Vote: Who are the 25 best players not in the Baseball Hall of Fame? – SportingNews.com

Monday’s announcement that the Pre Integration Era Committee elected no one to the Baseball Hall of Fame for 2016 is a reminder of what, historically, has long since been the case: Baseball has one of the most restrictive Hall of Fames in sports. More than 18,000 people have played in the majors and countless others contributed to the national pastime, but just 310 people are enshrined.

With such a fickle rate of induction, a lot of arguably worthy candidates wind up on the outside looking in with Cooperstown. In fact, it might be harder than many people realize to select a small group of players as the best of the best among non-enshrined.

Since 2010, I’ve run a project four times at my baseball history website having people vote on the 50 best players not in the Hall of Fame. This year, I’ve decided to up the stakes and have people vote on the 25 best players not enshrined. I want people agonizing over tough decisions: Jim Edmonds or Dwight Evans; Trevor Hoffman or Lee Smith; Jeff Bagwell or Fred McGriff, though I invite people to vote any way and for whoever they’d like.

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That being said, a few important instructions for voting:

• You must vote for 25 players. Next to each of the 25 players you vote for, put a “Y” or “N” to signify if they belong in the Hall of Fame. Please doublecheck spelling, include first and last names, and include suffixes like Jr. or Sr.
• Please submit votes HERE. A 200-player ballot can be found HERE.
• Write-in votes are welcome. Please feel free to write in any player who hasn’t played since 2010. A player need not have played 10 seasons or even in the majors to be eligible here.
• All votes are due by Dec. 28 at 6 p.m.ET. Results will be unveiled Jan. 4, two days before the Baseball Writers’ Association of America announces the results of its 2016 election.

Feel free to contact me at thewomack@gmail.com with any questions.

‘Cooperstown Chances’ examines the Baseball Hall of Fame case of one candidate each week. Series author and Sporting News contributor Graham Womack writes regularly about the Hall of Fame and other topics related to baseball history at his website,  Baseball: Past and Present  . Follow him on Twitter: @grahamdude .