First Gloves: Cleon Jones

Cleon Jones is a great example of why team Halls of Fame exist.

Honoring the greatest players in baseball history is a pretty straightforward exercise. They retire, wait five years, and then get onto a Hall of Fame ballot, where they are either elected outright or at the very least we get a good temperature check on the overarching view of their legacy as a player. There are the inevitable disagreements about which tier of greatness they should be placed in, but anyone receiving a decent percentage of the writers’ vote is typically a good enough player to have an argument as an all-time great.

But then there are the guys who get no support at all when that temperature check happens. Just this year, for instance, three players made it onto the Hall of Fame ballot and didn’t get a single vote.

• Hanley Ramírez

• Fernando Rodney

• Ben Zobrist