After last night’s amazing game at the Field of Dreams, it’s no surprise that people are already clamoring for another one (which they will get). But why stop there? After Iowa and previous games in places like Fort Bragg, Omaha and London, England, as well as the yearly game in Williamsport, why not expand the horizons even more?
Go below the jump for some ideas I have for future games outside of MLB stadiums.
Continue readingA new set of rules at the HOF makes the 15-year eligibility period only 10 years (players who already are past the 10 years will be grandfathered in). Besides making it that much harder for Tim Raines to get to 75% in time, this also makes one wonder who in the Baseball HOF voted in by the writers would have not been voted in under the new series of rules.
I checked, and these players wouldn’t have made it (of course, many of them may have ended up getting inducted by the Veteran’s Committee):
And now you know…
So, yesterday I had my hypothetical Hall of Fame ballot. So, here are my justifications for them:
Greg Maddux is the greatest control pitcher of the expansion era, if not any era. He was the best fielding pitcher of his time, if not all time. During the 1996 World Series, after the Braves had won game one, George Steinbrenner more or less demanded to know how Joe Torre was going to get out of this. Torre more or less told him that there was no way they were beating Maddux in Game 2 but after that things would turn around. Steinbrenner, apparently, took this as a legitimate excuse for going down 2-0 in the series. Let that sink in: losing to Greg Maddux was excusable to George Steinbrenner. Maybe I’m botching the retelling of that story a little bit, but not that much. A top-tier Hall of Famer.
Tom Glavine was the Robin to Greg Maddux’s Batman, a 10-time All-Star, 305 game winner, and two-time Cy Young winner who is underrated due to how great Maddux was.
Frank Thomas hit 521 home runs while also hitting .301. He is 14th in career OPS. He’s the Big Hurt, and he’s a Hall of Famer.
Craig Biggio played catcher, he played second, and he played in the outfield. And he was a great hitter who could get on base any way he could- he holds the record for HBP among modern players. Probably could have been a star in any era he played. Should have gone in last year.
Tim Raines may not get in on the “gut feeling” test, but he is, nonetheless, a Hall of Famer in my book. While certainly being a seven-time All-Star help, the big reason is because of how great he was as a leadoff hitter. Not only could he get on base- he was a respectable .294 hitter (and that was lower than it probably should have been because he stuck around a few years too long)- he also was a great base-stealer, 8th all-time.
Mike Piazza was the greatest power-hitting catcher of all time, and yet steroid rumors (none of which have been proven and most of which seem to be innuendo like saying he had an acne problem at one point) have kept him out. He should be in or whatever real evidence there is should be revealed.
Barry Bonds is in because, well, he was a Hall of Famer before he started using steroids in the late 1990s. The steroids merely turned him from a great player to arguably the greatest hitter of all time. Roger Clemens would also be on this list, for similar reasons, if there were more than 10 spots.
Edgar Martinez was the greatest DH-only player of his era. He won two batting titles, had a career .312 average, is 21st in career OBP and 34th in career OPS, and hit probably the most memorable hit in the history of the Seattle Mariners- the double that won the 1995 ALDS against the Yankees and arguably saved the franchise’s future in Seattle.
Should be in the Hall.
Jeff Kent was the 2000 MVP, a five-time all-star, and holds the record for HR by a 2B. Although famously prickly and a subpar fielder, he should definitely have gotten more votes than he did this year, and should one day be in the Hall.
Fred McGriff would be in the Hall of Fame right now if not for the 1994 strike. In the 113 games he had played in that year, he had 34 HRs. Had the season gone on, he would have been able to end his career with 500+ HRs, a steady hitter who never hit more than 40 HRs but constantly was hitting 30 or more. With basically no steroid cloud around him, he should be in the Hall of Fame.
Finally, I’d like to note that Jeff Bagwell would also be on the hypothetical ballot, but, again, 10 player limit. And Jack Morris, as great of a performer as he was at his peak, had a career ERA of 3.90, and I don’t believe in “pitching to the score”.
The Baseball Continuum 