This story originally ran in The Standard-Times on Jan. 10, 2013. My section is broken out below.

The Baseball Hall of Fame's election process is among the more annoying non-sports ventures in sports. It's long, protracted and ultimately conjures up thousands of pieces on the respective worthiness and worthlessness of players long retired.

Arguments can be made in any direction. Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens were the best players of their era, steroids or not. Bonds and Clemens used drugs and aren't worthy. Curt Schilling and Jack Morris were World Series heroes. Schilling and Morris weren't good enough the rest of the year. I believe the Internet is now 25 percent occupied by people writing about Tim Raines.

But the endless debate, histrionics and bluster coming from everyone with and without a vote have essentially sealed one fact: writers should not be voting for honors within the sport they cover. The writers are given no guidelines, many are open about their personal biases and criteria and the equations of the process (75 percent required for election, 15 years on the ballot) seem arbitrary at best.

It's a broken system, to be sure, and until it's fixed, perhaps the best thing for the Hall of Fame would be for the baseball writers to simply sit out the process.

They didn't sit on their ballots, but collectively, they did the next best thing; they didn't elect anyone. I can only hope they show such vision in the future.

Nick Tavares can be reached at nick@nicktavares.com