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Good Ol' Boys and Gals?

Wednesday, January 19, 2005
by Scot H. Laney




Let me make some things clear up front. I think the Professional Bass Fishing Hall of Fame is a great idea. I also think the people associated with it are top-notch. But it's hard to look at the results of the most current "balloting" and not wonder about the process for getting "elected."

A couple years ago a campaign was put together to get a certain individual elected, which he subsequently was. A letter was sent out from a pretty well known source that expressed the qualifications that the candidate had and the reasons that the members should vote for this particular person.

I remember thinking that, if the person was as well qualified as the letter stated (and he was, by the way), wouldn't it make sense that the people doing the voting already knew this? But then I remembered that, unlike other Halls of Fame in other sports, the Professional Bass Fishing Hall of Fame allows each supporting member to cast a vote – not a group of writers or industry members, but anyone with $100 to spare.

That's how you get a sort of "popularity" contest – complete with grass-roots letter-writing campaigns – instead of an answer to a simple question: Does this candidate deserve to be in the Hall of Fame or not?

Ty Cobb would never survive this process, let alone a great candidate who might not have the proper relationships that the process requires.

In prior years, this had not really been a problem. This year it could be argued that it was, and that the organization may want to look at the way its balloting works. All good organizations continually improve their process as time goes by, and they learn more about how things work best for them.

I say this because it's hard to believe that the man who invented the most prolific technique in fishing (in terms of money won) – as well as the pro pole – and was responsible for all sorts of other improvements like casting decks and thumb-bar reels - didn't get in.

While others might be a little sour at the slight, Dee Thomas, the "father of flipping," will tell you that a guy should be retired before he gets in the Pro Bass Fishing Hall of Fame anyway. That's the type of man we're dealing with here.

Maybe someone should have written some letters.


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