Unsurprisingly, Atlanta Braves legend Andruw Jones did not make it into Cooperstown when the voting results were announced on Tuesday. It was heartening to see Jones make further in-roads in the voting and given current trends and a weak ballot in 2026, there is a real chance that he gets in as soon as next year.
Despite that "good news", Chipper Jones wasn't having it on Tuesday night. The "other" Jones has consistently supported Andruw getting into the Hall of Fame previously and he wasted little time in taking to social media to put Hall of Fame voters on blast for keeping arguably the best
I wanna ask all HOF voters one question….if Andruw Jones plays for the New York Yankees for 15 yrs with 10 GGs, 400Hrs, 1300 rbis…is he a HOFer? Lemme answer for you….first ballot! Time to have a conversation about HOFers chiming in. 75 living members can make sure it’s right!
— Chipper Jones (@RealCJ10) January 22, 2025
Braves fans are certainly thinking Chipper Jones has a point about the Hall of Fame right now after Andruw Jones kept out again
In fairness to Hall of Fame voters, there is a somewhat comparable case of a really good outfielder who played for the Yankees getting kept out of the Hall of Fame in Bernie Williams. However, Williams was like 60% the player that Andruw was in his career, so they only get so much credit for that decision.
Chipper does have a point here, though. There does seem to be some market/regional bias against Andruw amongst the voters and it could be because when he played in New York and LA later in his career, he didn't play well. Getting inducted into Cooperstown should be a recognition of a player's career, but there is just always going to be a segment of voters that only remember his down later years and/or only want to put guys in who were amazing from start to finish. There are going to be the New York and LA writers that have personal axes to grind as well which is pretty disappointing.
As for Chipper's solution to the problem, that is where things get sketchy. Sure, having a committee of Hall of Famers to help weigh the voting a bit could be good, but it might not help as much as he thinks as there isn't a small number of Hall of Famers that want to keep the club as small as possible and it probably with hurt players from smaller/newer markets that don't have as many advocates in the Cooperstown inner circle.
Is there a great solution to the Hall of Fame voting process? The short answer is no. Putting statistical requirements on induction feels sterile and incorrect and adding different voting blocs to the process creates it's own set of problems. One just hopes that Andruw's Hall of Fame case continues to convert voters at a high rate and he gets in before it is too late.