South Side Sox Podcast 135 — The SSS Veterans Committee ballot

On the heels of learning that no one on the 2023 SSS Veterans ballot made the cut, Brett Ballantini quickly assembled our own Veterans Committee proper to try to shove at least one or two players into the Hall. Taking on this prestigious assignment were Malachi Hayes, Dante Jones, Joe Resis and Melissa Sage-Bollenbach. Guaranteed, you won’t see one of our picks coming.

• Go figure; Brett is the softest voter, having supported all 10 on the ballot for the Hall
• Melissa states unequivocally that PED or other cheating associations eliminate players from her consideration; after all, Hall election is a privilege and a responsibility
• Scattered support of David Cone, Bret Saberhagen and Kevin Brown intrigues in the the first half of the podcast, but bites us in the ass in the second half
• Universally supported, without reservation: Kenny Lofton. He’s in
• Our other elected candidate? Reminiscent of the Harold Baines Vet election (although Harold is not nearly as worthy a player), he finished NINTH in SSS reader voting. Not gonna tell you who it was, it’s such a shocker. But like Dick Allen, he wore a helmet in the field
• Going forward, it’s uncertain whether we will continue with the Veterans ballot in the future, as only one candidate of 10 getting more than 40% — and this on a LOADED and worthy ballot, with no limits on how many players you can vote yes on — does not make for a promising future
• But hey, this was fun, and here’s hoping you enjoyed the back-room process of our votes

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