The Baseball Hall of Fame released its Contemporary Baseball Era player ballot Monday, and Detroit Tigers legend Lou Whitaker was egregiously left off of it.
The eight players who did make the ballot include Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Carlos Delgado, Jeff Kent, Don Mattingly, Dale Murphy, ex-Tiger Gary Sheffield and Fernando Valenzuela. But the omission of Whitaker embodies the paradox at the heart of so many Detroit Tigers fans’ feelings about Cooperstown right now – admiration for great players like Sheffield getting another chance, mixed with quiet fury that Whitaker, one of the greatest second basemen in baseball history, remains outside.