Thirty-six percent of baseball writers can't be wrong

Cooperstown will have to wait another year.

The Baseball Writers Association of American (BWAA) selected the Baseball Hall of Fame (HOF) Class of 2010 today. The Dog Denizens of Genesee Park (DDGP) fell short in assisting in the media campaign to secure former Seattle Mariner Edgar Martinez his rightful -- and hopefully, eventual -- place in Cooperstown. Of those eligible to vote, 36.2 percent of the BWAA members supported Edgar's first HOF candidacy.

A nominee has 15 tries at the HOF... provided that he garners at least five percent of the support of BWAA writers the prior year. Edgar boasts a solid foundation upon which to build his candidacy. The sportswriters voted him ahead of Tim "Rock" Raines (30.4 percent), Mark McGwire (23.7 percent), Alan Trammell (22.4 percent), Fred "Crime Dog" McGriff (21.4 percent), and Don "Donnie Baseball" Mattingly (16.1 percent).

Of the talking heads who disputed to Edgar's nomination, NBC and Baseball Network anchor Bob Costas' opposition seems the most surprising. For one who professes to know all, Costas is dead wrong in his assessment of Edgar as nothing more than an overrated and glorified pinch hitter. In a DDGP analogy, Costas is the mouthy pooch that incessantly yaps at the other canines... and then runs tail-between-the-legs to the gate when an exasperated bigger dog barks back. Stick a sock in it, Mr. Know-it-All. We liked you better when you were a quirky late-night, talk show host.

As they said in A Little Night Music, "Maybe next year."

Meanwhile, congratulations to Andre "Hawk" Dawson, the only former player who garnered the necessary 75 percent of the BBWA to earn a place in Cooperstown. If class were the sole criterion to the Hall, you would be a first-ballot selection.