Among the first litmus tests of 2019 for the sports media comes Jan. 22 when the Baseball Writers’ Association of America reveals its Hall of Fame class.

The question du jour is not whether Mariano Rivera gets inducted. That’s a surer bet than when Rivera was on the mound closing games. Rather, there’s curiosity whether Rivera is the first unanimous selection.

This is where the media — and public in general — gets to choose the way it reacts. And provide a cautionary tale for flagrant attention-seekers that endures.

Straight up: If you do not vote for Rivera, you are not doing so because of some biblical conviction. You are doing so to seek attention, commanding your version of Warhol’s 15 minutes. It’s up to the rest of us whether we actually give you any.

I say no.

Ignore, ignore, ignore.

I mean, is there a point to writing columns and taking to social media to call somebody an idiot, when their actions already did it for us?

Already, a baseball writer in Worcester spent 1,500 words telling us why he wouldn’t vote for Rivera — and then informed the masses he wouldn’t be voting at all this year — thus making the entire argument moot. Pathetic cry for attention. Yet it hasn’t stopped the predictable word spasms from the media machine that didn’t edify as much as sadly inflating the man’s ego and number of Twitter followers.

So let’s make Mr. Worcester the last heathen to enjoy his 15 minutes of fame. Because there is no rational argument to be made here. Rivera is not only the greatest closer in the history of baseball, but a man of dignity. Lest we forget that Rivera’s enviable — and rare nowadays — comportment was part of his game as well.

Now we all know that ignoring a voter who leaves Rivera off his or her ballot has no chance to happen. Not how it works here in the roaring 2000s. Seems everyone not only has an opinion, but bears the mistaken perception that the rest of us are interested in it.

Baseball writers are often afflicted with this. I don’t get to the ballpark much anymore because, let’s face it, my launch angle just isn’t what it used to be. From past trips, though, I’m generally the outsider from some obscure land with no place at the table. So I simply enjoy staying in my lane and observing.

It’s amusing, the self-importance of baseball writers and baseball media in general. It's like they mistake the privilege of covering a baseball team with the responsibility of reporting international espionage. I mean, they cover a baseball team. They didn't discover the polio vaccine.

And no doubt, one or two of them will mimic Worcester Guy, sensing that perhaps their Warholian 15 minutes is due, if they simply reason that nobody gets in on the first ballot, they don’t value the role of closer, his WAR wasn’t high enough, blah, blah, blah.

It’s all window dressing for a much simpler concept: LOOK AT ME FOLKS! LOOK AT ME!

And I say we just don’t look at them at all.

Again: Why point out someone is an idiot, when the evidence of it is rather overwhelming?

I say we just be happy that Rivera makes it on the first ballot. Whether it’s 98 or 100 percent is truly irrelevant. He hearkens happier days, both for Yankee fans and baseball in general, when recording an out during some game in mid-May didn’t come with gyrations or pointing to the heavens.

Mo Rivera always acted as though he’d been there before and planned to get there again.

A great lesson to us all, not merely relegated to the realm of sports.

So let’s plan ahead, media machine. See them over there who didn’t vote for Rivera?

Nah. I don’t see them either.

A long, slow fade into irrelevance would serve them well.

This is the opinion of Day sports columnist Mike DiMauro