Thursday, January 19, 2017

Thursday Morning Hot Links: Hall of Fame Edition

He made it! July 30, 2017 will see the indications of Jeff Bagwell, Tim Raines, and Pudge Rodriguez into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

*ESPN: What made Bagwell a Hall of Famer?

*Bagwell and Biggio made a conscious decision to play their entire careers in Houston.

*"It's just kind of surreal right now." - Bagwell.

Fun note from the above link: Bagwell and Biggio are the 4th pair of teammates in Cooperstown to each play together for at least 15 years, joining Roberto Clemente and Bill Mazeroski (Pittsburgh), Carl Hubbell and Mel Ott (Giants), Whitey Ford and Mickey Mantle (Yankees).

*Alyson Footer, on Bagwell with reactions from Berkman, Moises Alou, Ausmus, and Adam Everett.

*Richard Justice: Bagwell's humility matched his competitive fire, with a fun story from Berkman about Bagwell/Biggio's Good Cop/Bad Cop mentality.

*Jerry Crasnick: With election, deep wounds are closing for Bagwell

*Jeff Bagwell: Slugger/Style Icon

*The Ringer: Where were you when Bagwell, Pudge, and Raines made their MLB debuts?

*Hardball Times: HOF plaques reflect that day's style

*McTaggart: Clemens needs a bigger push

*Jeff Passan: How the internet helped get Tim Raines elected

*Rosenthal: The PED wall is crumbling

*Jesse Spector: HOF voting will only get more contentious

*Curt Schilling got in a Twitter fight with a fake Sydney Ponson.