How many of you have heard of Jigger Statz? Anyone? How about Paul Strand? Buzz Arlett? Come on people, how do you not know who Buzz Arlett is?
The National Baseball Hall of Fame is supposed to recognize the best baseball players who have ever taken the field. The common baseball fan may think they've done a reasonably good job (except for Tommy McCarthy), but in reality they've overlooked a great many players who didn't have long MLB careers. Back in the day, there were leagues almost as good as the Majors, such as the Pacific Coast League, that often rivaled MLB for the best players. The PCL routinely attracted MLB stars with higher paychecks and a mild climate. The best players from the PCL ought to be remembered and honored as the greats they were, and adding a new wing to the Hall of Fame would be a great way to honor them.
I've published a couple articles on this blog about minor league greats, such as Johnny Bassler and Big Boy Kraft. I'll likely publish many more in the future, and may consider including them in my book.
I have a deep love for the minor league stars, (my favorite card might be my 1924 Zeenut Buzz Arlett), but I rather doubt any of them were hall of famers. For instance, we can tell from Jigger Statz' time in the big leagues that he was definitely not a hall of famer.
ReplyDeleteAfter Paul Strand's 325 hit season, when he was signed by the Athletics he hit .228 with 0 home runs in 47 games.
Even guys like Buzz Arlett and Joe Hauser, who I think were the closest to being hall of famers in the minors, fall short imo.
They were good or even very good players, but I don't see evidence of them being great. Of course, this won't really be settled until I work out my system for Major League Equivalents. I recently downloaded Sean Lahman's baseball database to use for my player aging study - if you haven't heard about the database, it's pretty cool. I never heard of it before this week.
Obviously guys like Statz, Strand, and Kraft are not Hall of Famers, but they deserve to be remembered. Certainly Arlett, Hauser, and Johnny Bassler should be known by more than 1% of modern baseball fans. Whether it be with their own exhibit or what have you, I think the Hall of Fame should be the one to honor them.
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