By John Gottlieb
As the Phanatic reported earlier, the Hall of Fame votes came out today and Cal Ripken Jr. and Tony Gwynn will be enshrined in Cooperstown at the end of July.
Ripken received 537 votes for 98.53 percent, garnering the third highest percentage in history behind Tom Seaver (98.83) and Nolan Ryan (98.79). Gwynn compiled 97.6 percent of the votes, which begs the question, who are the writers that didn't vote for these guys? It's unbelievable that nobody has ever registered 100 percent of the votes.
I'm not going to touch the Mark McGwire debate because a whole Web site can and probably has been devoted to that.
My issue is with five of the next six highest vote-getters: Goose Gossage (71.2), who fell 21 votes shy, Jim Rice (63.5), Andre Dawson (56.7), Bert Blyleven (47.7) and Jack Morris (37.1), who didn't get as many votes as Lee Smith (39.8).
I'm shocked that these five do not have plaques in Cooperstown. I know that it's a faulty argument, but nonetheless, if Bruce Sutter, who was the lone inductee by the writers last season, is in the Hall there is no reason to keep out Goose.
Gossage was one of the most dominant relievers of all time. Remember that Gossage came to the Yankees in 1978 to replace the 1977 Cy Young Award winner, Sparky Lyle.
He's a nine-time All Star with 310 saves and a 3.01 ERA in 1,002 contests, which is 10th most in baseball history. Sutter's got less saves, pitched in over 300 less games and almost 800 fewer innings.
The good news is that no player that has ever received at least 70 percent of the vote has failed to eventually get in. Next year's especially weak class should pave the way for Goose.
Talk about a snub job...Rice epitomizes it. So he wasn't so friendly to the media, big deal. Much like Pete Rose, what Rice did on the diamond should be enough to get him in.
Rice hit .290 or higher in nine of his 16 seasons. He's got 382 homers, a career .298 average and 1,451 RBI. Rice struck fear into opposing pitchers. He was the 1978 MVP winner and an eight-time All Star.
What do Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, George Brett, Ted Williams, Jimmy Foxx, Mel Ott, Stan Musial, Joe DiMaggio, Johnny Mize, Hank Greenberg, Al Simmons, Rogers Hornsby and Chuck Klein all have in common with Rice? They all have at least 300 home runs and a batting average of .298 or higher.
What do they have that Rice doesn't? He is the only one not in the Hall of Fame. Like Gossage, Rice may be the beneficiary of a weak class in 2008. Either way he deserves to be there.
Andre Dawson is a player that I put in the same class with Rice. He won the 1977 Rookie of the Year, the 1987 MVP for the last place Chicago Cubs, eight Gold Gloves, four Silver Slugger awards, finished with 438 homers, 2,774 hits and was an eight-time All Star.
There are two things going against "The Hawk": he played on bad teams throughout his whole career and you can argue that many of his numbers may come from longevity.
Blyleven's got more wins (287) and strikeouts than Don Drysdale (209 wins and 2,486 whiffs). When you break it down Blyleven is fifth all-time on the strikeouts list (3,701) and everyone in the top 16, excluding active players, has a plaque. (Roger Clemens, Randy Johnson, Greg Maddux and Pedro Martinez are all locks, while Curt Schilling will probably also get the nod). He's also won two World Series titles and is 5-1 in eight postseason games -- six starts -- with a 2.47 ERA.
Jack Morris is the only pitcher to lead a decade in wins, 162, in the 1980s, and not find himself in the Hall. Morris won four World Series rings, while personally outdueling John Smoltz in 10 innings of Game 7 in the 1991 World Series on his way to being named Series MVP. The argument against Morris is that he only won 254 contests and his career 3.90 ERA would be the highest of any starting pitcher in Cooperstown.
He reached his high mark in 2006 with 41.15 percent of the votes, but he has only broken the 30 percent mark in three of his eight seasons on the ballot.
The Veterans Committee will announce their inductees on February 27 after choosing from a list of 200 players and 60 managers, owners, executives, etc.
For a list of eligible people click here: http://www.baseballhalloffame.org/news/2006/060403.htm.
First-timers for the 2008 class may include Brady Anderson, Shawon Dunston, Darrin Fletcher, Travis Fryman, David Justice, Chuck Knoblauch, Darren Lewis, Mike Morgan, Tim Raines and Randy Velarde.
McGwire (23.5) will get his second chance next year and he will be joined by Harold Baines (5.3), Blyleven, Dave Concepcion (13.6), Dawson, Gossage, Tommy John (22.9), Don Mattingly (9.9), Morris, Dale Murphy (9.2), Dave Parker (11.4), Rice, Smith and Alan Trammel (13.4), as holdovers that received at least five percent of the vote on this year's ballot.
The biggest snub of all came in last year's vote when Buck O'Neil wasn't one of the 17 Negro League players or executives enshrined. He was brought in to accept the inductions since most, if not all, of the people are dead. O'Neil died this past year and it's a crying shame that he wasn't put in the Hall of Fame while he was still alive to personally accept the bid and enjoy the long, hard fight through which he persevered.
If you're interested in some of the most spirited Hall of Fame debates, read "Whatever Happened to the Hall of Fame?" by Bill James.
As the Phanatic reported earlier, the Hall of Fame votes came out today and Cal Ripken Jr. and Tony Gwynn will be enshrined in Cooperstown at the end of July.
Ripken received 537 votes for 98.53 percent, garnering the third highest percentage in history behind Tom Seaver (98.83) and Nolan Ryan (98.79). Gwynn compiled 97.6 percent of the votes, which begs the question, who are the writers that didn't vote for these guys? It's unbelievable that nobody has ever registered 100 percent of the votes.
I'm not going to touch the Mark McGwire debate because a whole Web site can and probably has been devoted to that.
My issue is with five of the next six highest vote-getters: Goose Gossage (71.2), who fell 21 votes shy, Jim Rice (63.5), Andre Dawson (56.7), Bert Blyleven (47.7) and Jack Morris (37.1), who didn't get as many votes as Lee Smith (39.8).
I'm shocked that these five do not have plaques in Cooperstown. I know that it's a faulty argument, but nonetheless, if Bruce Sutter, who was the lone inductee by the writers last season, is in the Hall there is no reason to keep out Goose.
Gossage was one of the most dominant relievers of all time. Remember that Gossage came to the Yankees in 1978 to replace the 1977 Cy Young Award winner, Sparky Lyle.
He's a nine-time All Star with 310 saves and a 3.01 ERA in 1,002 contests, which is 10th most in baseball history. Sutter's got less saves, pitched in over 300 less games and almost 800 fewer innings.
The good news is that no player that has ever received at least 70 percent of the vote has failed to eventually get in. Next year's especially weak class should pave the way for Goose.
Talk about a snub job...Rice epitomizes it. So he wasn't so friendly to the media, big deal. Much like Pete Rose, what Rice did on the diamond should be enough to get him in.
Rice hit .290 or higher in nine of his 16 seasons. He's got 382 homers, a career .298 average and 1,451 RBI. Rice struck fear into opposing pitchers. He was the 1978 MVP winner and an eight-time All Star.
What do Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, George Brett, Ted Williams, Jimmy Foxx, Mel Ott, Stan Musial, Joe DiMaggio, Johnny Mize, Hank Greenberg, Al Simmons, Rogers Hornsby and Chuck Klein all have in common with Rice? They all have at least 300 home runs and a batting average of .298 or higher.
What do they have that Rice doesn't? He is the only one not in the Hall of Fame. Like Gossage, Rice may be the beneficiary of a weak class in 2008. Either way he deserves to be there.
Andre Dawson is a player that I put in the same class with Rice. He won the 1977 Rookie of the Year, the 1987 MVP for the last place Chicago Cubs, eight Gold Gloves, four Silver Slugger awards, finished with 438 homers, 2,774 hits and was an eight-time All Star.
There are two things going against "The Hawk": he played on bad teams throughout his whole career and you can argue that many of his numbers may come from longevity.
Blyleven's got more wins (287) and strikeouts than Don Drysdale (209 wins and 2,486 whiffs). When you break it down Blyleven is fifth all-time on the strikeouts list (3,701) and everyone in the top 16, excluding active players, has a plaque. (Roger Clemens, Randy Johnson, Greg Maddux and Pedro Martinez are all locks, while Curt Schilling will probably also get the nod). He's also won two World Series titles and is 5-1 in eight postseason games -- six starts -- with a 2.47 ERA.
Jack Morris is the only pitcher to lead a decade in wins, 162, in the 1980s, and not find himself in the Hall. Morris won four World Series rings, while personally outdueling John Smoltz in 10 innings of Game 7 in the 1991 World Series on his way to being named Series MVP. The argument against Morris is that he only won 254 contests and his career 3.90 ERA would be the highest of any starting pitcher in Cooperstown.
He reached his high mark in 2006 with 41.15 percent of the votes, but he has only broken the 30 percent mark in three of his eight seasons on the ballot.
The Veterans Committee will announce their inductees on February 27 after choosing from a list of 200 players and 60 managers, owners, executives, etc.
For a list of eligible people click here: http://www.baseballhalloffame.org/news/2006/060403.htm.
First-timers for the 2008 class may include Brady Anderson, Shawon Dunston, Darrin Fletcher, Travis Fryman, David Justice, Chuck Knoblauch, Darren Lewis, Mike Morgan, Tim Raines and Randy Velarde.
McGwire (23.5) will get his second chance next year and he will be joined by Harold Baines (5.3), Blyleven, Dave Concepcion (13.6), Dawson, Gossage, Tommy John (22.9), Don Mattingly (9.9), Morris, Dale Murphy (9.2), Dave Parker (11.4), Rice, Smith and Alan Trammel (13.4), as holdovers that received at least five percent of the vote on this year's ballot.
The biggest snub of all came in last year's vote when Buck O'Neil wasn't one of the 17 Negro League players or executives enshrined. He was brought in to accept the inductions since most, if not all, of the people are dead. O'Neil died this past year and it's a crying shame that he wasn't put in the Hall of Fame while he was still alive to personally accept the bid and enjoy the long, hard fight through which he persevered.
If you're interested in some of the most spirited Hall of Fame debates, read "Whatever Happened to the Hall of Fame?" by Bill James.
6 comments:
Bert Blyleven is the best hall of fame eligible starting pitcher not enshrined yet...what a shame.
Morris has three World Series rings
You know I thought you were right about the three World Series rings, but he actually does have four. Despite not pitching, Jack Morris was on the 1993 World Series roster with the Toronto Blue Jays.
John
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Thanks
I like Morris, and I think he deserves to be in the hall as well for his clutch pitching. But, I just think Blyven was so very consistent and has nearly 300 wins. The guy was just such a good pitcher for a long time. And, I do believe that Blyven has a lower ERA during his postseason resume. Gotta love the Hall of Fame and all the great baseball debates it produces.
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