What’s Good for the Goose…
…is good for no one else.
The lone elected Hall of Famer of 2008 is reliever Goose Gossage.
Jim Rice is a near miss, at 72.2% (16 votes short), and will have one more chance at the general Hall of Fame election in 2009.
To me, the true oddity here is the non-inclusion of Tim “Rock” Raines, a guy who just might be one of the top 5 lead-off hitters in baseball history. Maybe the writers consider cocaine to be a performing-enhancing drug? Raines earned 23.4% (!) of the vote. Another eyebrow-raising omission is Bert Blyleven, who retired 13 wins short of the magic 300 number, an arbitrary milestone which would have strangely assured his election on his first ballot.
Anyway, better luck next year, Jimbo.