Thoughts about Hall of Fame voting that does not involve Gary Cherone

Tony Gwynn should have received more votes than Cal Ripken, whose greatest contribution to the game was a glorified "perfect attendance" certificate that elementary school students receive with juice and cookies.

I wouldn't say Cal isn't a Hall of Famer, but Goose Gossage had a more impressive career. Goose is better than Bruce Sutter, but baseball writers don't seem to be getting the message. I want automatic Hall of Fame induction for any player with a water fowl-related nickname.

And Don Mattingly got less than 10 percent of the vote. If Mattingly had played for the Minnesota Twins, he'd get 80 percent of the vote, because of the same Midwest Morneau Mentality and anti-Yankee sentiment that cost Derek Jeter the title of MVP this year.