Two Black Sox

In The Politics of Glory, Bill James described those who advocate Shoeless Joe Jackson’s Hall of Fame case as “baseball’s answer to those women who show up at murder trials wanting to marry the cute murderer.” This was not the first time that James has made a fool of himself, but that is a different matter. In reality, Jackson should never have been banned from baseball, and in a perfect world he would be in Cooperstown today. 

Joseph Walker Jackson was born on July 16, 1887 in Pickens County, South Carolina. Originally a pitcher, he switched to the outfield after he broke a batter’s arm with a fastball. His hitting was outstanding, and he made the Major Leagues in 1908. 

Jackson was illiterate, meaning that he couldn’t read or write. Although this was not uncommon in the early 20th century, Jackson felt humiliated and tried his best to hide it. After he became a big star in the Majors, he knew he needed to learn how to sign autographs, so his wife Katie taught him to write, “BEST REGARDS JOE JACKSON” in all caps. In fact, since Katie signed most of his autographs for him, any real Jackson autographs have become very valuable. In fact, in 2021, a Shoeless Joe autographed photo sold for $1.47 million at an auction. 

Jackson was thought to be kind of a weird fellow. He named all of his bats, most notably Black Betsy, a 36 inch, 48 ounce monster that he used throughout his career. Additionally, his nickname, “Shoeless Joe”, was bestowed upon him after he played one game in the minors in his socks. Why did he play in his socks? Because his shoes were too tight, of course. 

Jackson made his MLB debut in 1908, but didn’t reach rookie status until 1911. His .408 batting average that season not only set an all time high for AL rookies, but is also the last .400 average to fall short of a league Batting Crown. He batted .356 for his career while also building a reputation as a power hitter. He was such a good hitter that Babe Ruth said he modeled his swing after Jackson’s. By all contemporary and modern standards he was a good enough player to be inducted into the Hall of Fame. The only reason why he is excluded is because he was banned from baseball, along with seven others, after the Black Sox scandal. 

In 1919, Jackson’s Chicago White Sox won the American League and were heavy favorites to beat the Cincinnati Reds in the World Series. However, gamblers convinced many of the White Sox players to throw the World Series, promising them fat checks if they complied and violence if they refused. The Sox lost the Series, 5-3. All throughout the 1920 season, rumors of an alleged fix were told and retold. In September, a grand jury was convened to investigate the scandal, and eventually implicated eight players (Jackson, Eddie Cicotte, Chick Gandil, Swede Risberg, Buck Weaver, Lefty Williams, Happy Felsch, and Fred McMullen) and five gamblers. After Cicotte confessed to throwing the Series to the grand jury, Chicago owner Charles Comiskey suspended each player (except Gandil, who was no longer with the team). The trials all took place in 1921, and in the end all eight players were found not guilty. However, Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis banned them anyway. All eight of them were never to have anything to do with professional baseball again. 

Since Landis banned the “Black Sox”, none of them has been seriously considered by the Hall of Fame. Jackson and Cicotte were on their way to Cooperstown at the time, and a couple others may also have had a chance to make it. When Jackson was banned, he was coming off a .382-12-121 season in 1920, and the live ball era was just kicking into effect. If he were allowed to keep playing, his career could have looked a lot like Ty Cobb’s. However, I am adamant that a player must play it straight if he is to be considered by the Hall of Fame. I emphatically rejected Bonds and Clemens on the last two Hall of Fame ballots, and am also opposed to Pete Rose’s election. On the other hand, Jackson had a great World Series in 1919. He batted .375/.394/.563 with the only home run of the World Series. In the field, he made 16 putouts without a single error. In my mind, there is no doubt that Jackson played his best. He didn’t attend meetings with the gamblers, and he tried to return the money to Comiskey. Comiskey evidently wouldn’t listen to Jackson’s warnings, and he was advised to keep the money. On top of all that, he even asked to be benched before Game 1 so as not to have any part in the tainted Series. (Of course, manager Kid Gleason, who knew nothing of the fix, refused.) AND HE WAS FOUND NOT GUILTY ON TRIAL. There is no real reason to keep him out of the Hall of Fame. 

While everyone argues over Jackson’s case because he is a credible Hall of Fame candidate, one other player was banned for life without sufficient cause: Buck Weaver. Weaver had a nice little career, hitting .272 from 1912 through 1920, including .311 over his final three seasons. A fine fielder who played both shortstop and third base, Weaver set numerous fielding records. Weaver was banned because he attended meetings with the gamblers but didn’t report them. He pleaded with his teammates not to enter the fix, but to no avail. The least he could do was play hard, and he hit .324 in the 1919 World Series with a .500 slugging percentage. He should also be reinstated and possibly enshrined in Cooperstown as well.

Amazing Baseball Quote #1

"Darryl Strawberry is not a dog. A dog is loyal and chases after balls." - Tommy Lasorda 

If there existed a Hall of Fame for baseball quotes, this one might lead the way. 

Maury Wills

Before the era of heavy weight training ushered in and everyone tried to become a muscle bound slugger, there was the speedier, more strategic game. One of the last players to specialize in this kind of play without hardly any power was “Mousey” Maury Wills. Despite only weighing 170 pounds, Wills was a genuine star, capturing the NL MVP Award in 1962 and appearing on 15 Hall of Fame ballots. 

One of eleven children, Maurice Morning Wills was born on October 2, 1932 in Washington, D.C. He was named after an insurance man named Morning, a friend of the family. He started playing baseball in a semipro league at age 14, and starred in three sports (baseball, football, and basketball) in high school. He signed with the Dodgers in 1950 but didn’t make the big club until 1958, spending eight years in the minors. It was a long, hard road to the Majors, and Wills tried many different things, including switch hitting, to move up in the system. In 1959, the year after Pee Wee Reese retired, Wills came up and hoped to become the Bums’ starting shortstop. He batted .260 in 83 games and was the regular by 1960, hitting .295 and topping the NL with 50 stolen bases. Wills promptly defended his stolen base title for six consecutive years. His best overall season was 1962, when he played a record 165 games, set a new MLB stolen base record (104; topping Ty Cobb’s 1915 mark of 96), and scored 130 runs en route to the NL MVP Award (barely beating out Willie Mays, who in all honesty probably should have won the Award, but that’s another matter). Although he was best known as a base thief, Wills also specialized at bunting and other small ball strategies, including the Baltimore Chop. The Dodgers won a lot of 1-0 games riding the arms of Koufax, Drysdale, and company, and Wills often provided that lone run. 

After the 1966 season Wills was traded to the Pirates, and he gave them two strong seasons. However, after a great 1968 season (.278 average, 52 swipes), the Pirates left him unprotected in the 1969 expansion draft, and Wills became a member of the Montreal Expos. The “honor” was short lived, however, as the Dodgers got him back after 47 games and he hit .297 the rest of the way. 

Wills had a couple more productive seasons, even finishing sixth in the MVP voting in 1971 at age 38. However, as players get older, their legs start to fail them, and Wills didn’t have much else to offer at that point. After hitting .129 in a short stint in 1972, Wills was released by the Dodgers, never again to play in the Majors. It was a nice career; he had an MVP Award, 2,134 hits, 586 stolen bases, and three World Series rings. In 1977, Wills’s son Bump made it to the Texas Rangers and hung around for six seasons in the Big Leagues. He too was a base thief, with 52 in 1978 and 196 in his career. 

After his career Maury Wills appeared on 15 Hall of Fame ballots, but never did make it in. He was a very good player, but he lacked power and didn’t walk much for a little guy (career OPS of .661). Though he wasn’t the biggest player on the field, he always made a big impact. He passed away on September 19 of this year at the age of 89.

Mark Belanger

Mark Belanger’s type is largely underappreciated in the annals of baseball because he starred on defense, not offense. He was perhaps the best shortstop in AL history (only Omar Vizquel can argue that). While he didn’t have a cannon for an arm, he could cover acres of ground at short, as evidenced by the fact that he led AL shortstops in assists three times. Never diving for the ball, Belanger simply outran ground balls in order to make a quicker throw. Belanger often frustrated opposing batters who thought they got a hit until it was turned into an out. With Brooks Robinson at third base and Belanger at shortstop, it was almost impossible to hit a ball through the left side of the Orioles infield for nearly two decades. 

Mark Henry Belanger was born on June 8, 1944, in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. He learned how to field so well chasing after balls in the cow pasture with his three siblings. A skinny man, standing 6’1” but only 170 pounds, Belanger starred in baseball and basketball in high school. He made his MLB debut for the Orioles on August 7, 1965, and played ten more games that season. Playing behind Hall of Famer Luis Aparicio, himself a terrific shortstop and a better hitter than Belanger, he saw very few starts at shortstop. He got into 69 games in 1967, Aparicio’s last season in Baltimore, including 26 games at second base. Although he hit just .174 that year, he took over as the Orioles’ main shortstop in 1968. 

The reason why Mark Belanger isn’t in the Hall of Fame is because he was a pretty miserable hitter (.228 career batting average), but he did have some decent seasons, batting .287 in 1969, .266 in 1971, and .270 in 1976. He was a very good fastball hitter and dominated several Hall of Fame pitchers, including Nolan Ryan. While Belanger had very little power, he was great on the basepaths, swiping as many as 27 bases in a season. He was also a fantastic bunter, twice topping the AL in sacrifices. 

Belanger stayed with the Orioles through the end of the 1981 season. At 37 he was beginning to lose a step in the field, which meant that the end was near. He played a partial season with the Dodgers in 1982 before he retired. A smoker during his entire career, he quit in 1991, but that didn’t prevent him from getting lung cancer, which killed him in 1998. He was only 54. 

Although Belanger doesn’t have much of a Hall of Fame case, he was indeed a very good player. He won eight Gold Gloves and three fielding titles, and helped the Orioles to victory in the World Series in 1970. He deserves to be remembered. 

DID YOU KNOW? 

-homered in the first ever ALCS game in 1969 

-hit his first career homer on May 14, 1967 against the Yankees, the same game that Mickey Mantle hit his 500th homer 

-pinch hit 22 times in his career (and holds the AL record for being pinch hit for 333 times)

Pat Venditte

Pat Venditte is unique in MLB history as the only pitcher who specialized in throwing with both arms. Think about it. Most pitchers devote years of hard work to build up one arm, forget two. Venditte had two Major League quality pitching arms. 

One of four children, Patrick Michael Venditte Jr. was born on June 30, 1985 in Omaha, Nebraska. Originally a righthander, he threw with both arms in little league and was sometimes mistaken as identical twins. Funny, they never saw both twins at the same time… At any rate, his father encouraged his pitching style and it helped him to much success, as he could gain the platoon advantage against essentially every batter he faced. Although he pitched in little league and high school, he played college baseball mostly as a catcher. However, he returned to the mound as a pro and slowly made his way to the Majors. 

Venditte played eight seasons in the minors, plus three seasons in winter ball, before he made the Majors. He made his MLB debut for the A’s on June 5, 2015, shortly before his 30th birthday, and threw two scoreless innings against the Red Sox. 

During his first season in the minors (2008), Venditte and switch hitter Ralph Henriquez engaged in a very interesting test of wills. Since neither player wanted to give up the platoon advantage, they repeatedly switched sides, which caused a seven minute delay. When the umpires finally had things sorted out, Venditte pitched righthanded to Henriquez, batting righthanded, and struck him out. This exchange prompted a change in the rules, which is effective in the Majors as well. Rule 8.01 reads, 

A pitcher must indicate visually to the umpire-in-chief, the batter and any runners the hand with which he intends to pitch, which may be done by wearing his glove on the other hand while touching the pitcher's rubber. The pitcher is not permitted to pitch with the other hand until the batter is retired, the batter becomes a runner, the inning ends, the batter is substituted for by a pinch-hitter or the pitcher incurs an injury. In the event a pitcher switches pitching hands during an at-bat because he has suffered an injury, the pitcher may not, for the remainder of the game, pitch with the hand from which he has switched. The pitcher shall not be given the opportunity to throw any preparatory pitches after switching pitching hands. Any change of pitching hands must be indicated clearly to the umpire-in-chief. 

Venditte bounced around in the Majors, pitching for six teams in his five seasons. While he had a mediocre 4.73 ERA, Venditte allowed only 7.7 hits per nine innings for his career. After he was left off the Marlins’ postseason roster in 2020 (having pitched only 4 ⅓ innings during the season), he decided to call it quits. 

Although he wasn’t around for very long and didn’t have a very successful Big League career, Venditte is certainly worth remembering. In this day and age a good switch pitcher doesn’t come around every day. It was a joy to watch him pitch. 

Venditte’s six fingered glove

Lucky Hall Of Famer Number 44 - Bud Selig (And a Word On Commissioners In the Hall Of Fame)

    Bud Selig was MLB's commissioner from 1992 through 2014. Perhaps the most controversial commissioner in history, a lot of people loved his changes and a lot of people hated them. I, for one, am not a fan of his policies, but that is not the main reason why I object to his induction. The commissioner has historically had an easy spot in Cooperstown. It doesn't matter if he did what was in the best interests for fans and players; if you sit in the commissioner's seat for ten years, you're almost an automatic Hall of Famer. While a couple of them may deserve to be enshrined, very few if any actually should. 

    Selig, in particular, did a terrible job as commissioner, in my opinion. During his tenure, he made some ruinous changes to the game, such as interleague play (making the distinction between AL and NL teams essentially pointless) and the addition of wild cards and division series (making league and division championships much less meaningful). He also drew much criticism for his handling of the steroid issue in the early 2000's, his part in the sale of the Montreal Expos, and the 1994 strike. He almost caused another strike in 2002 during the negotiations for the Collective Bargaining Agreement. 

    Bud Selig made the Hall of Fame because he made so many changes to baseball, but almost every one was horrible. However, since he held the job for 23 seasons, he earned a spot in Cooperstown almost right away. I fear that if we give commissioners so much praise for making moves, then they will keep making bad decisions. Right now, commissioner Rob Manfred is already competing for Selig's title of worst commissioner ever, and I fear that he may one day be inducted just for holding the job. 

My Opinion: Commissioners really have no business being in Cooperstown. We may stretch to induct a few great ones, but commissioners such as Selig and Manfred should never be inducted. 

2023 Contemporary Hall of Fame Ballot Results

The results for the 2023 Contemporary Hall of Fame Ballot are in. 

Fred McGriff - 16 of 16 ballots (1.000) 

Don Mattingly - 8 votes (.500) 

Curt Schilling - 7 votes (.438) 

Dale Murphy - 6 votes (.375) 

Belle, Bonds, Palmeiro, Clemens - fewer than 4 votes each 

In my opinion, Fred McGriff was probably the best player outside of the Hall of Fame until yesterday (see my post about his case from November 2020, https://thecooperstownadvocate.blogspot.com/2020/11/why-i-think-fred-mcgriff-should-be-in.html). McGriff had eight seasons with over 100 RBI's (1,550 career) and ten 30 homer seasons (493 career). 

Once again, Curt Schilling was passed over in the voting. This is no surprise, considering that he asked to be removed from his last BBWAA ballot, and doesn't want to be honored by an establishment as political and nasty as the Hall of Fame. Schilling is obviously one of the greatest pitchers who ever lived, and I think he can live with that. 

The bottom four on the list demonstrate one obvious truth - if you can't play it straight, you won't make the Hall of Fame. This is a shame for Bonds and Clemens, who could have been Hall of Famers if they'd never taken the stuff. As "Crime Dog" Fred McGriff might say, crime doesn't pay! 

As for the other two players on this list, Mattingly and Murphy, I don't really care if they make it or not. They were both very good players, and I wrote posts about them for this blog, but they're not sure-fire Hall of Famers. They may make it sometime in the future on account of their popularity. 

Requiem For a Heavyweight

    As most of you are probably aware, Hall of Famer Gaylord Perry passed away yesterday at the age of 84. As they always do when Hall of Famers die, baseball-reference.com put out a special notice for Perry. For the past couple years I have saved some of these short reminders of the game's former greats. Here are a few that I have: 

In Memoriam

Tommy Lasorda (1927-2021)

Hall of Fame manager of the Dodgers from 1976 to 1996. Led the Dodgers to four National League pennants and two World Series wins. Two-time Manager of the Year. Managed U.S.A. Olympic Baseball to a gold medal in 2000. Spent more than seventy years active in the Dodgers organization as a player, scout, manager, and in the front office.

Phil Niekro (1939-2020)

Hall of Fame pitcher known for his mastery of the knuckleball. Pitched 24 seasons, 21 with the Braves. One of ten pitchers with 300+ wins and 3,000+ strikeouts. Started 44 games in 1979, the last pitcher to start more than 40 games in a year.

Hank Aaron (1934-2021)

Hall of Fame Braves outfielder. All-time home run leader from 1974 to 2007 (755 career HR). 1957 NL MVP and World Series Champ. 2x batting champ and 3x Gold Glove winner. All-time MLB leader with 2,297 RBI and 6,856 total bases. Only player to appear in 25 All-Star Games. The Hammer.

 

Vin Scully (1927-2022)

Legendary voice of the Dodgers from 1950 (in Brooklyn) to 2016. Called 25 World Series and 12 MLB All-Star Games. 1982 Ford C. Frick Award winner. 2014 winner of Commissioner's Historic Achievement Award. 2016 recipient of Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Gaylord Perry (1938-2022)

Hall of Fame pitcher from 1962-83. 2x Cy Young winner (1972, 1978) and first pitcher to win the award in both leagues. 5x All-Star. Career totals of 314 wins, 3,534 K, 5,350 IP, 303 CG and 53 SHO. One of just two pitchers with 3,000 K and 300 CG. Spitballer.

I wish I had a couple more of these, as Whitey Ford, Bob Gibson, Al Kaline, Tom Seaver, Joe Morgan, Lou Brock, Don Sutton, and Bruce Sutter have eluded me (I thought I had several of them on file, but apparently I do not). That said, if anyone else has happened to save them, I would be very happy if you sent them to me. I can be found at damienfantasy@yahoo.com.