Last week, when I revealed my 2017 Baseball Hall of Fame ballot, a few astute readers asked "Why didn't you vote for 10 guys?"
It's a great question.
Sadly, I don't have a great answer.
Hall of Fame voters are permitted to vote for a maximum of 10 players. In my mind, there were more than 10 players worthy of consideration, but, I voted for nine.
I intended to vote for 10, as I have in the past. This year, however, I got hung up on selecting No. 10. I strongly considered voting for Vladimir Guerrero, Manny Ramirez, Sammy Sosa, Billy Wagner and Larry Walker. I put the ballot down a few times, picked it up later and could not decide. After days stretched into weeks, I found myself with nine names and the deadline for submission approaching.
Finally, one day, I picked up the ballot with the nine names it simply felt right. Rather than make a haphazard, "flip-a-coin-and-get-it-over-with-already" decision, I sent my ballot in with nine names. I still think it's a pretty solid ballot. Could it have been better? Probably. If Vlad, Man-Ram, Sammy, Larry or Wags gets into the Hall later today, I won't be mad. And, I will definitely consider their cases again next year.
But, that's why I only selected nine players.