If Baseball truly is an International game, then we would like to name Julio Franco as its Global Ambassador. 

The Dominican-born Franco played professional baseball until age 47 in the United States, Japan, Mexico, South Korea, and his home country. Cooperstown does not recognize accomplishments abroad, but despite playing outside the Majors for an extended period, he still amassed over 2,500 hits. Franco had a strange batting stance, but considering he batted over .300 eight times, a Batting Title, and five Silver Sluggers, it had to be considered effective. 

Julio Franco may be the ultimate test of whether the Baseball Hall of Fame would reward durability over what is considered traditionally great by Baseball standards. 

Kenny Lofton took the city of Cleveland by storm in the early 90’s and by doing so, got the baseball world to notice the Tribe again. By the decade’s end, though, power numbers took over the game, and many forgot how good he really was.

Lofton’s emergence with Cleveland saw him cement himself as the best leadoff hitter in the American League. With five straight seasons hitting at least .300 (and with a decent OBP), he was able to set the table often with his speed. Five times, Kenny would be the Stolen Base king of the AL, and he was a must-watch defensively. With his incredible speed and athleticism, Lofton was a SportsCenter highlight reel by robbing batters of Home Runs and his diving catches. As must-watch a player as Lofton was in the 90’s, he would be overshadowed by the power hitters of the last half of the decade. His 2000’s also saw him bounce from team to team, and though he wasn’t a player we would classify as a journeyman, he certainly travelled like one. These perceptions may cost Kenny Lofton dearly in his pursuit of Cooperstown.

As much as we keep studying Baseball, we can’t help but be amazed by the staggering amount of innings pitched by the pre-1900 hurlers. Would they look at us with a puzzled look if we went back in time and suggested a “pitch count”?

One of those Pitchers we speak of is Charlie Buffinton, who first became a workhorse for the Boston Beaneaters. Throughout his career, Buffinton relied on a particularly effective sinkerball, fanning 1,700 batters and winning 233 games. He also finished with a career WAR of 56.1, which is another impressive career tally. Buffinton retired mid-season in 1892 at the age of 31, when he was asked to take a pay cut. Although he was having the worst season of his career (and the following season would have the mound pushed back ten feet), it is conceivable that Buffinton would have continued to add to his statistics, making him a Hall of Famer. As it stands now, he is one of many enjoying a renewed look at his career, and way back in the long line for a Veterans Committee to consider.

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, but did not steal many bases. For years, New York did not know where to bat him in their lineup. Eventually, they knew what they had: a very consistent hitter who had decent enough pop in his bat to place in the cleanup role. He batted over .300 eight consecutive seasons (including a batting title) and had very respectable slash numbers in that period. He won the Gold Glove four times, and his career postseason numbers (remember, he was a Yankee, so there was a lot) were virtually identical to his regular season tallies.

Williams hit near the ten percent mark on his first year of eligibility, which was enough to keep him on the ballot, but not enough to consider him a serious threat for the Hall. Our guess is that the career Yankee will stay at the bottom of the eligible candidates for a while.