The Wait is over, Here come the Seventies and their Hall of Fame Greatness.

Welcome to Part 4 of the Hall of Fame blog. In this section we will be covering a lot of the worst selections ever to the Hall, mostly due to the Veterans committee that was headed by Frankie Frisch and was made up of his old cronies. They were mostly old Cardinals and Giants beat writers who really were only interested in electing a lot of the players they were friends with through the years, which meant a lot of Cardinals and Giants players that were no where near Hall of Fame caliber.

1979- Hack Wilson, Willie Mays

Hack Wilson- No- Hack Wilson only collected 1461 hits in his career. I am not a huge fan of basing things on cumulative stats alone, but that total is just too tiny. He was a quality player, but not that great of one. His .940 OPS is impressive, but when you look at the time period he played its not nearly that impressive. His best years came at a time when nearly every team in baseball batted .300 as a team. A time period that even dwarfed the Nineties and early 2000’s in its offensive ridiculousness. In fact it wasn’t that uncommon for a team to have a couple of players batting in the .380 range. He is a much less quality Hall of Fame pick than guys like Moises Alou and Jim Edmonds, and that’s not even taking into account Edmonds defense, purely based on his offense. His greatest year came in 1930 when he knocked in 191, but this is probably the single greatest offensive year in baseball history. His entire teams batting average was .309 with a .378 OBP and .481 slugging. That’s just silly high for team numbers. He finished tenth in the batting race that year, and he batted .356. All in all, with his numbers actually being inflated in value, and his lack of career totals Hack Wilson only belongs in the Cubs Hall of Fame.

Willie Mays- Yes- Nothing to say here, anybody that questions his being place amongst the greatest of all time knows nothing about the game.

1978-Eddie Matthews, Addie Joss

Eddie Matthews-Yes- Maybe not the greatest defensive third basemen of all time, but he was definitely serviceable, and his offensive value puts him amongst the greatest all time at his position. His .885 OPS might be a tad lower than you would expect, but he played in an offensively repressed time period.

Addie Joss-Yes- His career was short, and tragically cut short by a fatal duel with tuberculosis, but he was brilliantly great in his ten years. A career .623 winning percentage is impressive, and even more so because it was so much greater than his teams won loss percentage. Every years of his career he was one of the two or three best pitchers in baseball and his career 1.89 ERA is phenomenal even by the standards of his time.

1977-Joe Sewell, Amos Rusie, Ernie Banks

Joe Sewell-Yes- This guy could play. Good defensive shortstop with a career .312 average. He threw in a career OBP of .391 and a slugging of .413 just for good measure. The slugging isn’t anything to write home about really, but the .391 OBP is excellent. Sewell of course is a man who was very hard to strike out, so hard that he only struck out 114 in his career. He had a few seasons where he struck out as few as 3 or 4 times with nearly 700 plate appearances. This is ridiculously impressive. 112 times in his career, and by today’s standards that many times in a season wouldn’t be that many.

Amos Rusie- Who knows- Frankly I just don’t know enough about pre-1900’s baseball to decide who should or should not be in from that time period, and I am not really sure anybody does. At first glance his 3.09 ERA seems high, but I just don’t really know. He did pitch over 500 innings in a season twice, which seems ridiculous. He led the league in losses as many times as he did in wins.

Ernie Banks- Yes- Ernie Banks was not a great player and his value as a shortstop is overstated. He actually played more games at first base (1259) than he did at shortstop. (1125) And when he did play short he was average at best. Actually he gets a ton of press as the only member of the 500 club who is a shortstop, when in reality, I don’t even know why he is listed as a shortstop in the Hall of Fame, as generally they go by what position you played the most games at. In actuality he was done as a shortstop before he was even 30. I guess he is listed at that position because he played there when he was a back-to-back MVP. But in actuality he should have never have won either award. In 1958 Willie Mays was clearly the better player and in 1959 Hank Aaron was even more clearly the better player. His career OPS is low at .830. The only reason I am including him is he was a great player for a few years, probably top 5 in the league, and he cranked out a lot of offensive production and homers when that was very difficult to do, and in a park that made it even more difficult. Wrigley played very pitcher friendly until the late sixties.

1976-Robin Roberts, Freddie Lindstrom, Bob Lemon, Roger Connor.

Robin Roberts-No- He wasn’t really that good. He did win 20 games six times, which is actually one of my milestone type numbers. But he was actually really bad in some years, posting ERA’s over 4.00 in years that were actually very weak offensive years. His winning percentage wasn’t that great, and he also missed 3000 k’s so he doesn’t have that milestone going for him. He also missed 300 wins, although not by much, but with as many decisions as he had it’s a mark he should have hit honestly.

Freddie Lindstrom- No- Mister Lindstrom was pretty good, but he only got in because of Frisch. He was reputed as a good defender, but that doesn’t really seem to be the case and he only had 9 years as a regular player, which were played in the high octane twenties and thirties, so his .311 BA is overinflated and his .351 OBP less than impressive. 1747 career hits, 103 career homeruns, no MVP awards, less than 1000 RBI’s and runs. He only finished in the top ten in the MVP voting twice, so all in all it looks like he is a stretch as a Hall of Famer.

Bob Lemon- No - I am frankly amazed that Bob Lemon got into the Hall of Fame via the vote. His career record is 207-128 for a .618 winning percentage. This is deceptively good. He played on a lot of REALLY good Cleveland Indians teams, and if you go year by year his winning percentage was often below that of his team, and when it wasn’t’ it only met the teams, or was marginally better. True its hard to be significantly better than your teams WP when it’s a good team, but you never want to be below it. His career era was 3.23, which is a bit high. He did do very well in the MVP voting, but I think his reputation is greater than the sum of his parts. He was a very good hitter for a pitcher. He gave up a large number of walks and hits, which tells me he was a very hittable pitcher who played for a very good team.

Roger Connor-I guess- Pre 1900 first basemen. His OPS was .883, which seems high, but frankly pre-1900 baseball just isn’t my think. My knowledge starts at 1900.

1975- Ralph Kiner, Billy Herman, Earl Averill

Ralph Kiner- Yes- There is a balance between having a long career and putting up cumulative numbers. I am not a big fan of the average player who played for 18 seasons while never being great and puts up 3001 hits and gets into the Hall of Fame. However, there is a balance, if a player only plays 10-12 years and hasn’t put up anywhere close to any good cumulative totals it makes it equally hard to include him. To get into the Hall of Fame with a short career you have to have exhibited greatness. Ralph Kiner was great, he led the league in homers his first seven year in the league, so that means in his ten year career he was the home run leader 7 times. Nice ratio. He also put up a nice career .946 OPS. His OBP was nearly .400 at .398 and I am a sucker for guys with a .400 career OBP. He definitely displayed greatness in his time in the big leagues.

Billy Herman- Yes- Slow as snot, but a great defender, and without a question the greatest hit and run man of all time. This guy could find a way to hit a pitch 15 feet over his head through the hole. The OPS was a little low at .774, but he hit .304 and he was legitimately a good hitter who is one of better defenders historically at his position. Given his defensive prowess he makes it in, although he is not one of the strongest candidates.

Earl Averill- Yes- Played during a high octane time period, but he was still exceptional even when the offense slowed down. He played with a chip on his shoulder, always feeling like he never got the credit he deserved, and by many accounts he wasn’t that pleasant of a teammate. But he could hit, he could get on base, and he could slug. And he was a great defensive centerfielder, which is what really seals the deal for his inclusion. His career OPS was .928. And although he didn’t reach 3000 hits, he was at least over 2000.

1974- Sam Thompson, Mickey Mantle, Whitey Ford, Jim Bottomley,

Sam Thompson –Meh- I really need to do some research in regards to Pre-1900 players. I need a pre-1900 baseball scholar.

Mickey Mantle- Yes- It’s the Mick; of course he is a Hall of Famer. There is no question that he was one of the elite to play the game, what is just scary is what this guys potential was. His basically played hobbled his entire career, having a serious knee injury his first year. Apparently this robbed him of some speed early on, but he was still blazing fast. What could this guy have done if he was healthy even for half his career? I mean seriously look what he did with two bad legs.

Whitey Ford- Yes- I should leave him out on principle, as he was just as big a cheater as Gaylord Perry. However, unlike Gaylord he has never flaunted the fact he was successful because of doctoring the ball, so I guess I will just do like most of baseball historians do and ignore it. Whitey Ford did the most important thing a pitcher can do, he just won ball games. At an amazing clip, even counting how good his teams were. He posted a 236-106 record for an astounding .690 winning percentage. You could count on him to win ballgames for you. More so than any pitcher of his time.

Jim Bottomley-No – I be over critical of Cardinals players because I don’t want to show a bias, but Sunny Jim was another one of Frisch’s veterans committee picks. He had some really great years with the Cardinals in the first few years of his career, but he shut it down in the second half of his career. The problem was for about 9 years he put up decent looking percentage numbers, but unfortunately it was during the late 20’s through the 30’s. His percentage numbers, although they look impressive, were actually only average for the time, or even a little below average. For example he hit .304, .368, .493 in 1930. This looks like a pretty decent, even good line. However, the team as a whole hit .314, .372, .471. Except for the slugging, he was actually below average for his team on the other two numbers. There are more years like this as well.

1973-Mickey Welch, Warren Spahn, George Kelly, Monte Irvin, Roberto Clemente.

Mickey Welch-Meh- See other pre-1900 entries.

Warren Spahn- Yes- 8 time 20 game winner. 3 time ERA champ, and 4-time strikeout leader. He won 363 games while putting up a .597 winning percentage. There isn’t much to argue with on Spahn’s resume, although I do find those that consider him to be the best lefty of all time to be a bit laughable.

George Kelly-No- Oh look at this, it’s amazing its another marginable Giant picked by the Frankie Frisch and Friends Veterans Committee. Decent OPS but he only played 8 seasons as a regular, and those were most definitely not great seasons. Under 2000 hits for his career, very limited amount of games played, and he failed to display greatness in any single season.

I am skipping Monte Irvin because he got in based at least half on his Negro league career. He was a Giant as well though.

Roberto Clemente-Yes- Remembered in death as a much nicer person than he was in real life by all accounts. A good person yes, but a prickly one all the same. I think I would feel bad if I didn’t take him. He was a great player.

1972- Ross Youngs, Early Wynn, Sandy Koufax, Lefty Gomez, Yogi Berra.

Ross Youngs-No- What do you know, another career Giant voted in by the Frisch Veterans Committee, and another one at that with essentially an 8 year career. This isn’t even funny anymore. He was a much better player than Kelly. I guess, kind of hard to tell with a guy who didn’t even make it to 1500 hits an whose career was over before 30. I am voting no out of principle.

Early Wynn-I don’t know- I don’t really think he is a hall of famer. He had a career 3.54 ERA, which is pretty high. He hit 300 wins, but with 244 losses, and he played for some pretty good teams. If you want to take him just because he got 300 wins then I guess you can, but other than that he was an alright pitcher who was kind of a jerk and was never really great.

Sandy Koufax- Wow- Ok, this one is tough. There comes to a debate. Is a player has five great, truly great, compared to any time of history kind of great years is that worthy of being in the Hall of Fame? What if they were the only five good years the player had period? This is what makes Sandy Koufax so tough to gauge. The last five years of his career were ridiculous. He led the league in ERA all five years, he lead in strikeouts three of those years, and in wins three of those years. He won three Cy Young Awards, an MVP, and three pitching triple crowns. He tossed up some ridiculous won loss records, such as 25-5, 26-8, 27-9. Career he is 165-87, for a very stellar .655. The problem is other than those fives years he was average for one year, and then actually quite poor for five years. ERA’s of 3.91, 4.05, 4.48, 3.88, and 4.91. Nothing to write home about, and actually quite the opposite. So if you answer that yes, five great years makes you a hall of famer, regardless of the quality of the other years then he is a Hall of Famer, if you answer no that a player needs to demonstrate quality in more than just five great years, then Koufax does not deserve to be in the Hall of Fame. It an argument that can be made since he essentially balanced five great years with five very poor years.

Yogi Berra –Yes- He screwed Minnie Minoso out of an MVP twice, and Al Kaline out of one once. He only possibly deserved one of the 3 MVP awards he won, with his last being an outright travesty. As it is I have always felt that Yogi was an overrated player who has more mythos around him than fact. People like to put him in the greatest catcher ever debate, and I don’t even think he is the greatest catcher to wear a Yankee uniform. That being said he was still a great player, although his loveable nature is a modern construct, he was actually quite grumpy and contrary as a player. He is a St. Louis boy, and the Cardinals decided to go with Joe Garagiola instead. That worked out great for them. Yogi’s spot as a Hall of Famer is pretty much beyond contestation; only his debate as to where he stands amongst the greats is in debate.

1971-Rube Marquard, Joe Kelley, Harry Hooper, Chick Hafey, Jake Beckley, Dave Bancroft.

Rube Marquard-No- Oh look, something we haven’t seen before, a marginal ex-Giant player elected in via the Frankie Frisch Veterans Committee. Marquard was a career 201-177, with 1593 career K’s. He had a career 3.08 ERA, and he never led the league in ERA. Nothing at all that really hints and a career that would merit being inducted into the Hall of Fame.

Joe Kelley- This guy seemed like he could really hit, but all his good years were pre-1900 so, as with the others I am not really passing judgment.

Harry Hooper- Yes – I have had the luck to have read two books about Hooper, and I have discovered a lot of interesting things about it. However, the most important to the cause here is the fact that year in and year out he was considered one of the best defensive outfielders in the game, one of the smartest players, one of the fastest, and best base runners, and one of the strongest armed as well. He hit .281 for his career with a .368 OBP and he collected 2466 hits. He was an excellent postseason performer with a career .806 OPS in 4 different World Series appearances.

Chick Hafey-No- The Frankie Frisch Veterans Committee strikes again, this time with a Cardinal instead of a Giant. Same principle though. Hafey was a good hitter, although his .898 OPS are greatly inflated by the era. He was a terrible defender though, and I mean Dave Kingman bad. Not only that he really only had two seasons in his career where he played in more than 140 games, and he barely got to that mark. It was due to injuries, but still he was essentially a career part time player. He only gathered 1466 career hits.

Jack Beckley- Bah all of these damn pre-1900 players. Baseball shouldn’t count before 1900.

Dave Bancroft-No – Who is keeping count? Here is another Giant brought in by the Veteran’s committee. Bancroft was a decent but unremarkable player who put up a .714 OPS while suffering from the same problem as Hafey; Most of his career was spent in 100-120 game seasons. An unremarkable player undeserving of the Hall of Fame.

1970-Jesse Haines, Earle Combs, Lou Boudreau

Jesse Haines-No- Once again a Cardinal instead of a Giant brought in by Frisch. There is not one single reason that Haines should have been picked other than he was a friend of Frisch. His career ERA was 3.64. He had 210 wins to 158 losses, which is ok, but not stellar considering the really high ERA. Only had 981 career strike outs, never lead the league in wins, or ERA or anything really. Was completely average except for the fact he pitched 17 seasons with the Cardinals. That I respect, but it is not reason enough to be a Hall of Famer. It should be telling that he was a career Cardinal, and he had a number, yet it is not retired. Ken Boyer’s number is, and he isn’t a Hall of Famer, but Haines isn’t. Why? Because he was that valuable to the Cardinals.

Earle Combs-No- Basically just repeating all the stuff I have said many time in this decade for Veterans Committee picks. Combs could really hit, but his career was really short, just like all the other Vet picks. If he could have sustained it for five more years he would be a Hall of Famer, but unfortunately he got a late start.

Lou Boudreau-Yes- I am making a border line pick based on personal reasons. I had a Lou Boudreau card as a kid and I though he had the coolest name and I wished my name was Lou Boudreau. I thought it would have been cool if my Dad had named me Boudreau after him rather than Ryan after Nolan Ryan. Actually I think Boudreau did a lot more for his teams to help them with than Nolan Ryan did. He was a good shortstop, not great but he could hit. Career percentage numbers of .295, .380, .415.

I hate to admit it but I agree with Terrell Owens.

This hurts me, deep and to my heart, but I have to admit it to myself and to the world that I agree with Terrell Owens. He recently came out and said that players and the Players Union need to get involved in the NFL issues a 4 game suspension to Michael Vick. He feels that its ridiculous for a man to get suspended for 4 games after he has just been punished by the legal system for his crimes with a two year prison sentence. I agree with him, it just seems like piling on to add a 4 game suspension to Michael Vick. Michael Vick has paid his debt for his crimes, and served two years in prison. Its ridiculous and frankly a bit pretentious for the NFL to follow that up with a punishment of their own. NFL PA rep for the Bills George Wilson agreed wholeheartedly with what his teammate Owens was saying, so perhaps I will just say that I agree with the former Razorback George Wilson, rather than Owens. Of course the people that know me, know that I am practically a PETA member when it comes to being cruel to animals, but I also believe that when a man has served his sentence he has paid his debt and deserves a chance. Of course I have often disagreed with Mr. Roger Goodell. In regards to Pacman Jones, everybody knows that this man is a thug and an idiot, and nobody was really surprised when he got a one year suspension for his legal woes. But not many people realized that when he was suspended for a year for being involved in three crimes, in none of those instances was he ever convicted of a crime. In the first two they never even made it to court as they were thrown out. We all know he is a punk, but Goodell suspended him for a year for being in trouble with the law, when technically Mr. Jones was never guilty of committing those crimes. Seems a bit silly when you look at it that way. Its a bit steep when we get punished for being accused of a crime, isn't that a bit like guilty until proven innocent?

Hall of Fame Blog Part 3, The Eighties

Alright its time to start part 3 of my amazing Hall of Fame list.  This section will deal with those that were elected in the wonderful decade of the 1980’s.  The same decade that brought me life. 

1989-Carl Yastrzemski, Red Schoendienst, Johnny Bench (A couple of guys that probably couldn’t spell their last names till High School.  I still can’t spell them without looking)

Carl Yastrzemski-Yes- Triple Crown Winner, which is impressive, even if he did it in an offensively repressed year.  Other than that he was a fine hitter who put up 3419 career hits and a career .841 OPS while playing in some pretty pitching dominate years.

Red Schoendienst-No- This guy had TB and it drug down his system in the second half of each year, so he put great first half numbers up, then struggled in the second half.  Red is, based purely on his numbers, not really a Hall of Famer.  However, he really isn’t in the Hall of Fame based purely on his numbers.  He is in because if you take all that he has been in baseball, (player, manager, executive, coach) there is no question that he belongs in the Hall of Fame.  I will not dispute that, but since I am taking players based on their careers, and not other contributions, his .724 OPS when coupled with the fact he fell short of 2500 career hits is going to keep him out.  He was a great defender, which does help his case somewhat, but still, not in my Hall of Fame.

Johnny Bench-Yes- Rocket Arm, Good defender, one of the best offensive catchers of all time, its hard to keep him out of the Hall.  Actually impossible, as much as I would like to given my dislike of the Big Red Machine.  His .817 OPS is really strong for a catcher, and he had the other skills to back it up.

1988- Willie Stargell

Willie Stargell-Yes- Pops could rake, no question.  This man was a professional hitter.  His percentage numbers ended up being a very nice .282, .360, .529, and although he ended up 25 homers short of 500 his .889 career OPS is very strong.  He was a very good player, and a team leader.

1987-Billy Williams, Catfish Hunter,

Billy Williams-Yes- This is a guy who seems to always slip through the radar, but he actually had a very nice career.  He his .290 for his career, and ended up with a .361 OBP and .492 SLG, for a nice .853 OPS.  He played in some bad hitters years, and Wrigley often played in the pitchers favor during his career.  He is not the greatest player of his time, but he was one of the best.

Catfish Hunter-No- Catfish Hunter is a tough, tough call.  He won 20 games five years in a row, with a great percentage.  He was legitimately one of the best pitchers around during that span, but the problem is outside of that five-year span he didn’t put up great numbers.  His career record of 224-166 is very good, but it is just not a very high total, and he was well short of 3000 k’s. His career WHIP was good at 1.134 but his ERA is a tad high at 3.26 given his lack of other cumulative numbers.  I just would have liked to have seen more than five great years. 

1986-Willie McCovey, Bobby Doerr, Ernie Lombardi

Willie McCovey-Yes- If your name is Willie, there is a likelihood you might be a good baseball player.  There seem to be lots of really great Willie’s who played the game.  He was as slow as frozen snot, but he might have swung the bat harder than any man who ever lived.  He had 521 career homers, with good percentage numbers of .270, .374, and .515.  Not to mention the fact that he probably lost a lot of career homers due to the park he played in.  Definitely a Hall of Famer.

Bobby Doerr-Maybe- This is a tough call, and I will admit at this point I just don’t know enough about this guy to make the call.  Perhaps when I revise this column I will have made a decision, but right now I don’t know enough about him, and the numbers are not clear cut enough to make a decision.  His career .823 OPS is pretty damn good.

Ernie Lombardi-Yes- Slow, Slow, Slow, but this guy could hit like a fiend.  Two battings Titles, and MVP, and he only struck out 262 times in his career.  His .306 career average is impressive considering he had no chance of ever beating out a ground ball, even if it was booted.  The reputation is that he makes a Molina brother look fast.  His percentage numbers of .306, .358, and .460 are very impressive and he was a very good defensive catcher.  His OPS of .818 puts him in a class with Bench, although with not quite as much power.

1985-Hoyt Wilhelm, Arky Vaughan, Enos Slaughter, Lou Brock

Hoyt Wilhelm-Yes- Possibly one of the more underrated pitchers in the Hall of Fame.  A career reliever with a career ERA of 2.52, he put up some pretty ridiculous numbers, including 227 saves, over 1600 K’s and 143 wins.  He spent one season as a starter and he didn’t do that until he was 36, when he did he led the league in ERA with a 2.19.  What is even more ridiculous about him is that he didn’t even pitch in the big leagues until he was 29.  He did all of this in his career while not having started playing until he was nearly 30!!

Arky Vaughan-Yes- The great player no one has ever heard of.  He is probably one of the five or six best short stops of all time.  He was short on cumulative numbers, but while he was playing he was truly great and posted percentage numbers of .318, .406, .453.  That leaves a career OPS of .859 which is really, really good.

Enos Slaughter- Yes- You know, when I first got to Enos, I thought for sure that he was going to be a player that would be excluded from my Hall Of Fame.  However, after looking at his stats I was surprised to discover that I am inclined to include him.  It is true that he does have a relatively low number of career hits (2383) but he does have over 1200 runs and Rbi’s.  The real turning point for me though was his career OPS of .834.  He also throws in a nice career .300 average, which of course is secondary, but it does look nice next to the very nice career OPS.  He is by all accounts a capable if not spectacular defender.  He does have a reputation as being a racist, which I don’t approve of, but it’s truly not the Hall of Nice Guys.

Lou Brock-Yes- Whoo boy, I really think Brock is a very marginable Hall of Famer.   His percentage numbers are .293 .343 and .410.  The OBP is lower than you would like to see in a Hall of Fame leadoff hitter, but the slugging is actually a bit higher than you might expect to find.  He did score a large number of runs (1610) and he got 3000 hits, barely. (3023) But I do think that the only thing keeping him in my Hall of Fame is the fact he stole 938 bags.  That’s a high number, with only Henderson beating him.  Since he did however, I will include him.  He was also a terrible fielder, with a below average arm.  When I review this blog in the future he may be one of the inclusions that might eventually get booted. 

1984-Pee Wee Reese, Harmon Killebrew, Rick Ferrell, Don Drysdale, Luis Aparicio

Pee Wee Reese-Yes-When looking at Reese its hard to see why he was included into the Hall of Fame.  At first glance his 2170 hits seems very low with his average percentage numbers.  I have decided though, that he is probably a quality member.  He was of course, a very good defender, and is remembered fondly as a man who befriended Jackie Robinson.  His percentage numbers are .269 .366. .377.  Of course the slugging is a bit anemic, but the OBP is nearly 100 points better than his batting average, which is very good considering he was never a batter that was feared.  That is because he took 1210 walks in his career.  He was dedicated to his craft of getting on base and drawing walks.  His hit total, of course, would have been much higher if he was not so patient.  Also he stole 232 bases during a time when almost nobody was stealing bags.  All in all when included with his defense he is included, although only marginally so.

Harmon Killebrew-Yes- Big Harm was a career DH that played in an era without a DH.  He played 1^st, 3^rd, and the outfield.  He was pretty paltry at each position.  Basically the idea was to always try and hide him.  He was remembered as a bigger man than he actually was in real life.  He was listed at 5’11” and 213 lbs for most of his career.  He was though, whatever his size was, one of the strongest men to play the game.  He could flat out crush a baseball, and had tremendous power to the opposite field.  That at a time when that was more unusual than it is now.  Harm had a very nice career .884 OPS.  He would take a walk, which he did 1559 times, and always posted a great ops.  He led the league in homers 6 times, including three times in a row from 1962-64.

Rick Ferrell-No- I will admit I don’t truly know enough about Ferrell to pass judgment on him subjectively, so I am basing this purely on the numbers.  His numbers aren’t bad.  His hit .281 with a .378 OBP, the only problem is that his slugging is actually lower than his OBP, a very anemic .363.  He only had 28 career homers and 324 career doubles.  Of course he only had 1692 career hits.  He did have some very good years, but the numbers just don’t seem to be good enough, unless he is one of the best defensively, and I don’t know enough about him to rate that.

Don Drysdale-No- This man is sort of the opposite of Enos Slaughter.  With him I expected to see much better than I got.  He won 209 game with 166 lost for a .557 winning percentage.  That pretty good, but honestly his career ERA of 2.95.  Giving the fact that he 1. Played in an era known for being a pitching era, and B.  Played in Dodger stadium, which was an extreme pitching friendly ballpark.  He also only won 20 games twice in his career.  He was a very good pitcher, whose career ended at 32.  If he had played a few more years then perhaps I would include him, but baseball is filled with great players who just missed the Hall of Fame because of shortened careers.

Luis Aparicio-No- Next to Ozzie he might be the next greatest defensive shortstop of all time based on reputation.  However, that seems to be mostly reputation, as the numbers don’t seem to back that up.  His OPS is actually lower than Bill Mazeroski’s.  His percentage numbers are .262, .311, and .343.  The one thing that separates them is the fact that Luis lead his league in Stolen bases 9 years in a row, and he generally stole a very, very good percentage.  However, as I did not take Maz, it would be hard to take in Aparicio.  And I am not really inclined to anyway. 

1983-Brooks Robinson, Juan Marichal, George Kell

Brooks Robinson-Yes- Brooks might be the greatest third basemen of All-Time defensively.  He was not great offensively, but he was just good enough to make my all given his defensive prowess.  His ops were not great at .723, but he did have 1357 RBI’s, 268 homers, and 2848 hits.  Although I am not generally a fan of cumulative totals with weak percentage numbers, most of his value is actually in his defense. 

Juan Marichal-Yes- Marichal didn’t hit the 3000 k mark, but I am not concerned about that.  What Marichal did was win, and win at a very high percentage.  His career record was 243-142 for a nice winning percentage of .631.  Very nice.  He also had a nice ERA of 2.89 and he won 20 games 6 times, including a very nice 26-9 record in 1968 and 25-8 in 1963.  His ERA could be lower, but his winning percentage makes up for that. 

George Kell-Yes- All of us from North East Arkansas has a special affinity for Mr. Kell since he was a born and raised native of Swifton, Arkansas.  Not only that he always lived here even after his baseball career, and he gave back much to his community.  Despite that, he is marginable by just about everybody’s standard.  He had three really good years, but other than that he was a slightly above average singles hitter with no speed and below average defense.  However, I am going to include him.  Just because I want to, and he is the closest thing to a local Hall of Famer my area has.  This is my one, just because I want to pick. 

1982-Frank Robinson, Travis Jackson, Hank Aaron

Frank Robinson-Yes- Can’t really argue with this man.  Plus if he found out I said he didn’t belong he might track me down and beat my ass. But in truth I have no desire to do that.  Mr. Robinson was a GREAT player.  Career .926 OPS with 586 homers and 2943 hits.  And most people forget he did win a triple crown, even though it only took a .316 average to win it that is still impressive.  That was in 1967 and it gets overshadowed because in 1968 Carl Yastrzemski won it.  If I could give him two votes for the Hall I would.

Travis Jackson-No- Another Arkansas boy and perhaps the last of the picks chosen by a veteran’s committee that was notorious for picking marginable Hall of Famers just because they were buddies with them.  He was a good defender, and a decent hitter, but he just didn’t sustain greatness long enough to be a member of the Hall of Fame.  He played 15 seasons yet he still missed even getting 2000 hits. 

Hank Aaron-Yes- Not much needed here.  Great hitter, great defender, Great Hall of Famer and the rightful Home Run champ.  And a great man as well.

1981-Johnny Mize, Bob Gibson,

Johnny Mize-Yes- Johnny Mize might have missed some milestone numbers, but he was an absolute monster with the bat in his hands.  He just missed the triple crown in 1939, and he topped a 1.000 OPS four times in his career.  He did it 3 times in a row from 1938-40.  During this period he was locked in putting up some absolute monster numbers, and was likely the best player in baseball.  He deserved 2 if not all 3 of those MVP’s but somehow in 1938 he was clearly one of the top 3 players in the league, and should have won, yet finished 12^th in the MVP voting.  He lost the MVP in 1939 to Bucky Walters when they were both about equally valuable, but in 1940 he lost to Frank McCormick when the OPS difference was 1.039 to .850.  He should have at least been a two time MVP and very easily could have won the award 3 years running.

Bob Gibson-Yes- Everybody remembers 1.12 but that might not have even been his best year.  He won 20 games five times, had 3117 career K’s and put up a nice .591 winning percentage.  He was also probably the greatest World Series pitcher of all time. 

1980-Duke Snider, Chuck Klein, Al Kaline

Duke Snider-Another no doubt Hall of Famer.  He was a great defender with a rocket arm and posted a career .919 OPS.  His percentage number was a very nice .295, .380, .540.  A most excellent player.

Chuck Klein-Yes- He was an absolute professional hitter with maybe the best arm ever next to Clemente.  He was one of the few guys who played wearing glasses.  His career OPS was .922 which is very strong with a career BA of .320.  He could just flat out hit, and he was one of the few good picks that the Veteran’s committee made during this time.

Al Kaline-Yes- A truly great defender that put up some very good offensive numbers in a very bad offensive park.  His OPS was a very solid .855 which is more than quality considering his great defense and great arm.  He just missed a career .300 BA by 3 points, and he managed to hang around to gain 3007 hits.  Not the greatest player, but he was one of the best of his time.  

Ryan Howard for the All-Star team!! What a Shame!

Normally I don't get to up in arms about guys who are named to the All-Star team, but Ryan Howard being named to the team just because Charlie Manual wanted him is a bit of a farce. There were already 3 first basemen on the roster, all of which clearly deserved to be on the team in front of Howard. Howard is, probably in the bottom five of first basemen in the National League. For example he is not having a better season than Albert Pujols, Derek Lee, Lance Berkman, Joey Votto, Adam Laroche, or Prince Fielder. Essentially Howard is the 7th best firstbasemen in the six team central. Todd Helton is also clearly better, and I would also give Nick Johnson the nod over him as well. I don't think that the 9th or 10th best guy at his position deserves to be on the All-Star team when there are already 3 guys at that position on the team.

Movie Review Public Enemies 7/10

I am not quite certain if this is a true Biopic or not as I am not really knowledgable enough about John Dillinger to know how accurate it is. It does seem like a movie that is trying to not go overboard with the over sensationalism of its characters. The movie was beautifully shot and cut, and one seen in particular involving a stop light is one of the best I have seen in a good long while, beautifully shot. It is not an action movie, and there is only a couple of shoot out scenes, but that is not really the purpose of the movie. Its about the love interest and about the life and personality of John Dillinger rather than his exploits. The love part seemed a hair far fetched as they fell in love a little to hard a little to fast. I did like this movie, although it did have a couple of faults. It didn't highlight nearly enough the disdain people of the time felt for banks, and it only touched on Dillinger's desire to only rob from the bank, and his concern for keeping a good repartee with general population. It is actually somewhat surprising that I liked this movie as I generally disdain movies that glorify criminals and make you want to root for them. I like it because despite that it is a beautifully shot period piece with great attention to detail. And of course the acting was superb, although just like Terminator Salvation Christian Bale was overshadowed by the rest of the cast.

Errors and omissions in the first two Hall of fame blogs.

I seemed to have overlooked a couple of Hall of Famers that should have already been reviewed by my two released blogs.

Dennis Eckersley-no- Essentially Eck had 7 good years in his career. Five of which were as a closer, 2 of which were pretty legendary. However, he was a very mediocre starter at best, and I really give him very little Hall of Fame credit for his time as a starter. Also the last five years of his career as a closer he had a cumulative era over 4.00 and was really bad in some of those years. He put up some good save numbers but during some of those years where he was putting up some decent save totals, he actually just wasn't a very good pitcher. He had 36 saves in 1993, but he put up an ERA of 4.16, and 1995 he was even worse, tallying 29 saves but with a 4.83. Sure he was older when he put up these numbers, but you don't get stats taken off your record just because you are getting older. On the whole his career ERA was 3.50, which isn't as good as the other relievers which I have decided not to include. Career wise Eck was the worst of them.

Joe Gordon-yes- He had a very short career, but he was nearly an All-Star every year of it. He may not have quanitity but the years that he spent in the league were quality, and quality is always better than quantity as long as you played the required amount of years. His career OPS of .822 is very good for his position, and I might be a little biased because I like his story. He was to Larry Doby as Pee Wee Reese was to Jackie Robinson.

Hall of Fame Part 2, the Nineties

Part 2 of my Hall of Fame Series. This section will detail those elected from 1990-1999.

1999-Robin Yount, Nolan Ryan, Orlando Cepeda, George Brett.

Nolan Ryan-no- He is the all time strikeout leader, has over 300 wins, and pitched 7 no hitters. He was hard to hit. And also probably the most overrated pitcher of all time. I am excluding him. He won 324 game but you know what he lost 292. He was very nearly a .500 pitcher for his career. He walked 200 batters not once, but twice in his career and he never won a Cy Young award. He only won 20 games twice, and both times he lost 16 games as well. He did play for some bad teams, and had some bad luck but there is a lot of pitchers that put up good careers that suffered because they were on bad teams. If you take away his strikeouts, which do not make you a great pitcher, what you have is a very average pitcher who pitched for a very long time.

Robin Yount-no- He had some good years, but other than the 3000 hits I don’t think you could say he was a great player. As my cousin pointed out to me he only made 3 all-star teams. And its true that that is not always an accurate indicator, but you would think that if he was truly one of the best more managers would have picked him for the team. I have a familial connection to him of sorts, my nephew’s wife’s maiden name is Yount, and they are related, so I hope she doesn’t kill me in my sleep.

Orlando Cepeda- maybe- I will admit I don’t really know enough about him to make an informed decision, but looking at the raw data his percentage numbers are pretty damn good and he played in an era where a .500 slg. Meant something. I may add him via the veterans committee in a few years.

George Brett-yes-This man could hit, and play defense, and steal some bags. It is hard not to include him in the Hall of Fame.

1998-Don Sutton, Larry Doby, George Davis

Don Sutton-yes- Sutton was a very good pitcher in the National League, and then hung on a little to long in the American League when he should have called it quits, so that hurt his numbers a little bit. He won the exact same number of games as Nolan Ryan, with a much better Winning percentage.

Larry Doby-yesx2- Jackie Robinson got all the press, but this guy had it even worse. They both made their appearances in the same season; Jackie was first in the National League and Doby a couple of months later in the American League. However, Jackie had it easy in comparison. The spotlight was on Jackie Robinson because he was the first. The spotlight tempered some of the things he went through, as well as being on a team with more media coverage. (Robinson still had it horrible, Doby just had it worse.) In the American League Doby played for Cleveland, which no one cared about, and was younger than Jackie. He was terrorized to a degree that Jackie wasn’t and nobody ever really knew about it. It is unfair and a shame that Jackie Robinson has a day and nobody even remembers that Larry Doby went through even worse for Baseball integration.

George Davis-yes- Not only is he a Hall of Fame pick for me, he is also one of my five best shortstops. His .295 .361. .405 were very, very impressive for the time.

1997-Phil Niekro, Nellie Fox

Nellie Fox-No- Another veteran’s committee pick before they made the switch making it more difficult to get elected that way. Nellie Fox put up a decent average (.288) and a decent but not spectacular obp of .348. He couldn’t slug his way out of a wet paper sack. His career OPS of .710 is not that great. He was however, a very, very good defender. I just don’t know if he was good enough to make up for the fact that five or six of his full time seasons were truly terrible. He was selected to several all-star teams, which aids to his cause, but he comes up a bit short for greatness.

Phil Niekro-yes-Not a great career winning percentage, but he did get 300 wins and 3000 k’s. Unlike a lot of other marginal pitchers though, Niekro was a good deal better percentage wise than the teams he played for. For a four-year stretch he lead the league in losses each year. Still in each of those years he was a lot better than his team. I understand that sometimes a pitcher plays for a bad team and that hurts him, but if you want to get sympathy for that you had better have a superior winning percentage than those poor teams, and Niekro does. Plus I got to say the 245 complete games are kind of impressive.

1996-Jim Bunning

Jim Bunning-no-I am not really sure why this guy is in the Hall of Fame. He didn’t get close to 300 games; he had a pretty decent winning percentage, but not good enough to counteract the 300 games given the period he pitched in. He never won a Cy Young; he didn’t get 3000 k’s. He only won 20 games once. Doesn’t seem like a Hall of Famer to me.

1995-Vic Willis, Mike Schmidt, Richie Ashburn

Vic Willis-yes- It’s tough to know a ton about these guys that ended there career in 1910 and before, but I am going to have to go with a no for Willis. He was considered a good pitcher, but his 2.63 ERA is pretty high when compared with others from his time. However, he once lost 29 games because he played for perhaps the most legendarily bad team ever. When given the chance to pitch for even mediocre teams, he did well.

Mike Schmidt-yes- Not much to say here, perhaps the greatest third basemen to play the game. He get hit it 800 miles and he could play his position. Plus he is a great golfer.

Richie Ashburn-yes- He came up short of 3000 hits but his career average of .308 and career obp of .396 is very, very strong. He was a lead off man who knew what he needed to do, and he was excellent in the field as well. He also won two battings titles. Maybe the best leadoff man of his time.

1994-Phil Rizzuto, Steve Carlton

Phil Rizzuto-no- If I can take his playing career and combine it with his broadcasting career then maybe, but as it is he is a big time no. His most noteworthy statistical achievement is that he led the league in sacrifice bunts 4 years in a row. He is a very modest .273, .351, .355. He also only amassed 1588 hits, not a very convincing total. He did win an MVP and it was a worthy year, but one MVP does not a Hall of Famer make. He is perhaps one of the most marginal of Hall of Famers and he is not in my Hall of Fame.

Steve Carlton-yes- Steve Carlton won 20 games 6 times, and won over 300 games with a good winning percentage. He also had over 4000 k’s. A pretty convincing number. Not only that he had one of the most impressive seasons of all time. In 1972 he had 27 wins, and his team only had 59 in total. It took a 1.97 era to get those 27 wins though.

1993-Reggie Jackson

Reggie Jackson-Yes- He is not my kind of player, but he is a Hall of Famer, I guess. He has a pretty good reputation for coming through in the clutch. He does have a good total of home runs with 563. However, I found his career OPS of .846 underwhelming, especially since his career slugging is under .500. But with over 550 homers I guess I will take him, although I am not feeling thrilled about it.

1992- Rollie Fingers, Tom Seaver, Hal Newhouser

Rollie Fingers-yes- See comments on the other relievers in the 2000’s section. He is better than both Sutter and Gossage so I included him.

Tom Seaver-Yes- Possibly the best pitcher of all time. He had an astounding career winning percentage of .605 for a 311-205 record. He also had 3640 k’s. He won 20 games five times, and he won three Cy Young awards. There isn’t any possible argument to make that he doesn’t belong in the Hall of Fame.

Hal Newhouser-no- He does meet one of my requirements for induction. For a three-year period he was truly great. In that three-year period he won 80 games and picked up 2 MVP awards. He won 20 games 4 times in a short career. The problem with him is that he was pretty much only good those 4 years. He just wasn’t good for long enough to really be considered one of the all time greats. For three years though he was stellar.

1991- Rod Carew, Fergie Jenkins, Tony Lazzeri, Gaylord Perry

Rod Carew-Yes- 7 time batting champ with a career .328 batting average with a nice .822 OPS. He was a mediocre fielder, but man he could really hit. He also got over 3000 hits in his career and stole 353 bases as well.

Fergie Jenkins-Yes- Not the greatest in the Hall, but he did win 20 games 7 times with a good winning percentage and that is pretty impressive. He didn’t win 300 games, but that is not a requirement really and he did get over 3000 k’s. I do have concerns over the fact that he was only named to three All-Star games.

Tony Lazzeri-Yes- Well this guy doesn’t have the cumulative numbers, but he could really play. He was good defensively, and he was pretty legendary as a leader. His percentage numbers were really good at .292, .380, .467, which ends up with a very nice .846 OPS. Probably the second best second basemen of his time.

Gaylord Perry-No- Maybe I think I will take a stand here. This is a guy whose numbers don’t really matter, and who had made a mockery of the game. He did win 300 games with a decent percentage and won 2 Cy Young awards, but, does someone who blatantly breaks the rules deserve to be in? Everybody knows that Gaylord Perry used the spitball, A LOT. That is an illegal pitch and has been for years, and many pitchers have used it illegally. Just not as brazenly as Perry. Knowing what I know about his wet one, I don’t think I want him in the Hall of Fame.

1990- Joe Morgan, Jim Palmer

Joe Morgan-Yes- Joe Morgan is a pompous prick who doesn’t understand near as much about the game as he thinks he does, and routinely makes the people around him want to throttle him. However, that doesn’t change the fact that he was an excellent second basemen. He was an absolute on base fiend who could find away to draw a walk on three pitches. He was also a great defensive second basemen and two time MVP. He also stole 689 bases while only getting caught 162 times.

Jim Palmer-Yes- Great pitcher, with an absolutely stellar winning percentage of .638. That’s a really rocking percentage. He didn’t get 300 wins, or 3000 k’s, but when you trotted him out there you knew more often than not you were ending the day with a win, and that counts for a lot.

In Recap, for those elected in the 1990’s I have retained the following for my Hall of Fame:

George Brett

Don Sutton

Larry Doby

George Davis

Phil Niekro

Vic Willis

Mike Schmidt

Richie Ashburn

Steve Carlton

Reggie Jackson

Rollie Fingers

Tom Seaver

Rod Carew

Fergie Jenkins

Tony Lazzeri

Joe Morgan

Jim Palmer

Hall of Fame Part 1 of Many

My cousin gave me a great idea for a blog, and this is really his idea, but I decided to run with it. Since this is the last Hall of Fame election of this decade it seems like a good time to start this project. I am, starting with 2009 and going backwards to 1937 going to create my own Hall of Fame out of the players that have been enshrined in Cooperstown. I will try and quantify my picks to the best of my abilities. I am going to skip over executives and managers because they are by and large life time achievement awards more than anything else, and I generally don’t have a problem with those that have been elected. This first post is for those elected from 2000-2009

2009 Class Jim Rice and Rickey Henderson.

Rickey Henderson-Yes- There is nothing to argue about here. He is a legit all time great. Sure he might have been selfish at times, and responsible for some wacky quotes but the man had a career OBP of .401. And he played A LONG time. Plus he is the all time steals and runs leader. He is beyond reproach.

Jim Rice-No- Jim Rice is, I do believe, a man who benefitted from the steroid era of baseball. If steroids had not taken such a forefront in voter’s minds I do not think that he would have ever gotten in. Don’t get me wrong, he is a good player, just not in my mind a Hall of Fame player. And I am sure some of you will say, but yea this guy got in, etc, etc, and Jim was better than them. Well keep in mind that player may not make my list either. Jim did have some decent percentage numbers, but he missed most all of the mile stone numbers and his percentage numbers aren’t exceptional enough to get over the fact he didn’t have any milestones. If he brought defense to the table, which he doesn’t at all, I would take him with those numbers, but if all of your value is offensive then I want to see an OPS more around .900 at least. Jim’s is just a bit short at .854. I think he is close, and I won’t say that he is a bad choice for the hall of fame, as there are MUCH, MUCH worse players in the Hall, he just isn’t in my Hall of Fame.

2008-Goose Gossage

Goose Gossage- No-Why him and not Lee Smith? As a relief pitcher the save is paramount as a stat. As far as career ERA goes Gossage is 3.01 to 3.03, but Smith has 478 saves to 310 Saves for Gossage. Now I do think the save stat is a bit overrated, but I don’t think I buy Goose Gossage as one of the greats of all-time, and I do give Sutter an edge over Gossage because he invented a pitch.

2007-Tony Gwynn and Cal Ripken Jr.

Tony Gwynn-Yes- This man could hit, and before he got fat could steal bases like a fiend and was a great defender in the outfield. The man had a .338 career batting average, and although I value OBP more than BA, and his OPS is not as high as some other guys, Gwynn brought more to the field than just his bat for most of his career and he did get 3000 hits.

Cal Ripken Jr.-Yes- I respect what Cal Ripken did with his streak, but I do find him a tad overrated because he was a Good player for most of his career, not a great one. Even though I think he is overrated, I still think he is a Hall of Famer.

2006 There were several Negro league greats elected this year, and frankly I don’t know how to quantify there inclusion, so I will leave that debate to the Negro League scholars. Bruce Sutter was the one non-Negro Leaguer.

Bruce Sutter-No-See Goose Gossage

2005-Wade Boggs, Ryne Sandberg

Wade Boggs-Yes-The Man liked his chicken and his women. He might not have slugged the ball much but he was a plus defender at third and his career .415 OBP was absolutely ridiculous. He also had a career .328 BA and .443 SLG, neither of which is to shabby either.

Ryne Sandberg-yes-I really wanted to say no, and to be honest he is a very marginal pick for my Hall of Fame. His percentage numbers are not that good, but good enough I guess, and he sure played for some horrible teams, with little to back him up. But he brought power, speed, and absolute top flight defense to the field every day, and because he did everything at a high level I am including him.

2004-Paul Molitor

Paul Molitor-yes- Only marginally better than Jim Rice. The reason he is in and Rice isn’t is because I do respect the 3000 hit threshold and Molitor also added over 500 steals to his resume. He is also a marginally addition.

2003-Gary Carter, Eddie Murray

Gary Carter-No- A fairly average player. He was slow as snot, didn’t hit for average, didn’t slug to much, didn’t get on base much, and was highly overrated as a defensive player.

Eddie Murray-Yes-Has there every been a player to put up more similar seasons than Murray? Probably not, he was a poster child for consistency. There is something to be said about greatness over longevity, but Murray had 500 homers and 3000 hits, and that’s hard to ignore.

2002-Ozzie Smith

Ozzie Smith-yes- There is no statistical analysis system out there that doesn’t have Ozzie Smith as possibly the most valuable defensive player of all time. However, what most people don’t realize is that Ozzie contributed more than just his glove and for most of his career with the Cardinals was a plus offensively as well. He was a good on base man and nearly had 600 career steals. He is and forever will be the man that all good defensive shortstops are compared to.

2001-Kirby Puckett, Dave Winfield, Bill Mazeroski

Kirby Puckett-yes-Good percentage numbers combined with a shortened career and excellent defense make him a yes in my Hall of Fame, however, only marginally so. Probably the weakest player so far that I have included.

Dave Winfield-No-Jim Rice was a better hitter than Dave Winfield. It is true that Dave Winfield had 3000 hits, but he was a good defender not great, and his numbers are good but less than impressive. In my opinion he is an example of a player who only got in because he got 3000 hits.

Bill Mazeroski-No No NO NO- His inclusion in the Hall of Fame is a travesty. He had a good glove, but not that good. He might have been the best ever at turning the double play, but it wasn’t that much more than the average second basemen. He was a good defender, but far from the best at his position, and his being included with the greats is a joke. He had a career .299 OBP. He was slow, and was nowhere near the most valuable second basemen of his time. He hit a big homerun and got a reputation and rode it into what was apparently a drunken veterans committee, either that or the committee all had the last name Mazeroski.

2000-Bid McPhee, Tony Perez, Carlton Fisk

Bid McPhee-No-If you played before 1900 and you didn’t have a .300 BA don’t apply you don’t belong.

Carlton Fisk-yes-Team leader, good numbers, great defense, and great teammate.
Tony Perez-no-Other than being a member of the Big Red Machine, I am not sure what he even brings to the table. .803 OPS isn’t that stellar even given the decades he played in. He did have a ton of RBI’s but that’s a bit of a worthless stat as any decent hitter in the middle of the lineup will get 100. He didn’t reach any milestones other than RBI’s and he played for a long, long time. So basically you have a guy who you can’t say was short of milestones because he had a short career, and his percentage numbers aren’t that good either.

So for those elected from 2000-2009 My Hall of Fame team is as follows:
Rickey Henderson
Tony Gywnn
Cal Ripken Jr.
Wade Boggs
Ryne Sandberg
Paul Molitor
Eddie Murray
Kirby Puckett
Carlton Fisk
Next up will be my assessment of the 1990’s.