Baseball
Established in 1936, and currently based in Cooperstown, New York, the Baseball Hall of Fame may be the most prestigious of any Sports Hall of Fame. Although Baseball may have taken a backseat to Football in recent years, there is no doubt that Baseball’s version of the Hall of Fame is by far the most relevant and the most difficult to get enshrined in. At present, a player has to receive seventy five percent of the votes from the Baseball Writers Association of America, which has proven to be no easy task. Failing that, a player could be inducted by the Veterans committee, though few have been inducted this way. Our list will focus on the players only, and although we could easily do a tally focusing on mangers, broadcasters or other vital personnel, as always it is far more enjoyable to discuss the merits of those on the field as oppose to those off of it.Until Then, Let’s get some peanuts and cracker jacks and cast some votes of our own!
Sincerely,
The Not in Hall of Committee.
Gary Sheffield has to be the most interesting candidate who appeared on the 2014 Ballot. Traditionally speaking, Sheffield hit the magical 500 Home Run mark, won a Batting Title, and had five seasons with an OPS over one. His career WAR is respectable, his OPS is in the top fifty, and he also won five Silver Sluggers and played in nine All-Star Games. That’s pretty good, right? Unfortunately, there are a few things to consider. Sheffield was a defensive liability, so much so that it knocks him off the top 100 in Career bWAR for a position player. He was…
An argument has been made that Ross Barnes was the greatest baseball player of all time in the League. Unfortunately, that aforementioned League was the National Association, not the current Leagues known today. The argument about Ross Barnes’ skills is easy to make. He led the Baseball Association in both traditional and sabermetric categories multiple times and was called the most valuable teammate among his peers; many of whom would go on to Cooperstown themselves. In 1877, Barnes fell ill with a severe fever and was never the same player afterward. He was out of baseball by age 31, and…
The common trend in Baseball Hall of Fame voting is for a solid candidate to get a healthy double-digit vote in his first year of eligibility and watch that number climb slowly as more and more perspective is put on their career. For Steve Garvey, the more the Hall looked at his career, the more they seemed to talk themselves out of his induction, as evidenced by the way his votes were cut in half from his first year (41.6) to (21.1) in his last year. There is a good chance that if you were a fan of the L.A.…
The position of third base holds the fewest Hall of Famers in Baseball. There, however, have been many great ballplayers at the “Hot Corner,” and some even won the MVP award. Ken Boyer was one such man, as he won that coveted trophy in 1964. Boyer was not a one-season wonder. Prior to his MVP year, Boyer had been building up to that season, establishing himself as one of the top third basemen in the league. He was winning Gold Gloves and was hitting 20 or more home runs while keeping a batting average that rarely left the .300 range. …
How many people pointed at Bert Blyleven’s 287 career wins year after year and championed his Hall of Fame cause? We don’t know the exact number, but we are sure that it is a lot more than those who created logs extolling the virtues of Tony Mullane’s 284 Major League victories. Maybe people should marvel at those wins. Mullane was an ambidextrous hurler who could easily baffle batters, as back in his day, pitchers did not wear gloves, thus they had no idea which arm he would throw with. Mullane was an innings-eater who recorded 30 wins on multiple occasions. …
You would not think that an eleven-time All-Star would be forgotten among Hall of Fame consideration, but in the case of career-long Detroit Tiger, Bill Freehan that appears to be the reality. Bill Freehan gained a lot of respect among Major League players. He may not have been a huge force with his bat (though he did have a few respectable seasons), but he was among the best in handling a pitching staff and the defensive roles of a professional catcher. It was primarily through these attributes that Freehan gained as much MVP support as he did, as he was…
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Right now, it is hard to imagine a time when the Atlanta Braves were not relevant in the world of Professional Baseball, but in the 1980’s, frankly, Ted Turner’s team wasn’t a spectacular one. The exception to that rule was Dale Murphy, who in his prime drew comparisons to legends such as Mays and DiMaggio. No, really, he did. For a five-year stretch, Dale Murphy was among the most feared hitters in the league. He hit for power, had a decent average, and was excellent in the clutch. In addition, Murphy knew how to handle himself in the field, as…
One of the most popular Yankees of all time was Don Mattingly. This was a very impressive reality considering that the year before he turned pro, the Bronx Bombers lost to the Dodgers in the World Series, and the year after he retired, they won the championship. During Mattingly’s entire tenure, the Yankees never went to the Fall Classic, the largest stretch of postseason futility in franchise history. The failure of the Yanks to win the World Series was through no fault of Don Mattingly. He was easily amongst the best in the game in the last half of the…
1,800 career hits and a lifetime .266 Batting Average sounds like a good career, but not necessarily a Hall of Fame one. A closer look at Bobby Grich's overall body of work indicates he is much closer than you might think. Prior to Grich, the prototypical second baseman was a smaller athlete who was a wizard with the glove, and any offense you got from him was a bonus. There were occasional exceptions, but that was generally the rule for the position. Grich was oversized for a Second Baseman, but had exceptional range and won four Gold Gloves. Grich had…
Chase Utley came up through the Philadelphia Phillies system, and after debuting in 2003, he would quickly become the heart of a team that would win the 2008 World Series. The Second Baseman brought a lot to the table, and from 2006 to 2010, he was a perennial All-Star. In three of those seasons, Utley finished in the top ten in MVP voting, and he was a Silver Slugger in four of them. From 2005 to 2009, he would have at least 22 Home Runs, with the first four of them seeing him hit the three-digit mark in Runs Batted…
It has to be considered a given that the PED question has hurt many players in their quest for Cooperstown. It is very possible that anyone associated with it will fail to get elected, and the Hall will be devoid of some of the game’s greatest record setters. Yet, of all the people whose careers got tarnished, we can’t help but wonder if Sammy Sosa took the biggest fall of them all. Barry Bonds may be the man most synonymous with power in the Steroids Era, but it was Sammy Sosa who was the period’s most consistent Home Run Threat.…
Buster Posey was a San Francisco Giant for all of his 12 seasons in the Majors, and is widely considered the best Catcher of the 2010s. Posey was an outstanding player at the University of Florida, where he won the 2008 Dick Howser Trophy and the Golden Spikes Award. In the 2008 Amateur Draft, the Giants chose him as the fifth overall pick. After a brief seven-game stint with San Francisco, he became their everyday catcher and won the National League Rookie of the Year award. He led the Giants to a World Series Championship that year, which was his…
Stan Hack played his entire 16-season career with the Chicago Cubs. He was one of the Cubbies most popular players as “Smilin” Stan’s sunny disposition made him a fan favorite among players, fans, and journalists alike. It also didn’t hurt that he was one hell of a hitter. Hack hit over 2,100 hits batting first for Chicago, but like any true good leadoff hitter, he found a way to get on base. Hack knew how to draw the free pass and was constantly among league leaders in On Base Percentage. Once on the base paths, Hack was an intelligent base…
David Cone may not be best remembered for winning a Cy Young Award. He may be best known as a true hired gun that baseball teams coveted in their stretch drives. Cone had the coveted label as a big game pitcher. Cone was at his best during high-pressure situations and showcased his abilities as a member of five World Series-winning teams. He was a very smart pitcher who used a variety of skills to defeat opposing batters. Cone was the subject of various sex scandals, yet was able to shut out those distractions and often had his best outings while…
Many baseball players are known for their clutch performances at the plate. Graig Nettles certainly had many clutch hits in his long career, but he may have been known for having more clutch performances with his glove. Many players start off fast and tail off, but Graig Nettles really hit his stride eight years into his pro career. He was a power-hitting third baseman and was a big part of the Yankees' three consecutive American League Pennants in the ’70s. As his bat came alive, more people paid attention to his aggressive fielding and noticed his wide range at the…
Many who first think of Jim Edmonds and the Hall of Fame may think automatically of what we wrote about Moises Alou and that he is likely a candidate for the “Hall of Very Good”. However, the more we really thought about it, the more we liked “Jimmy Baseball’s” resume. Although Edmonds is under 2,000 for career hits and his four All-Star appearances are relatively low for a potential Hall of Fame Baseball inductee, he brought a very respectable 393 Home Runs and 1,199 RBIs, and a very good career OPS of .903. Edmonds was more than a hitter; he…
Dave Stieb may have received a World Series Ring with the Toronto Blue Jays when they won their first World Series in 1992, but the pitcher was at the tail end of his career and had little to do with the coveted trophy landing north of the border. He did, however, give Baseball fans the first legitimate reason to look there in the first place. With only 176 career Wins in the Majors, Dave Stieb initially does not seem like a Hall of Fame candidate. What cannot be underestimated is the difficulty he had in his first five full seasons…
A lot of baseball players take flak for their high salaries. One of those who did was Kevin Brown, who was the first man in professional baseball to sign a contract worth $100 Million. Sadly for Brown, his deterioration made that one of the worst contracts, as in the final years of his career, he was not a player who should have been among the game’s highest-paid. This isn’t to say that Kevin Brown didn’t have flashes of brilliance because he certainly had enough of them to warrant such a huge contract in the first place. He was regarded as…
For about six seasons, Bob Caruthers was considered one of the best pitchers in baseball. Sadly, because his career lasted only nine seasons, his impact on the game may not have allowed him to cement himself as one of the great early pitchers. ‘Parisian’ Bob Caruthers was not a flame-throwing Pitcher who relied more on outsmarting batters than powering past them. To this day, he holds one of the top career winning percentages in Baseball (.688) and twice led the American Association in victories. Caruthers was an excellent batter who also posted significant offensive numbers for a few seasons. Caruthers…