Jimmy Sez

Earlier this month the Baseball Hall of Fame released the 2023 Contemporary Baseball Era ballot . This is their latest iteration of a veterans committee designed to give former players a second chance at enshrinement. The eight-man group up for election is a star-studded cast that includes some former Yankees. Don Mattingly was a Yankee lifer and spent the maximum 15 years on the conventional ballot voted on by the Baseball Writers Association of America ( BBWAA ). His share of the vote steadily declined over that time, but he's a player that was, and still is, adored by his contemporaries. Soon after Mattingly's run on the BBWAA ballot, the rules were changed to a maximum of ten years of eligibility. Roger Clemens spent a full 10 years on the ballot. However, he would have been a first-ballot slam dunk had it not been for the steroid controversy that defined the end of his career. In contrast to Mattingly, he spent only a brief portion of his career with the Yankees and his ...