NEW YORK — The Baseball Writers’ Association election of Scott Rolen to the Hall of Fame this week created a goodly share of controversy and consternation among the baseball populace, and once again it got me to wonder why it’s become so complicated.
Call me a “small Hall” or “exclusivity” guy if you will, but in voting on the Hall of Fame since 1977, I have always had two very simple criteria: (1) The “see test” no-brainers — players who played the game clean and had the magic numbers like 3,000 hits, 300 wins (which we will never see again) and a lot of “denotes led league” boldface in their record; players I considered Hall of Famers just by watching them for 15-20 years.
(2) Absent those historic numbers, players who dominated the game at their position.
