The results of the sportswriters' voting for the baseball Hall of Fame were announced today at 2 EST. Andre Dawson was elected to the Hall. Three other players for whom I would have cast my vote were not.

Those players are all eligible (You must be out of the game for a minimum of five years to be eligible.)

They are Bert Blyleven, Roberto Alomar and Fred McGriff.

That is a shame, but then you know the sportswriters and what a sham the Hall has become!

Dawson, 55, was the only player elected this year, receiving 420 votes out of 539 ballots cast (77.9 percent). You must get 75 percent of the 539 ballots in order to get elected.

Bert Blyleven was a great pitcher. He is now a broadcaster for the Minnesota Twins.

Alomar was one of the best second basemen ever, on both the defensive and offensive sides. He had a lifetime batting average of .300. He was half of one of the greatest shortstop-second base combinations EVER - Omar Vizquel and Robby Alomar. It was Alomar's first year of eligibility. He garnered over 73 percent so he should top 75 next year.

Blyleven got 74.7 percent, just missing out. Edgar Martinez also missed out in his first year of eligibility.

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My wife (ex) and I lived in Long Beach, CA and about twice a year left a few boxes of items to be picked up by Value Village, a collecting charity in that city. They would leave a blank receipt after they took away the items and we would fill it out and save it for taxes.

One day I stuck a letter-size note, written in block letters with a magic marker, on the garage door. It read:

PLEASE PUT THE RECEIPT IN THE MAIL SLOT IN THE FRONT DOOR.

When we got home we found this written just along the margin of my note:

I NO KAN LATR

and the receipt was taped to the bottom of the note.

It puzzled us, but I soon deciphered it.

The writer was illiterate. He or she meant

"I CAN"T READ." (The 'LATR' stood for 'LETTERS.')

I thought it was funny, but the workers they hired were mentally awkward, to be as P.C. as I choose to be.

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Our good old friend, Frank Dixon, a.k.a. "benedicts" from the Blogster days, has published his book, SPINOZA'S GOD. It isn't available yet but his publisher is taking advanced orders.

The publisher is Alondra Press and you can pre-order it here:

https://www.alondrapress.com/Book_Store.html

I did.

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Every now and then I revisit Blogster just to see what Uglyduck5150, mmmhollywould and Percival are up to. Everyone else posts here on MyBloggers, so I ignore the political ghouls and sore losers and Glenn Beck morons of Blogster.

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We are going to get the "other shoe drop" Thursday night and Friday. A great big snowstorm is coming down from Alberta and the Dakotas. More bitter cold, as if it ever warmed up anyway. It hasn't been above freezing since Christmas day.