With all due respect (Hall of Fame candidates)

December 7, 2022

The Soapbox and a Good Story | ChristianToday AustraliaSoap box time.

Fred McGriff was named (“elected”?) to the Hall of Fame by the 16-member inaugural contemporary baseball era committee, which considered a ballot of eight candidates whose primary contributions to the game took place after 1980.

All dues respect to McGriff — and maybe it’s a generational thing — I have a hard time thinking about a lot of the people I’ve seen play as worthy of inclusion in the Hall. Yes, he had nearly 500 home runs to go with 1, 550 RBI and a .284 batting average (for what that stat is worth these days). His WAR of 52.6 ranks 177 on the all-time list. But as this article by Benjamin Hoffman in The New York Times shows, WAR ain’t everything when it comes to picking honorees for Cooperstown. Maybe it should be?

As Hoffman points out in “Building a Hall of Fame Out of Non-Hall of Famers,” there are a number of head-scratching choices for those enshrined, leading to the further examination of who picked these guys, when, and under what contemporary circumstances. Arguments ensue all the time between fans who say, “Are you going to tell me that Rick Ferrel (in) is better than Wally Schang (out)?” Although it would take a real fan/historian to even know who these guys were.

Going stream-of-consciousness here: Who is doing the voting? Who is on this “contemporary baseball committee” and what axes do they have to grind that might keep someone out? Maybe we should go strictly by numbers even though the supposed criteria is more than just 10 years in the game and retired for five. According to section 5 of the Baseball Writers Association of America rules,  “Voting shall be based upon the player’s record, playing ability, integrity, sportsmanship, character, and contributions to the team(s) on which the player played.”

With some obvious exceptions — Rose, who bet on baseball; Bonds, Clemens, Palmeiro, and others who resorted to PED to pad their resumés– who’s to say what constitutes “integrity, sportsmanship, character?” Maybe that’s how some well-liked people like Ferrel got it, because they made a good impression.

But if you go solely by numbers, what elements do you have to take into consideration? The Dead Ball Era? The lack of Black players prior to 1947? Night games? The watering down of talent due to expansion? “How would a Babe Ruth fare in today’s game?” with fresh relievers throwing 100 or multiple-time zone travel is an oft-asked question.

Just spitballing here (although Gaylord Perry made it in…).

https://i1.wp.com/baseballhall.org/sites/default/files/styles/header_image_1800_w/public/Centennial-collage.jpg?resize=788%2C481&ssl=1

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