I despise Baseball Hall of Fame season. It's that time of year where writers decide to become attention whores.

But no one, and I repeat, NO ONE, has raised the bar quite like MLB.com's Ken Gurnick.

MLB.com's 17 writers with Hall of Fame votes released their ballots today. 16 of those ballots featured Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine, who appear to both be on their way to induction.

Gurnick's ballot features one name, and one name alone – Jack Morris. He's not excluding Maddux, Glavine, Frank Thomas, Craig Biggio, and numerous other worthy candidates because he doesn't have room – he's excluding them because they played in the steroid era. Keep in mind that there were absolutely no PED rumblings about Maddux and Glavine – but they played in the "steroid era" so they're guilty by association. Or something.

His exact quote is, "As for those who played during the period of PED use, I won't vote for any of them." If I'm to understand that correctly, that means that Gurnick won't be voting for Randy Johnson, Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, Pedro Martinez, Ken Griffey Jr, or Ivan Rodriguez, all of whom played in the "steroid era" and haven't had any PED rumblings. If that's the case, then the man simply should surrender his ballot when Morris falls off tomorrow, one way or another.

Here's another funny thing about Ken Gurnick's Hall of Fame voting – he only recently started voting for Morris. Back in 2011, Morris wasn't on Gurnick's ballot *at all* – he voted for Bert Blyleven and Lee Smith. In 2012, he voted for Morris and Smith. Last year – just Morris, no Smith, with no explanation for the change and the exact some logic for Morris (nearly word for word, actually).

Perhaps the scariest part about this Gurnick mess – Chipper Jones was right when he criticized Hall of Fame voters this week. Ken Gurnick made the Hall of Fame voting about himself this week, and that's the worst thing any voter can do. It's an infuriating "LOOK AT ME" gesture that's only purpose is to get people to know the name Ken Gurnick and has nothing to do with the Hall of Fame itself.

But remember – Deadspin buying a vote is sacrilege.

UPDATE: It's the last Hall of Fame ballot Gurnick says he'll submit.

About Joe Lucia

I hate your favorite team. I also sort of hate most of my favorite teams.

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