WGOM Half-Baked Hall

Half-Baked Hall: 1910-1911

24 Comments

Only two years for this ballot, as many above average players all decided to quit at the same time.  You may have heard of one of the new guys.

Ballot Due Date: Monday, September 29th. I'll send it out sometime next week.

Player Spreadsheet

Last Time On The Ballot

Pete Browning
Charlie Comiskey
Monte Ward

New Hitters

Ginger Beaumont
Bill Dahlen
Elmer Flick
Topsy Hartsel
Willie Keeler
Freddy Parent
Harry Steinfeldt
Fred Tenney
Roy Thomas

New Pitchers

Harry Howell
Addie Joss
Sam Leever
Deacon Philippe
Jesse Tannehill
Rube Waddell
Vic Willis
Cy Young

24 thoughts on “Half-Baked Hall: 1910-1911”

  1. Never heard of Beaumonthttps://wgom.org/wp-admin/post.php?post=32358&action=edit, but it sounds familiar.

      2. I always loved taking Joss yard with Killebrew in the Earl Weaver Baseball game on my folks' Macintosh SE.

      1. I thought it was called the Cy Young because no other pitcher could ever hope to win an Old Hoss Award?

  5. Joss was elected to the Hall despite only playing nine years thanks to some heavy campaigning that he should be allowed because of his premature death. During the spring of his age 31 season, he contracted meningitis and died three days later.

      1. Joss was born in Woodland, Wis,. and studied engineering at the University of Wisconsin. According to the Repository, he later put his studies to good use:

        During the 1908–1909 offseasons, Joss worked on designing an electric scoreboard that would later be known as the Joss Indicator. The Naps decided to install the scoreboard, which allowed spectators to monitor balls and strikes at League Park.

        He also worked as a sportswriter and sports editor for the Toledo News-Bee and the Cleveland Press.

  6. Spooky was right, Rube was goofier than a pet coon, and was possibly the most famous baseball player to non-baseball fans before Babe Ruth. Clinically, it looks like he may have had a developmental disorder. When he was 21 years-old, he had the intellectual maturity of a 7 year old. He was in and out of baseball a few times, was suspended multiple times for unruly behavior, including openly mocking his opponents. He was drunk a lot and had very public marriages and divorces. He would sometimes leave the team without permission to play semi-pro ball. He would shoot marbles with kids before games. He once joined a traveling show, once wrestled an alligator, and ran a marching band. He would also join local rescue squads to fight fires or save kids from falling under the ice. He was great at golf and played pro football one year for Connie Mack.

    Eventually he played for the Minneapolis Millers, and then for a small team in Virginia. He died at 37 from tuberculosis. Crazy life.

    1. I was surprised the stark difference between his JAWS score and his ranking on B-Ref's fan EloRater. 59th and 10th respectively.

  7. Read lots of SABR bios and came away with a lot of fun trivia

    Ginger Beaumont: Wielded a 55 oz bat.

    Elmer Flick: Career cut short by what was believed to be gastritis

    Willie Keeler: Struck out only TWO times in 1899 with 633 plate appearances. I'd like to see him face Phil Hughes.

    Harry Steinfeldt: Died at 37 due to cerebral hemmorhage

    Fred Tenney: In 1897 turned what is believed to be the first ever 3-6-3 double play. Apparently, the crowd gasped at the sight.

    Roy Thomas: Was such a master at fouling off pitches, he inspired the league to make the first two foul balls strikes. Got so many of hits via bunt that when he got older and slower he was no longer effective. His career batting average is .290 and his career slugging is .333. That's a lot of bunts.

    Harry Howell: Eddie Collins once said, "Howell used so much slippery elm we could see the foam on his lips and on hot days some of the boys thought he was about to go mad." Emphasis mine. I didn't realize that was a synonym for saliva. One year, 35% of his runs were unearned because his fielders couldn't handle the slippery ball well.

    Addie Joss: Died at 31 while still pitching great. Studied engineering in his spare time and invented an electronic scoreboard for his stadium. Pitched a perfect game in his last game of the season with the Naps shooting for a pennant in 1908.

    Sam Leever: Saw an obituary of himself long before he died. "he had a great deal of enjoyment out of reading his own obituary, and he appreciates all the nice things that were said about him, but he insists that he is not even half-dead."

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