Lucky Hall Of Famer Number 40 - Jim Bottomley

    Jim Bottomley was a first baseman active from 1922 through 1937 with the Cardinals, Reds, and Browns. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1974 through the Veterans Committee, when they were inducting a lot of unworthy candidates, and his case is highly controversial. 

    Bottomley hailed from a highly offensive era at an easy defensive position. That said, his 219 career home runs weren't so impressive. His batting average (.310) was quite good, but he backed it up with only 664 walks in almost 2,000 games for an on base percentage of .369 (again, a good number, but nothing spectacular). 

    There were also a lot of little things working against Bottomley as well. He won the NL MVP Award in 1928, but it probably should have gone to Rogers Hornsby. He won two World Series rings, but hit just .186 in World Series play. He was not a good defensive first baseman (four times led NL first basemen in errors), wasn't a fast runner, and had a short peak. 

    Overall, Jim Bottomley was a very good player, one of the better VC picks of the 1970's, and maybe the top player in the Lucky Hall of Famers section on this blog, but he simply didn't do enough to merit induction. Fellow Hall of Fame first baseman Bill Terry outhit him by 97 points in 1930, to pick just one example; Bottomley just didn't measure up to the other Hall of Fame first basemen of his era. 

My opinion: Jim Bottomley is not a Hall of Famer.