Cooperstown bound?
NEW YORK (AP) - Tony Gwynn and Cal Ripken Jr. will fall short of becoming the first unanimous Hall of Fame picks while Mark McGwire doesn't figure to be anywhere close to the necessary 75 per cent when 2007 voting is released Tuesday.
Paul Ladewski of the Daily Southtown in suburban Chicago wrote in a column Monday that he submitted a blank ballot because of doubts he had over performance-enhancing drugs in baseball.
"At this point, I don't have nearly enough information to make a value judgment of this magnitude. In particular, that concerns any player in the Steroids Era, which I consider to be the 1993-2004 period, give or a take a season," Ladewski wrote. "This isn't to suggest that Gwynn or Ripken or the majority of the other eligible candidates padded his statistics with performance-enhancers and cheated the game, their predecessors and the fans in the process.
"But tell me, except for the players themselves, who can say what they put into their bodies over the years with any degree of certainty?"
Gwynn and Ripken likely will vie for the highest percentages ever in Hall voting. McGwire, also on the ballot for the first time, probably will draw only one in four votes, according to a November survey of about 20 per cent of eligible voters taken by The Associated Press.
McGwire finished with 583 home runs, seventh on the career list, and hit 70 homers in 1998 to set the season record, a mark Barry Bonds broke three years later.
But many voters have said they won't select McGwire for baseball's highest honour until he answers questions about steroids use. McGwire's refusal to address his past during a 2005 congressional hearing damaged his reputation among many of the 10-year members of the Baseball Writers' Association of America who cast ballots.
"I think I would vote for him," Gwynn said. "I think I would vote for a lot of those guys who are considered to have done it."
Tom Seaver holds the record percentage at 98.84, set when he was selected on 425 of 430 ballots in 1992.
Paul Hagen of the Philadelphia Daily News was among three writers who submitted blank ballots that year, joined by Bob Hertzel of The Pittsburgh Press and freelance writer Bob Hunter. Retired writers Deane McGowen and Bud Tucker did not vote for Seaver.
"That was the first year that baseball intervened with Pete Rose and kept his name off the ballot," Hagen said Monday. "I just felt like that was a way of protesting.
"It had nothing to do with Tom Seaver."
Ty Cobb was left off four ballots, Nolan Ryan wasn't on six, Hank Aaron on nine, Babe Ruth on 11 and Willie Mays on 23. Joe DiMaggio needed to appear on the ballot three times to get in, receiving 44 per cent and 69 per cent in his first two tries.
"I'll admit I sort of felt that sooner or later it might come my way," DiMaggio was quoted as saying by The New York Times after he was elected in 1955. "But after failing to make it during the first two elections for which I was eligible - well, I just wasn't too sure."
Past elections also were cited by Ladewski as reasons for submitting a blank ballot.
"What makes Gwynn and Ripken so special that they deserve to be unanimous selections?" he wrote. "Walter Johnson, Cy Young and Honus Wagner didn't receive such Hall passes.
"Neither did Lou Gehrig, Babe Ruth and Ted Williams. In fact, nobody has in the history of the game. Based on the standards set by the Hall of Fame voters decades ago, is there a neutral observer out there who can honestly say Gwynn and Ripken should be afforded an unprecedented honour?"
Reliever Bruce Sutter made it last year on the 13th try, when Jim Rice fell 53 votes short and Goose Gossage was 54 shy. Rice is on the ballot for the 13th time this year, and he may have a better chance at gaining election next year, when Tim Raines and David Justice are the top first-time eligibles. Rickey Henderson goes on the 2009 ballot.
Gwynn and Ripken are baseball dinosaurs who spent their entire major league careers with one team.
In a 20-year career with the San Diego Padres that began in 1982, Gwynn won eight NL batting titles to tie Honus Wagner's NL record and was a member of 15 all-star teams. He finished with a .338 career average and won five Gold Gloves as an outfielder.
Ripken played in 2,632 consecutive games, breaking Lou Gehrig's ironman record of 2,130. Ripken spent 21 seasons with the Baltimore Orioles, hitting .276 with 431 home runs. A 19-time all-star, he won the AL Rookie of the Year award in 1982, the AL MVP award in 1983 and 1991 and was a two-time Gold Glove shortstop.
Jose Canseco also is on the ballot for the first time. The former Toronto Blue Jay said he used steroids along with McGwire when they were teammates. Two-time Cy Young award winner Bret Saberhagen, former NL MVP Ken Caminiti and Harold Baines also are on the ballot for the first time.
A player remains on the ballot for up to 15 elections as long as he gets five per cent of the votes every year.
Any players elected will be inducted during ceremonies held July 29 at the Hall in Cooperstown, N.Y., along with anyone elected from the Veterans Committee vote, which will be announced Feb. 27.
Hagar Hoping Van Halen Takes High Road At Rock Hall
Van Halen's appearance at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony on March 12 "could go a lot of different ways," according to Sammy Hagar. That said, Hagar -- the group's second frontman, from 1985-96 -- tells Billboard.com he has high hopes that the famously combative group will take the high road on that particular night.
"My hope is that everyone lets everything go and we go there in complete respect of each other and in a loving way, with the attitude that 'I couldn't have done it without you' towards everybody," says Hagar, who received the official word of Van Halen's selection at his Cabo Wabo Cantina in Mexico, where he and Van Halen bassist Michael Anthony have spent the past week jamming with Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith in a newly developing side project called Chickenfoot.
But he also notes that, "The biggest fear for me is there'll be animosity and 'I won't talk to that guy' and maybe some harsh words towards each other or some sly remarks in speeches ... and it's not out of the question that that could happen. But in the end, no matter what happens, when you hear the music you're gonna go, 'That's one of the greatest rock'n'roll bands in the world, ever, and well-deserved the inauguration into the Hall of Fame."
Hagar says he hadn't spoken to anyone other than Anthony about the induction but planned to put in a congratulatory call to drummer Alex Van Halen. He expects that manager Irving Azoff "is gonna try to spin everyone together somehow" and says he'll "go with the flow" with induction ceremony plans, which Hagar expects will include a live Van Halen performance.
However, Hagar deemed talk of a Van Halen tour this year with original frontman David Lee Roth and guitarist Eddie Van Halen's 15-year-old son Wolfgang on bass speculative and voiced concern for that particular turn in the band's course.
"Wolfie's a great guy; I love Wolfie. But I don't think Van Halen should bring a 15-year-old kid to replace Sam, Dave and Michael Anthony," Hagar says. "That's a lot of pressure for Wolfie. Just 'cause he's Eddie's son doesn't mean he can go out and play in arenas and perform and entertain an audience for two hours. I would love to see Eddie and Alex get behind Wolfie, with a kid of his age singing, and produce the record for him and help him launch a career. I'd rather see it go that way than come out and say 'Wolfie's the bass player in Van Halen and maybe singing, too.' Van Halen's got way too much history to have that put on him."
"Titanic" director set to begin work on new film
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - James Cameron is set to direct the sci-fi adventure saga "Avatar," his first dramatic feature since the Oscar-winning blockbuster "Titanic" in 1997, distributor 20th Century Fox said Monday.
Cameron, who has been developing the story for over a decade, will start principal photography in April for a summer 2009 release.
"Avatar" is the story of a wounded ex-marine who is unwillingly sent to settle and exploit a faraway planet. He gets caught up in battle for survival by the planet's inhabitants.
After global screen tests, he selected Australian Sam Worthington, who starred in "Somersault" and "Dirty Deeds," to play the lead role of Jake Sully. Zoe Saldana ("The Terminal," "Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl") will portray the local woman Jake gets involved with. Both actors have signed on for possible future installments as well.
Cameron's Lightstorm Entertainment team has spent years researching a groundbreaking mix of live-action cinematography and virtual photorealistic production techniques for "Avatar," which will feature virtual characters filmed for 3-D release in a new digital 3-D format. Cameron has been lobbying movie theater owners to adopt more digital projection systems. Both he and Fox are anticipating that digital 3D theaters will be widespread by 2009.
Principal photography will take place in and around Los Angeles, and in New Zealand. The visual effects will be handled by "Lord of the Rings" director Peter Jackson's Oscar-winning production house Weta Digital, which is based in Wellington.
"Avatar" is the latest creative partnership between Cameron and Fox. They first joined forces in 1985 for the sci-fi classic "Aliens." Next came "The Abyss," which revolutionized visual effects technology; and "True Lies," starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. In 1996, Fox greenlighted Cameron's "Titanic," which became the biggest blockbuster of all time, earning $1.8 billion worldwide, and won a record-breaking eleven Academy Awards, including best picture.
R.E.M., Van Halen Lead 2007 Rock Hall Class
R.E.M., Van Halen, Patti Smith, the Ronettes and Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame March 12 during a ceremony at New York's Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. To be eligible for induction, this year's class had to release their first single no later than 1981.
The upcoming event will also pay tribute to late Atlantic Records co-founder Ahmet Ertegun, who served as the chairman of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation.
R.E.M. and Van Halen face the decision of whether to perform at the ceremony with ex-members. R.E.M. reunited with former drummer Bill Berry last fall to celebrate its induction into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame and even hit the studio with him to record a track for an as-yet-unreleased charity album.
For Van Halen, the situation is more complex. The group is without a lead singer, although rumors are swirling that original frontman David Lee Roth will tour with the outfit this summer. In addition, Eddie Van Halen's teenage son recently replaced longtime bassist Michael Anthony in the band.
Black Sabbath, the Sex Pistols, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Blondie, Miles Davis and record moguls Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss were enshrined in the Hall in 2006.