Red Jacket from the Sale Rack
Posted on March 11, 2013 9:56 am
If you are going to have the occasional year where nobody makes the Hall of Fame, the best time to do it would be when there’s no physical Hall of Fame. I’ll bet Cooperstown wishes they had thought of that!
The US Soccer Hall of Fame could easily have focused on whichever Builder and Veteran makes it this year. It’s not like anyone’s going to travel to see the induction.
But, there is a rule that one suspects was passed sometime between the Noneonta of the Above Class of 2008 and the Hall’s closing the next year. When nobody makes the 66.666% threshold needed for election into the Hall, we have a second ballot.
I didn’t actually know there would be a second ballot in this instance, otherwise I wouldn’t have been quite so strident in pleading with my fellow voters to get the lead out.
But my motive was to prevent players from possibly being ignored by history, and to add to the variety and depth of the story of soccer in the early MLS era. And also, under my plan, the players involved wouldn’t necessarily know they were being let in under a mercy rule.
This way, however, there’s no getting around it. Someone’s getting in that would otherwise not have. If the person I think will get in does get in, well, that person would have eventually made it anyway, either by veterans or by my fellow media members coming around. (Like I did – I didn’t vote for the player the first time, but changed my mind in subsequent years.)
Still, it’s a clumsy way to bestow the highest honor American soccer has to offer. Some tact might have been in order.
….which tact I myself might be spoiling. The Hall of Fame page (run by US Soccer these days) says nothing about a second ballot…although seeing as how a second ballot was sent to hundreds of people who run their keyboards all day, I don’t see how it was supposed to remain a secret. I think there’s probably a more depressing reason why the page hasn’t been updated since January.
When one day the mighty United States Soccer Hall of Fame building towers over downtown Sioux City (or wherever) in its majesty and grandeur, remember these days, when even the Hall of Fame subsisted on electrons and love.
Anyway, here’s who I voted for:
Chris Armas
Mauricio Cienfuegos
Marco Etcheverry
Robin Fraser
Jason Kreis
Shannon MacMillan
Joe-Max Moore
Ben Olsen
Cindy Parlow
Taylor Twellman
And here’s the second ballot:
MacMillan
Etcheverry
Armas
Parlow
Moore
One of these five will be elected, thanks to a failsafe that’s not really anything like the Doomsday Device in Dr. Strangelove but I can’t think of a better metaphor. We are asked to award points on a scale of 10,000 to 3.14159 – no, from 1 to 5, 5 being the most worthy. Also, those who returned blank ballots have not been asked to participate in this second ballot.
Which I suppose is vindication – the Hall (or the Fed, or whoever is running the store at this point) agrees with my Big Hall approach rather than a Little Hall. As if standards for a more exclusive Hall are any more quantifiable, or even defensible, than mine, now that I think about it – why is my opinion less valid? Because I make ten-page long dick jokes?
In any case, I expect the winner will be MacMillan – who is also the person I gave five points to, as you might have guessed from the above list.
So this probably isn’t any way to run a Hall of Fame. But if you have to run a Hall of Fame this way, it might as well be while no one is paying much attention.
I still think Bob Rigby should be in–but I don’t get a vote.
Might as well vote in ELEANOR Rigby for all the difference it makes.
One question:
When you get elected into Noneonta (if you didn’t invent that, well, I’m giving you credit anyway) does USSF have a plaque made and then ship it to the warehouse in North Carolina where all the rest of them are stored?
There were no plaques of the Hall of Famers in Oneonta. There were pictures (3 x 5, I think) on a wall and a touchscreen on which you could look at bios of the Hall of Famers, but no plaques.
I believe that this second-round system was announced by the Hall of Fame at the time that it was approved by the Hall’s Board of Directors, just after the shutout in the 2008 election. I think that announcement would have been in the spring of 2008. Personally, I’m glad that my favorite, Etcheverry, is among the five who are still in the running.
No more builders around I can think of a few who would love that honor. Players come and go but builders have never stopped trying to build the game
@nicklaino. The election that Dan is talking about is only for players who retired between 2003 and 2009. There is a separate election for builders and a separate election for players who retired before 2003.
Hey roger I am more interested in the builders then in the players.
I put Parlow at the top of my second ballot. When she first made the ballot (last year?) it took another writer to convince me she deserved to get into the HoF. Of the five, I think she’s got the best qualifications.
Of course this second ballot brings into stark the relief an issue that is going to plague the National Soccer Hall of Fame until 1) things change or 2) MLS just says “f@JS it, we’re starting our own Hall. Namely, what’s a career MLS player, especially a non-American, got to do to get elected? At what point is an MLS career alone sufficient?
Agree with Macmillan. But seriously, aren’t all of these folks deserving?
None is Beckenbaur or Akers, but is that really the standard?
I voted Etcheverry, MacMillan, Moore.
But, you know, if the guy who held the MLS scoring record from 1996 to 2012 can’t even get more than a smattering of votes …
Oh, and I should repeat — I have repeatedly asked aloud for anyone who’s returning a blank ballot or not voting for some obvious choices (Earnie Stewart, Etcheverry, Joy Fawcett, etc.) to go on record and say why. (crickets)
Nick: All I’m saying is don’t get upset by the fact that there are no builders among these five. There is also an election for builders going on.
And for veterans too, in case people are wondering how Valderrama, Vermes, Sorber and Burns do against the ASL stalwarts (let alone whether Valderrama resents being put in the same sentence with those other guys).
I had a recent Hall of Fame inductee and former MLS/USMNT player basically tell me a few years ago that he couldn’t see voting for someone who hadn’t played for the USNT.
Having watched the voting results in the current era, I would suggest that it is not a unique perspective amongst voters.
Oddly it seems that still being alive and having played in the original NASL might be sufficient to get in on the veteran’s ballot. Odd double standard.
And let’s not get into the factional men/women (or lesser outdoor/indoor) stuff. I don’t particularly see many voters being anti-men or anti-women, I just think that there are good chunks of the electorate that don’t follow both sides of the game and therefore recuse themselves from voting for what they don’t really know.
Roy Lassiter is not in the hall because Roy Lassiter was not a hall of fame level player, regardless of how many goals he scored on crap defenses in the first year of a new league.
To this voter, a player who didn’t make contributions to the domestic league AND his or her national team had better have some pretty impressive contributions to one or the other. It’s our soccer hall – something in this game should be America First, especially since so little of the rest of it is.
While fanboys may call for it so they can – for whatever reason – get validation that guys who played well for their favorite club get to call themselves Hall of Famers, I do not believe MLS will be petty enough to start its own Hall of Fame and effectively kill what remains of the one we already have.
Valderrama resents being put in the same group as Verne’s, sorber and burns
and so he should. Valderrama was a great player to watch spectacular player vision.
Etch was something if he got mad on the field he got a lot better then if he stayed in control. It is hard to remember any other player who actually dominated when he got mad. Anyone else remember that about him?
My first experience with Etch was seeing him go off with a red after just a few minutes when he came into the World Cup game with Germany in Chicago in 1994. That was the filp side of his anger.
…oh and I am *still* kicking myself for not going to the Soccer Hall when we were in Cooperstown for the Schmidt/Ashburn induction.
It is SO appropriate that the US Soccer Hall of Fame shares column inches with references to lengthy dick jokes! Awesome! BTW, Etchevarry needs in, wtf more could he possibly have done?
Heh – “lengthy” “inches” – heh heh – D.
Arena thought he made a mistake when he got Etchevery because he was not what one would consider a high percentage player. Then he found out that his lower percentage meant wins when he hit them.
I think coaches in this country think a player has to be high percentage to be great. You can’t be afraid to try things that are hard to do and if you hit them you win games. If you play it safe all the time you may not lose the ball but your destined to be just one of the bunch.
yo what about Paco Palencia broseph?
Or Chad Ochocinco….
jkjk i like Armas and Etcheverry a lot,
when is Jaime Moreno eligible?
Jaime Moreno becomes eligible next year.
When offside position rule change first went intO effect. The US played Bolivia and Moreno was on Bolivia. Marcel’s balboa was the sweeper in the game. Moreno’s off ball movement dragged balboa from the dribbler enough to allow the dribbler to score a goal that Bolivia should not have scored.
Morena one very very smart player.
I think all the voters should be locked in a room and when they get a 2/3rd majority, have white smoke come out of a chimney.
I haven’t voted for Etcheverry for the reason that I don’t think he deserves to be in the NSHOF. He had four of the most incredible seasons ever, but I don’t think four seasons is enough, especially when diluted with four additional seasons of crap.
It will be very interesting to see how Jaime Moreno fairs. I haven’t sat down and done my full analysis, but my gut feeling is I fully expect to have him listed on my ballot next year.
But if Jaime Moreno can’t get in, then I don’t see how any non-American MLS player has a chance. I should go check and see how many NASL players without USMNT caps are in the NSHOF.
Andy: I don’t agree about Etcheverry, but I will concede that I think a factual analysis of someone’s playing accomplishments is the best reason for deciding whether to vote for them or not.
Moreno definitely will be on the ballot next year, as he last played in 2010. One of the ways that a player can become eligible is by at least five seasons in MLS and at least one selection to the postseason Best XI. Moreno had 15 seasons in MLS and was chosen to the Best XI five times.
I think that Moreno is a better candidate than any of the other foreign MLS players, because his MLS career was the bulk of his pro career, rather than an add-on to a career that was mostly spent elsewhere. However, I think that Moreno’s chances of getting in the first year he is eligible are slim, because of some of the big names like McBride and Lilly that will be going onto the ballot at the same time that he is.
FYI, I count 10 NASL players without USMNT caps in the Hall, but I went through the list quickly and maybe I missed someone.
When people have to vote someone into anything there are always surprises. Look at chubby checker he will probably never get into the rock and roll hall of fame.
When the twist first came out he was doing twist instruction all over the television. I never saw anyone do that on tv on the commercials before. That alone should have got him inducted. Young people probably never even knew he used to do that
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