This has been going on since at least 1946. I'm neither surprised nor concerned. It really all depends upon your viewpoint about what the HOF is or should be. I'm not a small hall guy, so I am sure I am less unhappy than small hall folks are. But I would suggest that even small hall folks would have to acknowledge (grudgingly) that Baines isn't even close to the worst of some of the other folks who have been elected. I understand that I would also get the explanations about why that doesn't or shouldn't matter and how that "waters down" the HOF. But, irrespective of all that, the fact is that the HOF was "watered down" 72 years ago, and, depending on how you view Sisler, maybe 7 years earlier. It happened. Smith and Baines are both members. I'm pretty sure the world isn't going to end because of this vote.
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