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Sure, spring training can still be an idyllic experience. Baseball. Sun. Relaxation. An escape from winter. But the pennies you'll pay to enjoy it are getting prettier all the time.

Is this a sad day for baseball? Maybe not. There will be another election next year and one the year after that. I presume onward into the future players will get elected. But this year? The Baseball Writers' Association of America struck out. Nob...

I reached the 10-year mark as a member of the Baseball Writers Association of America in 2010, earning -- or at least qualifying for -- a Hall of Fame vote. The minute I got my first ballot, jammed into that big, yellow envelope with the antique scr...

USA TODAY Sports, Getty Images Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens and Mike Piazza all have been scrutinized by Hall of Fame voters. Here are the players appearing on my ballot for the Hall of Fame: 1. Jeff Bagwell 2. Craig Biggio 3. Jack Morris 4. Da...

It's difficult enough to get three people to agree on anything, let alone 573. So the fact that the Baseball Writers' Association of America managed to push Barry Larkin past the 75 percent threshold to elect him into the Hall of Fame is a minor m...

I'm not an actual Hall of Fame voter. But if I did have a ballot, here's what it would look like. Yes votes Jeff Bagwell: He's vastly overqualified by even tough Hall of Fame standards, an outstanding all-around player who was one of the very b...

I want to consider Lee Smith's Hall of Fame question fairly. But I keep returning to what I think is the obvious question: Would you really rather have Lee Smith on your team than Barry Larkin or Alan Trammell or Edgar Martinez or Tim Raines or Berni...

There are a lot of misunderstandings about the Hall of Fame and its voting procedures and results, beginning with the little fact that baseball was not, of course, actually invented in Cooperstown, N.Y., in 1839 by a future Civil War general named Ab...

Former AL batting champions Bernie Williams and Bill Mueller are among 13 newcomers on baseball's 2012 Hall of Fame ballot, joining top holdovers Barry Larkin, Jack Morris, Lee Smith and Jeff Bagwell.

Three consecutive games of imperfect humanity? Say it ain't so, Mo!

The recent votes for the Hall of Fame have seemed to engender a lot of controversy. Whether it's Bert Blyleven finally getting in thanks to the efforts of sabermetricians such as Rich Lederer and Jay Jaffe, angry disagreements over the BBWAA's elect...

In the latest entry in Joe Posnanski's Hall of Fame blowout, Joe gives the thumbs-down -- reluctantly, I'm sure, because Joe's such a nice guy -- to Harold Baines, John Franco, Juan Gonzalez, Don Mattingly, John Olerud, Dave Parker, Lee Smith, and .....

Brian Fuentes is still the Angels' closer -- despite blowing his first post-DL save.

Honestly, I can't remember seeing the baseball writers as worked up about anything as they are about Roberto Alomar. Here's Ken Rosenthal with a fairly representative opinion: Our membership is too bloated, too riddled with voters who do not tak...

Hall of Fame balloting does not exist in a vacuum. Now that Rich Gossage is in, more people will wonder about Lee Smith. Lee Smith did save 168 more games than Gossage. But a lot of guys saved more games than Gossage, who's just 17th on the all-tim...

Blog | Conversation | January 08, 2008

Trevor Hoffman became baseball's career saves leader on Sunday, earning No. 479 to pass Lee Smith and help the NL West-leading San Diego Padres beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 2-1.