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Golden Era Candidates Part 4: Gil Hodges

Golden Era Candidates Part 4: Gil Hodges
24 Nov
2014
Not in Hall of Fame
Golden Era Candidates: Part 4 Gil Hodges


I was at a monthly Sunday afternoon baseball card show in Northern New Jersey when I struck up a conversation with an affable and chatty card dealer.  His specialty was vintage cards from the 1930’s to the 1950’s.

“Let me show you some stuff I just got in” as he dug an album out of a stack.  He produced an album of early and mid-1950’s stars and commons.  It was a good cross-section of major league talent that covered the years 1950 to 1956. Among his cardboard treasures tucked safely into plastic sleeves on one page was a 1955 Topps Gil Hodges and a 1954 Bowman Minnie Minoso.

“I don’t think the Hall Of Fame should close the books on the 1950s until they’ve elected these two guys” I said as the dealer nodded his agreement.

Unfortunately this conversation took place in 2001 or 2002 and after at least a dozen years these two stars in question are still on the outside looking in of the great Cooperstown hall.

(See separate Minnie Minoso story).

The well of HOF-electable players seemed to run dry in the 1990’s after the elections of Phil Rizzuto (1994), Richie Ashburn (1995), Nellie Fox (1997) and Larry Doby (1998).  At that point the Veterans Committee shifted its focus to stars of the 1960’s.  A few more players whose careers began in the 1950’s, but who reached their peak productivity in the ‘60’s such as Orlando Cepeda (1999) and Bill Mazeroski (2001) were elected, but clearly the HOF voters had become close-minded to electing any more 1950’s stars.

Gil Hodges and Minnie Minoso were the best position players not elected who enjoyed 1950’s stardom and Billy Pierce and perhaps Lou Burdette and Roy Face topped the pitchers from that era that Cooperstown was now ignoring.  Why Gil Hodges has been neglected so long is anyone’s guess, particularly since he was the embodiment of what a 1950’s Brooklyn Dodger should be: athletic, talented, highly competitive, a leader and supremely classy.  He was the complete package that you’d want in your everyday first baseman - a highly productive run producer, a power hitter, and among the best fielding first basemen of his era.

In a complicated fielding stat labeled “Range” Hodges was always #1 or close to the top for first sackers annually. He topped the league in fielding percentage a number of times, as well as handling 99% of his chances (.990 fielding %) with regularity.  He was to right handed throwing first baseman what contemporary Mickey Vernon was to lefties - the cream of the crop.

As a hitter, Hodges was never going to win a batting title, but he was a superior clutch hitter and run producer.  He finished with a .273 career average, hitting .304, .302, .299 and .289 in his four best seasons.  That may not knock your socks off, but then consider that he had a career high of 130 RBI in 1954 and topped 100 RBI seven straight years (1949-1955) and had a near-miss with 98 RBI in 1957, the Dodgers final season in Brooklyn.  From 1949 to 1959 Hodges hit at least 20 home runs in all eleven of those years, topped 30 home runs six years and reached the 40 home run milestone twice.  Reputation-wise, he could not have been held in higher esteem by his contemporaries, making the National League all-star team in eight out of nine years between 1949 and 1957.

I’d really like to discover more about Hodges first game as a pro, because it wasn’t during the spring or summer at some far-flung outpost of the Dodgers empire, at some small city or little town far out west, or way down south, or in some hick mid-west town near Hodges’ Indiana home.

No, it was with Brooklyn in October on the last day of the 1943 season (10/3/43) when he was nineteen years old.  The most notable and amusing thing that jumps out at you from the boxscore of his pro and major leagues debut is that Hodges successfully stole a base that day, one of only 63 steals he’d have in his long career. Shortly afterwards Hodges would go into the US Navy to help the war effort and would miss the 1944 and 1945 seasons entirely.  He wouldn’t get back to Brooklyn until 1947, where he was used sparingly, but finally was able to claim the Dodgers everyday first baseman’s job in 1948 at age 24.  He’d develop quickly and he’d be an all-star by the following year of 1949 at age 25.  Hodges had the raw talent to get to the majors at an earlier age than 23 if not for the war and his subsequent military service.

When he finished his playing career one month into the 1963 season, just after his 39th birthday to take the Washington Senators managerial job his final numbers stood at 1,924 hits and 370 home runs.  Without the delay caused by military service his career numbers might well have exceeded 2,000 hits and 400 home runs - and 400 home runs in those days of a less lively ball and bigger, often enormous ball parks really meant something back then.

Prior to that he’d anchor two Dodgers Worlds Championship teams, the 1955 Brooklyn team and the 1959 “last team standing” in Los Angeles, as well as numerous pennant winners.

I suppose voters are only supposed to vote on Hodges playing career, but I think voters can’t help remembering that Hodges took a New York Mets team that had never come close to playing .500 ball and guided them to the 1969 World’s Championship - working a minor miracle in the process.

If I were on the Golden Era panel of voters next month, Hodges would certainly have my vote.  Why his excellent career numbers have translated into a high of only 63 percent in his best showing on the writer’s ballot and continued rejection by the Veterans Committee is one of those unfathomable mysteries that I’ve tried to understand, but thus far been unable to solve.



Last modified on Sunday, 22 March 2015 17:35

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