Hall of Fame

I want to congratulate Rickey Henderson and Jim Rice on their election to the Baseball Hall of Fame. Henderson was named on 94.8% of the ballots- somehow 28 voters thought that Rickey Henderson was undeserving of their vote. Rice made it on his final ballot- players can only be on the ballot for 15 years, after that their case moves to the Veteran's Committee, which has come under fire since its controversial election of Bill Mazeroski in 2001; the Veteran's Committee has not elected a player since, despite the widespread public support for Ron Santo's induction.

Anyway, congratulations to both of them. I have been holding a sneaky suspicion that players from the 80s would be overlooked, other than the obvious ones, because of the rise in player statistics since 1993 expansion. So, while I tend to agree with those against electing Rice to the Hall of Fame, it's also nice to see that we aren't necessarily ignoring players' accomplishments as they were perceived at the time.

The next two highest vote totals belong to Andre Dawson (67%) and Bert Blyleven (62.7%). I would fully expect both of them to requisite 75% in the next few years. For Blyleven, induction is far overdue. Amongst the notable statistics in favor of Blyleven:

- At the time of retirement, Blyleven was 3rd all time with 3,701; he's been surpassed since by Randy Johnson and Roger Clemens. All other pitchers in the Top 20 are either in the Hall of Fame, will be in the Hall of Fame, or have a good argument to be in the Hall of Fame, except for one- Mickey Lolich.

- He has 242 complete games over 22 seasons. With the retirement of Greg Maddux, the active leader is Randy Johnson with 100.

- He has 60 shutouts, which ranks 9th all time; 9th!!!!!! The only other pitcher in the top 20 that's not in the Hall of Fame is Luis Tiant, and he had 49. The active leader is Randy Johnson with 37.

All of this is to say that how Bert Blyleven is not in the Hall of Fame is a mystery.

Anyway, with the election of Henderson and Rice, I can't help but look to see how's up for election next time. Of importance in the 2010 election are: Roberto Alomar, Barry Larkin, Edgar Martinez and, my favorite baseball player, Fred McGriff.

I realize that McGriff is probably a borderline, at best, Hall of Fame candidate. He didn't hit 500 home runs, and he isn't normally considered as one of the "dominant" first basemen of his time, often overshadowed by the likes of Frank Thomas, Jeff Bagwell, Mark McGwire, Rafael Palmeiro and Jim Thome. His adjusted OPS+ is the same as Al Kaline and higher than Hall of Famers Orlando Cepeda, Eddie Murray, Dave Winfield, Jim Rice, not to mention Rafael Palmeiro. He's top 50 in extra base hits and has more of them than Willie Stargell, Willie McCovey, Mark McGwire, Orlando Cepeda; he's only 11 behind Bagwell. He finished 6 times in the top 10 MVP voting, with 1 top 5 finish. For perspective, Jim Thome has 4 top 10 and only 1 top 5, Palmeiro has 3 top 10 and 0 top 5 and McGwire had 5 top 10 and 1 top 5. McGriff is in the top 40 of RBI's, 5 behind McCovey, ahead of Stargell, Bagwell, Thome, Rice, McGwire, and Cepeda. Basically, if McGriff had been playing in the 70's, he'd be almost automatic. However, he played in the 90s at the time of the explosion in offensive numbers.

What he didn't do? He didn't win an MVP, he never had a 40 HR season (he likely would have had that, along with his 500 career home runs had the 1994 season not been cut short due to the strike), but he did have a fairly lengthy and productive run. He hit 30 or more home runs in 7 straight seasons and 10 seasons total; he hit 20 or more in 15 of 16 straight seasons; the one blip- he hit 19 in 1998, but he followed that up 4 seasons of more than 27 home runs and over 100 RBI's. He was in All-Star in 5 seasons, winning the All Star Game MVP in 1994.

I will root for him to make the Hall of Fame, but while I think he'll hang around for his 15 years, I fear that he will ultimately fall short. That will be a shame- he quietly put up numbers, year after year, worthy of the Hall of Fame, only to be overshadowed by brighter names and numbers that may or may not have been aided by various substances. Not only that, but discussion of his merits for the Hall will likely continue to be overshadowed by a discussion as to the merits of Alomar and Larkin amongst those who write about this stuff. Even in retirement, he can't catch a break.

But none of that should diminish his contributions to baseball- after all, let's not forget that it was his trade to Atlanta in 1993 that galvanized the Braves forward into the playoffs as they beat the Giants by 1 game in what's called the last pennant race; or that Atlanta's one World Series title in the 90s came with him on the roster. And that's all without mentioning his fantastic nickname- the Crimedog, or his appearance endorsing the Tom Emanski videos.

So, here's to you Fred. Should you be lucky enough to join the Hall, I'll be there in Cooperstown, cheering you on. . .

Your Fan.