I may have already gone on this rant before. I am not 100 percent sure or not but if so, here it comes again anyway. The Major League Baseball Hall of Fame is a complete joke and has been for decades. A bunch of “Get off my lawn” voters are in charge of it and every single year they get it wrong.

This year’s class: Ichiro, Billy Wagner and CC Sabathia got in. Okay, I am not mad at these three. All three are deserving of the “honor”. I am not besmirched at any of the inductees; what spills my bucket is the process of how the whole thing works. Mind blowing!

Think about the people who get passed up each year because of someone’s personal vendetta. Guys like Barry Bonds, Mark McGuire, Roger Clemens, Curt Schilling and of course the biggest travesty of them all, the late Pete Rose.

If you don’t know, you only get a certain amount of time to be inducted. Some of those have already been phased out like Barry Bonds. It is criminal. Also, for the voting a player must receive 75 percent of the votes on a ballot. Ichiro, who has collected over 4,000 total hits (between his MLB career and in Japan) received 99.7 percent of the votes. Who did not vote for this guy? He finished with a .311 batting average with 117 home runs and 780 runs batted in. He also stole 509 bases. (These were his MLB stats). A 10-time All-Star, American League MVP and Rookie of the Year winner in 2001. He collected 10 Gold Gloves from 2001-2010.

Sabathia helped the Yankees win the 2009 World Series. He managed to collect 3,093 strikeouts. He also played for Cleveland and Milwaukee. He finished with a record of 251-161. Pitched 3577.1 innings. He was a six time All-Star as well.

As for Wagner, an impressive closer to say the least. He had 422 saves and an ERA of 2.31. He was a six time All-Star. The most impressive part of this feat, he was a lefty.

Again, overall, no problem with this class; but how does a guy like Andruw Jones not get in? He received 66.2 percent of the vote. A total of 434 home runs (clean); 1289 runs batted in, 152 stolen bases, a 10-time Gold Glove winner and a five time All-Star.

Make it make sense. Drives me up the wall.

Dennis D. Cruz is a staff reporter for The Oakdale Leader, The Riverbank News and The Escalon Times. He may be reached at drcruz@oakdaleleader.com or by calling 847-3021.