During his remarkable 17-year MLB career, the Evansville, IN native and second-round draft pick in 1993 by the Philadelphia Phillies out of Jasper High School in Jasper, IN spent seven seasons with the Phillies, six with the St. Louis Cardinals, four with the Cincinnati Reds, and two with the Montreal Expos, posting a remarkable career slash line of .281 / .364 / .490 / .855, with 316 home runs and 1,287 RBIs in his combined 2,038 Major League games played and combined 7,398 Major League at-bats.
Among Rolen’s 2,038 games played, 85 were against the Dodger, against whom he slashed an outstanding .309 / .375 / .534 / .909, with 14 home runs and 56 RBIs.
(John Grieshop)
Rolen will join (now) 59-year-old / 19-year MLB veteran first baseman Fred McGriff on Hall of Fame Induction Day on July 23, 2023 in Cooperstown, NY. ‘Crime Dog’ (as McGriff was affectionately known) was unanimously voted into the Hall by the 16-person Contemporary Era Committee in December.
Shortly after the announcement that Rolen had (narrowly) been voted into the Hall of Fame, this video clip of his family’s reaction to the announcement went viral on Twitter:
The entire staff at ThinkBlueLA.com sends our heartiest congratulations to Scott Rolen (and his family) on his historic accomplishment. He did it The Right Way.
Play Ball!
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Posted in 
Congrats to Scott Rolen. Good choice for the HOF. Jeff Kent should have gotten in. He will have to wait for the Veterans Committee in 2025. Happy none of the roiders got in and I hope they never do. Especially A-Fraud. Not a big fan of Andruw Jones getting in either.
Exactly right on every point. Huge injustice to have DH Harold Baines in the HOF and Kent waiting for a veterans committee. Baines has set the bar for offensive players and Kent by that standard should be a shoe-in for Cooperstown. Only reason I can think of is that Kent’s awful attitude ticked-off too many sports journalists over his playing career.
Kent getting in Barry Melonheads grill should get him in the HOF. Harold Baines getting in really lowered the bar. What a joke.
I think if you have to think about a player getting in the HOF for more than a couple of minutes, they don’t belong in.
I think that is why they have a five year waiting period after a player/manager retires before voting. It causes voters to reflect back on the players career in comparison to others of the same generation of players.
There are some who believe that Todd Helton should have been voted in, but unfortunately, he put up his massive numbers right in the middle of “The Steroid Era.” As such, he will forever be under suspicion of having used PEDs.
That being said, I believe that Helton will eventually get in, either before he drops off the ballot in 2029, or via the Veterans Committee.
I wonder if there isn’t a stigma attached to Helton that will never go away – the Coors Field factor. While Helton was a terrific hitter, his power numbers nose dived when the Rockies kept game baseballs in a humidor room, starting in 2002. Another Coors Field factor — at home Helton’s wRC+ (Fangraphs) was 136 — clearly HOF worthy, but away from Coors it was 121 — still very good, but only borderline HOF. I like Helton, but I wonder what Steve Garvey’s stats would have been if his home ball park had been Coors Field?
Now a Baseball Hall of the Very Good.
2 players side by side
player 1 player 2
bavg 281 294
hr 316 272
rbi 1287 1308
hits 2077 2599
100 rbi 5 each
200 hit seasons 6 for player 2
mvp
Rolen vs Garvey
Excellent point. One factor to consider, Garvey had approximately 1,000 more plate appearances than Rolen. Nonetheless, good argument can be made for Garvey
What’s more amazing is the argument against Garvey is that he didn’t walk much. But runs scored would adjust for that. Rolen despite a way higher obp and 42 more career homers only scored 40 more runs if you deduct the homers. So his obp produced very few runs. If you add the 21 more RBI for Garvey they produced the same number of runs.
Garvey also won.an MVP, all kinds of Playoff honors and was in the top 4 of MVP voting 4 times.
More Hall inconsistency:
Willie Randolph career War is double
Bill Mazeroski. Mazeroski I believe
Is at the top of the list of mistakes by the Hall Voters(veterans committee.
Mazeroski got in because he was arguably the best fielding second baseman of all time during a generation where fielding was of greater importance that it has been for the last few decades. I remember Vin Scully raving about Mazeroski’s defense and then there was his walkout home run to defeat the heavily favored Yankees in the 1960 World Series.
2023 voting — how in the world does Houston Street and Bronson Arroyo even get 1 vote? SMH
Why is Phil Rizzuto in the HOF. His inclusion is a joke.
Excellent point! Old East Coast writers bias towards Yankees dynasty.