Golden Hall Results Are Imminent

Just fewer than 20,000 people have played baseball in the official major leagues.  Another 5,000 or so have donned uniforms in highly-talented organizations like the Negro Leagues (NLB), All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL), and Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB).  Thousands more have tried to join them.  Narrowing the field to 100 is a controversy-filled path.  Yet it is one that has proven immeasurably enjoyable.

A Fun Little Project

What started as a fun little project for
some friends to pass the time gradually expanded to include a greater number of
baseball writers and an open invitation to all fans.

This latter effort arguably sets the Golden Hall apart from similar endeavors.  By introducing an element of democracy, all fans had an opportunity to affect the ultimate outcome.  This process was also the most enjoyable.  Via a series of Twitter polls and a catch-all Bench Ballot, fans debated, deliberated, and voted.  Their selections were combined to form one unique ballot.  This ballot was counted alongside the 21 completed by individual writers.

100 Players in the Golden Hall

The Golden Hall consists of 100 players.
 The first 90 are grouped into ten
starting nines, with a player at each position. 
Voters received a ballot for each position.  Each ballot featured the top 17 MLB JAWS
leaders, top 3 NLB JAWS leaders, and top NPB player per Baseball Guru.  Voters could add names to the ballot.  Each voter ranked the top ten per
position.  The rankings provided a
weighted value for each player.  Those
with the highest scoring received corresponding Starting Nines placements.

The final ten were chosen via a two-step
Bench Ballot.  In the first, voters were
presented with eight female players and could select only one.  The last ballot featured all players who received
at least one top ten vote in the earlier ballots.  Added to this list were those not on earlier
ballots who placed among the top five JAWS relievers, top six JAWS starters,
top JAWS player at each positions, and top seven NLB WAR.  This brought the bench ballot to a total of
120.  Voters could select only nine to
round out the Golden Hall.

The Golden Hall is meant to be an
ongoing project.  Every ten years, we
will reassess and vote again, allowing voters to re-evaluate old players and
take new players, newly-developed statistical tools, and good old-fashioned
debate into account.

In a series of articles, we will reveal
the select few who grace this Golden Hall. 
Return to Overtime Heroics later this week to discover who made the
Bench Ballot.