My Baseball Hall of Fame ballot isn't numbers crazy
Baseball, more than any other sport, revolves around
numbers. We analyze them. We debate them. We even invent them.
A line of BA, HR, and RBI used to be the standard measuring
stick yet now we have OBP, OPS, WAR, JAWS and seemingly countless other
acronyms construed to determine a player’s worth and importance. ERA isn’t
enough anymore so someone created PERA which I thought was a country in South
America. Sabermetrics is now on steroids.
Hence, we have more statistical information and ballyhooed
data as wide as Kim Kardashian’s behind at our fingertips to decide who belongs
in the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown and, lord knows, every talking head
and blogger that doesn’t have a vote has an opinion, the most common being the
HOF voting eligible members in the Baseball Writers Association of America are
as clueless as TMZ without cell phone cameras and video.
What’s become concerning, however, is that we are relying
more and more on these new-fangled numbers to compare candidates for the HOF
with players already in the Hall of Fame.
This amuses me because as a baseball society we have become so enamored with
numbers and lists that we overlook awards and accolades. If the best actors are
measured merely by Oscars and Golden Globes, why can’t HOF baseball players be
measured simply by trophies and plaques?
One of the biggest determinants as to whom I, as an honorary
member of the BBWAA, vote for for induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame is
how candidates rated and ranked among their peers that they played against in
the era that they played in. I try to
examine how many All-Star Games they were chosen for and how many MVP, Cy Young
, Gold Glove and Silver Slugger awards they may have won in their careers
because where they finished in voting for post-season awards is an excellent
gauge of how dominant they were when
stacked up against like players in a similar period in their baseball lives.
For example, I never voted for Jack Morris for the HOF in
part because, in 18 years in the big leagues, he made the All-Star Game five
times, never finished higher than third in Cy Young voting and never finished
higher than 13th in MVP voting. His post-season numbers were
impressive, but that represents only about 2.5 percent of his career innings
pitched. He was an outstanding pitcher, but not a Hall of Famer in my mind.
Yet too often now I see career statistics and -- how well
they are presented and packaged -- being cited as the absolute, tell-all,
slam-dunk determining factor as to why a player should be in the Hall of Fame
or not. The case for these players is
built solely on where they fit into a certain statistical category with little
if any regard for awards and All-Star Game appearances. And these numbers are
usually being sized up and compared to players in the Hall of Fame, though they
may have played the game 10, 15, 20 or more years ago when the game was
different.
With that in mine, it was easy for me to vote for pitchers
Randy Johnson, Pedro Martinez and John Smoltz, first-timers on this year’s
ballot. They passed the eye-test on the big stage better than Victoria’s Secret
models.
The Big Unit won the Hall of Fame milestone 300 games, was
second all-time in strikeouts and was a 10-time All-Star and five-time Cy Young
Award winner. He also was a World Series MVP.
Pedro was an All-Star Game MVP and appeared in the
Mid-Summer Classic eight times. He won three Cy Young awards and finished
second twice. He also was second in MVP voting in 1999.
Smoltz , an eight-time All-Star, won a Cy Young award in
1996 and a Rolaids Relief Man award in 2002.
He is the only pitcher in baseball history to win 200 games as a starter
and save 150 games as a reliever.
All three were clearly and consistently dominant players in
their era.
I checked five other names on my ballot this year:
Craig Biggio, who was an All-Star as a catcher and a second
baseman, had 3,060 hits, including 668 doubles – the most by any right-handed
batter in the history of the game.
Jeff Bagwell, his teammate, was a four-time All-Star who was
the National League’s MVP in 1996. He averaged 32 home runs and 103 RBIs in his
first 14 seasons, playing more than half of his games in the pitcher-friendly
Houston Astrodome. He scored 1,517 runs and knocked in 1,529 and every other
player who has ever reached the 1,500 plateau in those two categories is in the
Hall of Fame.
Tim Raines was an All-Star for seven consecutive years. He
won a batting title and four stolen bases titles and is considered the second
best lead-off hitter of all time behind Rickey Henderson who just so happened
to play in the same era.
Mike Piazza was a 12-time All-Star and 1996 National League
MVP who is arguably the greatest offensive catcher in the game’s history. He
won 10 Silver Slugger awards and finished his career with a .308 batting average,
427 home runs and 1,335 RBIs.
Jeff Kent, a five-time All-Star and the NL’s MVP in 2000, is
arguably the greatest offensive second baseman in the game’s history. His 377
career home runs are the most of any player ever to play that position.
The only other acronym that enters into my HOF induction
equation, unfortunately, is PED. That comes down to a gut, moral and somewhat
educated decision that I reserve the right to change someday if more
information comes to light. Until then, I rely on the Mitchell Report.
We can all go around and around arguing about who does and
does not belong in the Hall of Fame and that’s the beauty of baseball. We argue
about it more than Johnny Manziel’s practice habits. More people care
passionately about the Baseball Hall of Fame than any other sport so there are
naturally going to be more differing opinions, especially with so many
statistical angles and oddities.
Mine is this: Just
because I can vote for up to 10 players doesn’t mean that 10 are Hall of Fame
worthy each year. Baseball’s Hall of Fame is more special and harder to reach
than other sports hall of fames. The Pro Football Hall of Fame has averaged
seven inductees per year this decade. The NHL HOF has averaged four. The Pro
Baseball HOF has averaged 11 in the 2010s
.
The Baseball Hall of Fame has averaged 1.4 players being
elected to the Cooperstown this decade and 1.5 players the past 10 years.
Baseball sets the standard for Hall of Fames and I like the standards high, not
watered down.
For now for me the face value of a Hall of Fame candidate is
all-encompassing measured in the era they played, how they played the game from
April through October and what individual recognition they received for it
afterward.
So please don’t declare WAR on me.
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