On a ballot packed with qualified candidates for the National Baseball Hall of Fame, is it possible that none of them will be elected this year?

If that happens, as it did last year, it would be the third time in the last decade that the qualified voters of the Baseball Writers' Association of America (BBWAA) have thrown a shutout at the Hall of Fame. This is an odd paradox considering that after the Big Zilch of 2013, the BBWAA in subsequent years went on to elect 22 players across the next seven ballots, with the various guises of the veterans committee voting in another five players (and six non-players) during that seven-year span. (In 2013, the veterans committee did elect three candidates to the Hall.)

Last year, Curt Schilling, who had garnered 70 percent of the vote on the previous ballot, seemed to be a lock for election. Instead, he stalled with a negligible increase in support, then threw a social-media Trumper tantrum declaring that he wanted to be removed from this year's ballot. The Hall of Fame quickly responded that it would not do so.

In a tumultuous year that was not normal for anything and everything including baseball, one thing that might be back to normal is voting for the Baseball Hall of Fame. Granted, the 2021 Baseball Hall of Fame ballot has 14 returning candidates, with just about every one of them owning cases for induction that range from borderline to compelling.

Joe Nathan was one of the more successful closers in the American League throughout the 2000’s a role he embraced after four undistinguished years for the San Francisco Giants.

A Minnesota Twin for seven seasons, Joe Nathan was named an All-Star for four of them.  Nathan was not a bona fide closer until he became a Twin and he would promptly rattle off six consecutive seasons where he Saved 35 Games.  Nathan was so impressive that he had two campaigns where he finished in the top five in Cy Young voting.  As of this writing, Nathan is still in the top ten all-time in Saves, 260 of which he accumulated in Minnesota.  More notably to us, he had a very impressive WHIP of 0.956 as a Twin.

Nathan was inducted into the Twins Hall of Fame in 2019.