The Final Round of Baseball Blind Auditions Welcomes Four, Exits Four

After a week of rather unseasonable temperatures here in Hampton Roads, an announcement of Jeff Kent as the Contemporary Eras Committee’s 2026 HOF selection, and a bit of snow we are now back with the final round of the baseball blind auditions. The prize is a shot to walk through these doors and to a sub-floor area where your picture and stats will be mounted to a wall. The front of the building looks this…

Ok, let’s power through this final round to see who moves on to the exciting deep dive round, where we will unearth all sorts of stats, scandals, and superlatives. The final round begins….NOW!

CB played parts of 20 seasons with 7 Major League Baseball teams. CB is not really closely tied to one team in particular. CB was a Rookie of the Year, a multi-year All-Star, Gold Glove, Silver Slugger Award winner, and a World Series winner. CB collected nearly 2800 hits, over 550 doubles, over 430 home runs, and stole over 300 bases. CB had nearly 10,000 at bats in his career.
SC played 16 seasons for 4 Major League Baseball teams. SC was an AL All-Star. His .275 career average included over 1600 hits, including over 200 home runs. SC was a consistent 20 HR/season hitter, accomplishing that feat 7 times in his career. SC also stole over 150 bases.

No need to sugarcoat this one. CB is the winner and probably should have won this prize already. CB moves on to the next round.

Leave the popcorn in the microwave because here comes the next round of auditions:

MR played 19 seasons with 5 Major League organizations, and some may say he is still playing somewhere overseas or in Latin American. MR was multi-year All-Star, Silver Slugger award winner. MR won two World Series trophies and was the MVP of one of them. MR collected over 2500 hits in his career, including over 550 home runs and nearly 550 doubles. MR drove in over 1800 runs and scored over 1500 runs in his career.
EE played 16 seasons for 6 Major League teams and is primarily associated with one in particular. EE was a multi-year All-Star. EE slugged over 400 home runs, drove in almost 1300 runs, and scored almost 1100 runs in his career. EE never played in a World Series game.

Ok, you can get your popcorn now. MR is the clear winner here and probably should have been awarded this prize years and years ago. MR moves on to the next round. And now for a quick break featuring scenery you might see in and around the village of the building where the prize will be awarded.

Ok, let’s push on with the final two rounds, plus a special surprise at the end.

CH played 15 seasons for 4 Major League teams, and is best known for one team in particular. CH was a multi-year All-Star. CH was a World Series Champion and was the MVP of the Series his team won. CH won over 160 games, struck out 2500 batters, while maintaining a career ERA of 3.43.
FH played 15 seasons all of the same Major League team. FH was a Rookie of the Year winner and a multi-year All-Star. FH pitched a perfect game. FH recorded almost 170 wins, struck out over 2500 batters, and recorded a career ERA of 3.42. FH never played in a World Series.

This one could seriously go either way. CH was a dominant pitcher without having to throw the ball 100mph. FH was a durable starter and workhouse as his team’s ace for over a decade. Based on longevity and comparing apples to apples here, I am going to move FH to the next round. This was a very close call but FH moves on.

And last but not least…

AR played parts of 22 seasons with 3 Major League teams and is linked heavily to all 3 teams. AR is an all-time stats board member – Home runs he sits 5th, RBI’s he sits 4th, Hits he sits 23rd. AR was a multi-year All-Star, Silver Slugger, and MVP award winner. AR won one World Series Championship. AR nearly hit .300 for his career, collecting over 3000 hits, and slugging almost 700 Home Runs.
FR played 16 seasons for 5 Major League Baseball teams and is primarily known for 1 team in particular. FR was a multi-year All-Star and 2 time Rolaids Relief Pitcher of the Year. FR collected over 400 saves, posted an ERA of 2.86, while striking out over 1100 batters in his career. FR is a World Series Champion, contributing 5 wins in that season’s postseason games.

AR wins this round. AR probably should already be in the aforementioned building based on his statistics alone. AR moves on to the next round. Which leads us to my surprise. Due to the participant pool being odd (27), there is one participant who will move on without going through a blind audition. That participant is DW. So, to recap the winners of the blind audition, let’s have a pause and a drum roll please…….

Congratulations to all the winners to date. The next round we will deep dive into the participant’s past, uncover any skeletons, dig through old newspaper clippings and Twitter feeds, that sort of thing until we find a pure and honest and deserving winner to get the ultimate prize, one that looks something like this: