The Hall of Fame voting will generally be an ugly event the rest of our lives, an annual referendum on whether players suspected of using performance-enhancing drugs are worthy of induction, or worthy of scorn. But amid the debates to come about Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens and Mark McGwire, there is a chance for a spectacular and unprecedented event.
Greg Maddux and
Tom Glavine and
John Smoltz are all nearing the end of careers that will merit them first-ballot elections into the Hall of Fame. No longer are they negotiating multi-year deals; they are going season to season now, weighing their priorities and listening to what their bodies are telling them every fall. Maddux turns 42 this April, about a month after Glavine does, and Smoltz will be 41 in May. It's possible that one or all three will pitch in 2009, but it is also possible that they will retire together. And if they retire together, than they almost certainly would be inducted together.
Standing beside his locker at the Braves' camp on Friday, Smoltz said that he has never had a conversation with Glavine or Maddux about the possibility, and he joked, semi-seriously, that if he were to appear on the same ballot as his longtime friends that his own chances for election would be diminished.
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Buster Olney
