Hall of Fame Poll: Bernie Williams

Finally made it to the end of the ballot. I'm skipping:

• Rondell White, even though he was a favorite of mine, as a former Expo. He had a good career, 15 seasons, a .284/.336/.462 line, with 198 home runs, 768 RBI in 1474 games. He made 1 All-Star team. A first round draft pick in 1990, my memory is that he was always thought of as a slight disappointment to the Expos. He did spend a lot of time on the DL.
• Woody Williams, a former Blue Jay pitcher. He had an ok career, finishing 132-116 with a 4.19 ERA in 424 games, 330 starts in 15 seasons. He made one All-Star team.

Bernie Williams played for the Yankees for 16 years, in CF, he hit 287 home runs, drove in 1257, stole 147 bases (with 87 times caught, so not really helping his team) and hit .297/.381/.477.

He made 5 All-Star teams, won 4 Gold Gloves and 1 Silver Slugger. He has a career WAR of 47.3.

He's going to get some support, there are a lot of New York writers that get a ballot. They will say his 4 World Series rings makes him worthy of the Hall. I don't think so. I think there were center fielders that were better than Bernie that played in the same era.

If you are voting him in, you have to be giving him a lot of credit for the World Series wins, but then you would be voting because he was lucky enough to be on a team with a lot of good players. Bernie was never the best player on his World Series teams. Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera and maybe a few others off those teams deserve to go into the Hall, but, at least for me, not Williams.

This is Williams 2nd time on the ballot, he picked up 9.6% of the vote last time. I wonder if there is 9.6% of the BBWAA who are from New York?