Corky Simpson's Non-Vote for Rickey Henderson

This past Tuesday, Corky Simpson of the Green Valley News and Sun made his Hall of Fame ballot publicly available. I don't typically pay much attention to the Hall of Fame because the silliness that goes on with the voting went past my tipping point for caring several years ago. However, Rob Neyer had a blog post about the ballot so I paid attention. Simpson didn't vote for Rickey Henderson. I can't understand why somebody wouldn't vote for Henderson, but I didn't expect Rickey to get a unanimous vote anyway. Here's where I get frustrated about his non-vote.

Today on InsideBayArea.com, Carl Steward has an article titled "Voter: I made a mistake not voting for Rickey Henderson." Before reading the article, I thought, OK, he made a mistake in reviewing Henderson's credentials and found him unqualified for the Hall of Fame. I don't know how you could make such an oversight, but that's what happened.

That's not what the article is about. Here's a few quotes from the article:

1. "First things first, would I vote for Rickey if I had it to do all over again? Damn right, I would," Simpson said. "I had no idea my ballot would cause such an uproar."

2. Green Valley News sportswriter Nick Prevenas said he warned Simpson about leaving Henderson off his ballot when he filed the column, but Simpson told him he "wasn't a Rickey guy and that he would vote for him next time."

3. "If I had properly researched the situation, I would have voted for Rickey Henderson if for no other reason than he played for nine ball teams," [Simpson] said. "Imagine that. He'll be the first Hall of Famer to have a bronze bust with nine caps stacked on his head."

Let's takes those one at a time. First, in #1, he states that if given the opportunity, he would have given into peer pressure and voted for Rickey Henderson. Shouldn't he have done his due diligence enough to stand by his ballot regardless of public response?

In #2, when filing his column, he was warned about leaving Rickey off the ballot and replied that he would vote for him next time. I've never understood why somebody intentionally doesn't vote for someone in their first year but plans to vote for him the following year, but that's not really my point here. What makes him think there will be a next time? Everyone with half a clue about baseball knows that Rickey's going in this year.

In #3, he makes a few frustrating statements.

"If I had properly research the situation...." Mr. Simpson, it is your responsibility to do the proper research for your Hall of Fame ballot. As a member of the BBWAA, you've been given the opportunity to vote for the Hall of Fame with the expectations that you will "properly research the situation."

"I would have voted for Rickey Henderson if for no other reason than he played for nine ball teams." Seriously? You would have voted for a guy because he played for nine teams? Really? So you'd vote for Mike Morgan who played for 12 teams? You know, if he ever appears on a ballot? I guess Morgan did play for the 2001 World Series Champion Arizona Diamondbacks with Matt Williams (whom Simpson did vote for despite not voting for Mark McGwire due to chemical enhancement; I guess he missed this).

Corky Simpson's ballot is a disgrace. Hopefully, he'll take next year's ballot a little more seriously.

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Addendum: Jon Heyman was asked about this on Hot Stove last night. Here's his reponse: "You don't have to pass an IQ test to get a ballot. I'm assuming he's just not all there. He didn't pay attention. There's really no excuse."