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.
With a magical season, a pair of exceptional ones, and a few very good ones, Ron Guidry had an excellent career in Baseball all with the Yankees. Theoretically, “Louisiana Lightning” did everything you want to accomplish in a career as he won the Cy Young Award (and was in the hunt for a few others) and won the World Series, which he did twice. However, the knock on Guidry is that he was only a full-time player for nine seasons, and though he has one of the most impressive winning percentages in Baseball, his longevity is questioned in comparison to…
Regardless of the era, it is an impressive feat to be a key member of Chicago's rotation for a decade. The Chicago White Sox may not have won a World Series in the ’50s, but they were a good team, and much of their success was due to the pitching of Billy Pierce. Through the decade of the ’50s, few were more dependable on the mound than Billy Pierce. The southpaw won 154 games that decade and was constantly pitted against aces of other staffs. Pierce was occasionally the victim of poor run support from his own team, but was…
Another forgotten star in the pre-Babe Ruth era was Larry Doyle, who was easily amongst the most likable players of his era. Not only was he a natural favorite, but he was also one of the most consistent players. Larry Doyle was above average in almost every category and put together a monster 1912 campaign, during which he won the 1911 MVP. Although he had many very good seasons, his three World Series appearances were less than stellar, and he failed to lead his team to any championship. Had he kept to the standards he set from April to September,…
Omar Vizquel was considered one of the best defensive Shortstops of all time, earning 11 Gold Gloves and posting a career Defensive bWAR ranked in the top 10. This isn’t to say that Vizquel couldn’t provide assistance with his offense. The Shortstop had 2,877 career hits in a career that saw him play until he was 45 years old. He also had 279 career Stolen Bases, but what holds him back is a low on-base percentage (.336) and a lack of a power game. Advanced metrics don’t help him (offensively anyway), but in his prime (and evidently well past it),…
In the late 70’s, Hall of Fame pitcher Don Sutton famously noted that Steve Garvey was not the best player on the Dodgers; it was Reggie Smith. Garvey may have been the most popular, but Sutton was not alone in his assessment of Reggie Smith. In his prime, Reggie Smith was a legitimate five-tool player. He had decent power, decent speed, and was a smart player who always knew how to get on base. In retrospect, it is hard to find a real criticism of his game, as he was above average in every aspect of his baseball acumen. In…
If the main criteria for the Hall are perseverance and effort, then Rusty Staub should have been a first-ballot Hall of Famer. His hard work resulted in over 2,700 hits in a Major League career that many people who saw him early on would never have pegged him for. Nobody could ever accuse Staub of not giving everything he had, regardless of the endeavor. Those efforts included cooking, history, and, of course, baseball. They called him eccentric for these things, but his meticulous nature turned him into a pure hitter and gained him respect throughout the league. He made six…
If you look at the Wikipedia article on Albert Belle you will find that the section on his controversies is longer than his accomplishments. He fought with sportswriters, with fans, with other players, and his temper was legendary. So was his prowess with a bat. Albert Belle may have been the most feared slugger of the 1990s. He was the first 50/50 man (doubles and home runs) in baseball. He pounded out extra base hits by the truckload and was able to generate a decent Batting Average. He was a constant Triple Crown threat as he was to win the…
Baseball Players are notorious for being superstitious. We really don’t know if Bret Saberhagen consulted the Psychic Friends Network, but it always seemed curious that he performed significantly better in years that ended in odd numbers than he did in even ones. Saberhagen is one of the rare pitchers in Major League history to win two Cy Young Awards. When he was on, Saberhagen exercised pinpoint control and often performed well in pressure situations, as evidenced by his 1985 World Series performance. The problem with Saberhagen, though, is that despite his two Cy Young Awards, the rest of his campaigns…
Felix Hernandez played his entire MLB career with the Seattle Mariners, the team where he would become the "King" of the Pacific Northwest and all of Baseball. “King Felix” made his first appearance in the Majors in 2005, and after showing gradual improvement over his first few seasons, Hernandez took the throne in 2009, leading the American League in Wins (19), H/9 (7.5), and finishing second in Cy Young voting. Hernandez was better in 210, winning the Cy Young, with a league-leading 2.27 ERA and 7.0 H/9, while also finishing atop the leaderboard in Innings Pitched (249.2). Hernandez would not win…
We admit we made a mistake not ranking Bernie Williams last year. Were we rebelling against a Yankee bias, or was it that we just considered him just not good enough? Regardless, that is the beauty of Baseball is that you can easily reevaluate what you may have missed the first time. Lord knows it happens all the time during the actual balloting process for the Hall of Fame. Maybe our initial thought was that the Yankees themselves were confused about Bernie Williams, too. He had some power, but was not a primary threat in that department. He was fast,…
For a seven-year period, Johan Santana was regarded as one of the top Pitchers in Baseball, where he won the American League Cy Young Award Twice, winning the ERA Title three times and leading his league in WHIP four years in a row. As great as Santana was, his career was relatively short for a Hall of Fame Pitcher (12 Seasons), and those who look for statistical accumulation (and many voters do), won’t find it with Santana, whose 139 Wins and 1,988 Strikeouts do not measure up to a lot of those already in Cooperstown. Still, his career bWAR of…
Marty Marion won the NL 1944 MVP based primarily on his leadership and fielding skills as opposed to anything he did with his lumber. His victory is certainly a reminder that there is a lot more to baseball than sexy offensive stats. Marty Marion was taller than the average Shortstop of his era, but he used that to his advantage. He was deceptively quick, but he used his large wingspan to gobble up any ground ball that got remotely near him. He was called the “octopus”, and he would have used those tentacles to grab every Gold Glove Award….if they…
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If you win the Triple Crown in baseball, should you be considered somewhat immortal, right? Well, if you do in the age before film and before Home Runs meant anything, that accomplishment becomes a hidden accolade. In the early days of Baseball, Hines was a hitting machine and actually had more base hits than anyone in the National League from 1875 to 1880. Hines was a two-time Batting Champion and led the league in other offensive categories multiple times. Little has been said about his playing days, but with the recent wave of sabermetrics, a look at Hines reveals a…
What more would Thurman Munson have accomplished had he not been killed in a plane crash on August 2, 1979? We will never know, but prior to his untimely death, Munson’s accomplishments on the diamond were already sizable. Thurman Munson was a leader on the field, in the clubhouse, and everywhere else in life. He broke through in the Majors in 1970 and won the coveted Rookie of the Year, cementing himself as a force to be reckoned with in the catcher’s position for the decade. For a catcher, he hit the ball well and consistently provided a solid Batting…
Hoyt Wilhelm generally receives credit for being the game’s first great reliever. History may eventually show that Wilhelm was not the only prototype for relievers, as Roy Face deserves to be included in that discussion as well. Roy Face was the first pitcher to ever record twenty saves in a season. He would lead the senior circuit in that category three times. Roy Face still holds the record for the highest winning percentage in a season with a whopping .947 (18 wins to 1 loss). Face used his forkball to get Pirate teams out of jam after jam and racked…
It is often the case for various Halls of Fame to discriminate based on the likeability of the candidate. Carl Mays was not necessarily the most liked player in his day, and his brushes with controversy probably pushed Mays on the opposite side of the bubble. Sadly, Carl Mays is not best remembered for his four World Series rings or his 208 career wins. He is best known for a beanball he pitched that killed the Cleveland Indians’ Ray Chapman. Mays was also not the most liked player and was a spitball pitcher (legal at the time) which has not…
Maury Wills did not make the Major Leagues until he was 26 years old yet still managed to rack up over 2,000 hits in his career. What numbers would he have put up if he had cracked a big league roster earlier, and would it have been enough to make him a member of the Hall of Fame? Maury Wills might be known first in any baseball reference guide as the winner of the National League MVP award in 1962, but his real contribution was how he changed the perception of how runs could be scored. Wills was not the…
For over a decade, Mark Buehrle was either considered an ace or a player close to the top of the rotation. Five times, Buehrle was named an All-Star and is a member of the 200 Win club, a mark that is becoming increasingly elusive. A finesse pitcher with a wide arsenal to use, Buehrle’s best season was in 2005, when he finished 5th in Cy Young voting and helped the Chicago White Sox win the World Series. Buehrle was also known for his defensive skills, as he was a four-time All-Star and had a career bWAR of nearly 60.
It seemed like Bobby Bonds was always in someone’s shadow. As a kid breaking into the Giants, he shared an outfield with Willie Mays. In his final years, he remained a talented pro but was relegated to journeyman status, bouncing around the league. He is also Barry’s father. We prefer to think of him as one of the early prototypes of the modern baseball athlete. Bobby Bonds was one of the great leadoff men of all time. He combined power and speed in ways that nobody had before, and in the 1973 season, he was a home run away from…