Urban: Assessing Bill King's HOF Chances

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Oct. 1, 2010URBAN ARCHIVEA'S PAGEA'S VIDEOMychael Urban
CSNBayArea.com

The Giants are about to win a championship, and thus are the biggest story in town.The 49ers are the freeway pileup from which you simply cant avert your eyes, even though Coach Sing wants you to believe that its not even a fender-bender.The Raiders are, well, the Raiders; thats typically enough to hold anyones morbid curiosity.The Sharks capture that wanderlust fancy in all of us because theyre half a globe away, and you have to respect and pay attention to them because theyre consistent winners.The Warriors are compelling if for no other reason than theyre in a transitional -- and for now, at least, an ambulatory -- state. Where does that leave the As?
They're chasing the sunny side of .500. So if theres something -- anything -- besides that fact to publicize, the As are quick to get that news out.So Friday morning the As public-relations staff fired off a press release that told us the late Bill King finished among the top three in voting at the National Baseball Hall of Fames Facebook page for the annual Ford C. Frick Award. That puts him on the ballot along with nine other Cooperstown hopefuls; a 20-person panel will select the winner and announce it in early December.It seemed like pretty good news for those of us who revered the versatile three-sport genius that was King and think its a crime that hes not in a Hall of Fame somewhere, but heres the rub: King got less than 4,800 votes. The third-place finisher got less than 2,800.The first-place finisher got more than 11,000.In other words, and as wrong as it is, dont hold your breath.

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