XM MLB Chat: "The best of all time at his position. Mo. The one and only on this year’s ballot"-Dan Shaughnessy, Boston Globe, 1/20/19

1/20/19, "This time around, only one candidate is worthy," Boston Globe, By Dan Shaughnessy

Mariano Rivera
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Sorry. I know we’re allowed to vote for as many as 10 players, and it’s certainly trendy to vote for the max, then protest that you wish you could vote for more, but I have never shared this feeling. In my view, we are not charged to vote for the 10 best players on the ballot. We are asked to determine who is Hall of Fame-worthy.

After much thought, debate, and consultation, (I called three former players who are in the Hall of Fame), I cast a vote for one player: Yankees closer Mariano Rivera.

Call it the Harold Baines Effect if you want....The Baines Effect has me choosing the single player on this ballot who is clearly Hall-worthy and appears not to have cheated the game.

The ever-regal Rivera was clutch and dominant — the best of all time at his position.

Mo.

The one and only on this year's ballot."

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Added: Above is excerpt from Boston Globe article including its five writers/voters:

1/20/19, "One player is a lock. Then the 2019 Baseball Hall of Fame vote gets tricky." Boston Globe

Five Boston Globe voters: Peter Abraham, Nick Cafardo, Bob Hohler, Bob Ryan, Dan Shaughnessy

"Here's now the [five] Globe writers voted in this year’s election"

"Mariano Rivera is a Baseball Hall of Famer; the five Globe writers with votes in the annual election agree on that. From there it gets tricky, and that reflects the complexity of the ballot this year.

The Hall of Fame will reveal the choices made by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America at 6 p.m. Tuesday. Those players with at least 75 percent of the votes will join Harold Baines and Lee Smith, who were elected by the Today’s Game Era Committee last month.

The Hall allows for secret ballots. But in the interest of transparency, here are the decisions made by the Globe writers with their explanations.

Players we voted for:

5 votes

Mariano Rivera

1 year on ballot

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4 votes