I Take It Back

    The purpose of this blog is to add some players who may have been forgotten by many back into the Hall of Fame discussion because they actually have good cases. However, I have published a number of articles on players who really can't be advocated for like I have described. They are - 

Bobby Shantz 

Bret Saberhagen 

Cecil Fielder 

Cesar Cedeno 

Claude Ritchey 

Eddie Stanky 

Gavy Cravath 

Harvey Kuenn 

Matt Kilroy 

Tommy Leach 

They were all very good players, and were interesting to write about. I will not un-publish them and I do not regret my decision to write about them, because people need not forget them. But realistically, none of these ten men really belong in Cooperstown. I will tell you a little about each of them right now, however.  

Bobby Shantz pitched from 1949 through 1964. Although he went 119-99 with a 3.38 career ERA, he really was a great pitcher. In 1952, he went 24-7 with a 2.48 ERA and won the AL MVP Award, and in 1957, he went 11-5 and led the AL with an ERA of 2.45. He also won eight Gold Glove awards. 

Bret Saberagen pitched from 1984 through 2001 and went 167-117 with a 3.34 ERA. He was absolutely dominant in 1985 and 1989, winning the Cy Young Award in each season, and also had very good seasons in 1987, 1994, and 1999. (put saberhagen back in) 

Cecil Fielder played first base and DH from 1985 through 1998 and three times led the MLB in RBI's and twice in homers, including 51 in 1990. He hit 319 home runs in 5,157 at bats, which is a better home run percentage than those of Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, and Lou Gehrig.  

Cesar Cedeno played centerfield from 1970 through 1986. He won five Gold Gloves, stole 550 bases, and twice led the NL in doubles during his marvelous career. 

Claude Ritchey was a middle infielder active from 1897 through 1909 who batted .273 lifetime with 224 sacrifice hits and a walk to strikeout ratio better than 2-1. Ritchey was also a great fielder, and is very comparable to Phil Rizzuto. 

Eddie Stanky was also a middle infielder, active from 1943 through 1953. He had a lifetime batting average of .268 and averaged 104 runs scored and 128 walks per 162 games. Stanky also provided a valuable glove at second base to the three National teams he was a part of. 

Gavy Cravath played rightfield for the second half of the dead ball era in the 20th century, and put up some unbelievable batting statistics during his short career (albeit with much help from his home park in Philadelphia). 

Harvey Kuenn was a singles hitter who played the outfield, shortstop, and third base from 1952 through 1966. The ten time all-star batted .303 lifetime, leading the AL once in batting average, four times in hits, and three times in doubles, but his lack of power and walks pretty much ruins what otherwise would be a solid Hall of Fame case. 

Matt Kilroy pitched from 1886 through 1898 and went 141-133 with a 3.47 ERA. I chose to honor him because he struck out 513 batters in 1887, which is the most of all time. There were a lot of things working in his favor that season, however, and although this wasn't his only amazing accomplishment, Kilroy is not a Hall of Famer. 

Tommy Leach played centerfield and third base from 1898 through 1918, and was an amazing baserunner. Leach collected 2,143 hits, stole 361 bases, led the NL in home runs in 1902, and twice led the NL in runs scored, but his .269/.340/.370 slash line hurts his case. 

Most or all of these players really aren't Hall of Famers, but one might make a good argument for some of them. I just think that any (or all) of these players' inductions would water down the Hall of Fame's standards. This has already happened disastrously in the 1940's, 1970's, and 2010's, so we really don't need it to happen again. 

Lucky Hall Of Famer Number 28 - Bill Klem

    Bill Klem umpired in the National League from 1905 through 1941. There are way too many umpires in the Hall of Fame, and although there really shouldn't be any umpires in Cooperstown, Klem stands out from the rest. 

    Klem umpired for 37 years and did have his accomplishments. He was the first umpire to wear an inside chest protector, and held five records through 2020, four of which still stand: The most career games umpired (5,375; surpassed on May 25 by Joe West), the most career games umpired behind the plate (3,548), the most World Series umpired (18), and the most career World Series games umpired (108). Unfortunately, his fifth record is for the most career ejections (251). Klem himself said "The best umpired game is the game in which the fans cannot recall the umpires who worked it." Well, if you average almost seven ejections a year for almost 40 years (including one in which he ejected 24 players at once), then fans will recall who you are. Additionally, the whole point of being inducted into the Hall of Fame is so that fans in all future generations might recall who you were. 

    Klem was not your typical umpire. He set a lot of bad example, and people look up to Hall of Famers as demonstrating good example (you know, character, sportsmanship, integrity, as it says in the criteria). For instance, Klem once said, "To me, baseball is not a game, but a religion." This is not something that you would want your children repeating, if you think about it. The main reason for my questioning Klem's induction lies in the fact that he hit Roger Bresnahan (himself a Hall of Famer) in 1911, which is completely out of line, especially for someone in a position of authority like an umpire. He was fined $50 for that performance, a fortune in 1911. 

My opinion: Bill Klem is not a Hall of Famer. 

Lucky Hall Of Famer Number 27 - Whitey Herzog

    Whitey Herzog managed for parts of 18 seasons from 1973 through 1990. He won 1,281 games, lost 1,125, and tied three for a winning percentage of .532 (!) and was ejected 42 times in 2,409 games. 

My opinion: Whitey Herzog is not a Hall of Famer. 

Lucky Hall Of Famer Number 26 - Harold Baines

    Despite what most common fans seem to think, Harold Baines was actually pretty impressive. He was more than just a DH because he played 1,062 games in the outfield and led AL rightfielders in fielding percentage in 1985. In 1999, at the age of 40, Baines batted .312 with 25 home runs, 103 RBI's, and just 48 strikeouts as he made his sixth all-star appearance. 

    But this simply isn't enough to merit Cooperstown. Baines hit like a Hall of Famer in only a few of his seasons, and it is true that he did play far more games in the DH slot than he did in rightfield. A DH really should do better than .289/.356/.465 if he wants to make the Hall of Fame. Baines had 2,866 hits - but not 3,000. He hit 384 home runs - but not 500. This proves that, even with his longevity, Baines just wasn't one of the best players in baseball for more than a couple years spread out in different parts of his career. 

My opinion: Although he was a lot better than most writers seem to think, Harold Baines is probably not a Hall of Famer. 

Lucky Hall Of Famer Number 25 - Rich "Goose" Gossage

    Goose Gossage is widely revered as one of the relievers who got the two inning saves. Many old timers criticize modern relievers for coming in for an inning or less and finishing out the game, and getting a lot of credit for it. It's true that modern relievers are very overrated, but there are reasons for my including Gossage in the Lucky Hall of Famers section. 

    Back in the day, really until the mid 1980's, relievers were mainly starters who weren't good enough to stay in the rotation. From 1972 through 1974, Gossage's first three seasons in the Big Leagues, he walked 128 batters and posted a 4.93 ERA (73 ERA+) in 219 innings for the White Sox. In 1975, Gossage had a fine season, 9-8 with a 1.84 ERA and 26 saves, and he was slotted into the starting rotation in 1976. Gossage went 9-17, and it was back to the bullpen for Gossage after that, and with much less strain on his arm, he excelled until 1986, his age 34 season. From then on, Gossage was used less often, and wasn't nearly as effective. He pitched until 1994, when he was released by the Mariners. 

    Gossage was very good for a decade. He wasn't Mariano Rivera for a decade, but he was a star reliever for a long time. However, he had a lifetime ERA of 3.01 (which is a little high for a Hall of Fame relief pitcher from the 1970's and 1980's) and reached 300 saves by the skin of his teeth. The fact that he was used exclusively as a reliever from 1977 on because he wasn't even good enough to hold a job as a starter is evidence that Gossage wasn't really a great pitcher. Two innings ain't nine. 

My opinion: Goose Gossage is not a Hall of Famer. 

Lucky Hall Of Famer Number 24 - Rick Ferrell

    Rick Ferrell, a 1984 Veterans' Committee selection, caught from 1929 through 1947 for the Red Sox, St. Louis Browns, and Washington Senators and was good, but clearly not a Hall of Famer. 

    Ferrell played in over 100 games in only eleven seasons of his career, and in 110 in eight of them. When he was in the lineup, he batted .281 with a .378 on base percentage, averaging 80 walks and only 24 strikeouts per 162 games. However, he hit just 28 homers in 1,884 games and had a slugging percentage of .363 in the heaviest hitting era in history. He had an adjusted OPS of 95, a respectable mark for a catcher but nothing more. 

    Up until the 1950's, the Hall of Famers were pretty obvious because the best players were well superior to the rest (more on this later). Since then, players have been putting up more and more similar statistics to each other. Ferrell, and his batting statistics, point out that he wasn't among the elite. When one thinks of the best catchers from the 1930's and 1940's, they probably think of Bill Dickey, Mickey Cochrane, and Ernie Lombardi (please let me know if I accidentally forgot anyone particularly notable). That leaves Rick Ferrell fourth, at best. Should the Hall of Fame be electing an average of two catchers per decade? Probably not. 

    Ferrell was not a standout defensive catcher. His .984 fielding percentage was two points above the league average, and his 44% caught stealing percentage topped the league average of 41%. He led NL catchers in fielding once, double plays three times, caught stealing four times, and putouts, assists, games caught, and caught stealing percentage each twice. So what's the problem? He couldn't keep the ball in front of him as often as a Hall of Famer should. He had 142 passed balls in his career, and led the NL in the category four times. In addition, he also led NL catchers in stolen bases allowed three times and in errors four times, so he was not the kind of defensive catcher that a lot of his advocates like to say he was. 

    Rick had a brother named Wes who also played in the Big Leagues. Wes won 193 games on the mound and is generally regarded as the best hitting pitcher in history, as he batted .281 lifetime with 38 home runs, including nine in one season (both home run marks are MLB records). A lot of fans say that Wes was better than Rick (which is highly debatable) and that the wrong Ferrell is in Cooperstown. 

My opinion: Neither Ferrell brother was a Hall of Famer.