The Final Hall of Fame Blog, here are the 1930's.

Here it is, finally the last decade of my year my year Hall of Fame evaluations. I have kicked a lot of players out of the Hall of Fame. The 30's are pretty much a formality. All of these guys were amongst the first elected and some of the games greats of all time.

1939. George Sisler, Lou Gehrig, Eddie Collins.

George Sisler-Yes- The man hit .420. Yes I think he is overrated, yes I think pure batting average is overrated. Yes the man couldn't walk. But he is still a Hall of Famer.

Lou Gehrig- Yes, emphatically- Where as Cal Ripken was a slightly above league average player during large portions of his streak, Lou Gehrig was in the lineup everyday, and one of the greatest ballplayers of all time everyday. His career percentage numbers are .340 .447 .632. Yes folks that’s a career OPS of 1.080. He is constantly overshadowed by the fact he played on a team with Babe Ruth, so as amazing as it is it’s a possibility he was slightly undervalued as a player.

Eddie Collins- Yes- Cocky Collins is on pretty much every top five second basemen of all time list. The conversation generally goes around him, Lajoie, Hornsby, Gehringer, and thanks to sabermetrics, Joe Morgan, Oh and Just for Andy's sake I will toss in Craig Biggio. Collins was a fantastic defensive player and a fantastic hitter. He also stole 741 bags to go along with 3315 hit. His career numbers were a salty .333 .424 .429. He is a no doubt Hall of Famer.

1938. Grover Cleveland Alexander

Grover Cleveland Alexander- Yes- I recommend the book Wicked Curve to anybody who likes baseball. Grover is a sad figure. His most famous moment was probably as a Cardinal while he was a drunk nearly washed up reliever. But he rose to glory one last time in the 1926 World Series when the lowly Cardinals beat the mighty Yankee's to win their first ever World Championship. (Sorry we were late to the party Cubs fans, but at least we didn't duck out early) Grover was a pretty phenomenal 373-208 and is unquestionable one of the great pitchers of All-Time.

1937. Cy Young, Tris Speaker, Nap Lajoie

Cy Young- Yes- Probably not a good idea to kick the guy whom the pitching award is named after from the Hall of Fame. Most well known for being the career leader in wins with 511. Of course he is also the career leader in losses with 316. We won't hold that against him though since he had a career winning percentage of .618. All in all he was perhaps slightly overrated, but still one of the greatest pitchers of All-Time.

Tris Speaker- Yes- Spoke has the distinction of being one of the few guys that called Ty Cobb a friend. He also sadly has the distinction of being tied to a gambling rumor with Cobb (they were very likely innocent) and having to give up managing to finish up their playing career A's. (By the way I don’t know another team that had more future Hall of Famers the 1928 A's team. Mickey Cochrane, Al Simmons, Ty Cobb, Jimmie Foxx, Tris Speaker, Eddie Collins, and Lefty Grove were all on that team) Tris was a great player, a historically great centerfielder, and a great hitter. He was a career .345 hitter with a .428 OBP and .500 SLG. Yea, this guy could play.

Nap Lajoie- Yes- Lajoie was generally not a nice man while he was a Philly. He had a lot of problems with drinking, and was generally a world class insubordinate ass. However, he could play. He was not the greatest defensive second basemen of all time by any stretch but he was one of best offensive players of his time.

1936. Honus Wagner, Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, Walter Johnson, Christy Matthewson

Honus Wagner -Yes- Of course Honus is in the Hall of Fame, he is the greatest shortstop of All-Time. He was without a doubt far and away the best player in the National League during his playing days. He brought home 8 batting titles in his career. He was a career .328 .391 .467. He was leaps and bounds better than any other shortstop defensively during his time in baseball.

Babe Ruth-Yes- Babe Ruth was ridiculous. Other than possibly his teammate Lou Gehrig Babe was a man playing amongst boys. Anyone that thinks Barry Bonds is a better player than Babe Ruth is deluded. (and that has nothing to do with his steroids allegations, just his stats) Sure some of Bonds stats may be comparable, but you can't compare stats straight against each other generation to generation. You have to look at how much better that player was than the people he was playing with. Bonds was better than everybody else, but not ridiculously so. Ruth was in a league of his own. There just weren't people doing what he could do. Hitting for average, hitting more homeruns than entire teams. He was a legend, Bonds will continue only to be a legend in his own mind. .342 .474 .690 were his career percentage numbers.

Ty Cobb-Yes- 11 batting titles. .366 career average. 897 Stolen bases. World class ass. Great Hitter.

Walter Johnson-Yes- He is a frontrunner in the conversation for greatest pitcher of all time. 417 wins to only 279 losses, pretty damn good considering the Senators were not a top flight team. He lead the league in wins 5 times and in ERA 4 times. He also garnered two MVP awards, one at the ripe old age of 36. He was the premier strike out artist of his time and lead the league in K's 11 times.

Christy Mathewson-Yes- He is one of my All- Time favorite players in history. He was an educated man, he went to Bucknell University in Pennsylvania, which was an extreme rarity at this early and rowdy stage in baseball history. He was a good man, an American Hero kind of guy, who was an officer in World War I. He died early in 1925 because of a lung complication due to his being gassed during WWI. Ty Cobb narrowly missed being gassed in the same incident, he got his mask on a second quicker than Matty. His career record was an amazing 373 and 188 for a very robust .665 winning percentage. His career ERA was a very low 2.13. He had a pitch called the "fadeaway" which has generally been thought to have been a screwball, but very likely could have been an early version of a changeup.