Alright, we're back from the holiday break. And ready to look at some of the final players who saw the 19th century on the field. You may have heard of one or two of these guys. Ed appears to be a popular name.
Ballot Due: Wednesday, January 21
Last Time On The Ballot
Jesse Burkett
Jim O'Rourke
New Hitters
Sam Crawford
Harry Davis
Hughie Jennings
Tommy Leach
Sherry Magee
Terry Turner
Bobby Wallace
Honus Wagner
Heinie Zimmerman
New Pitchers
Bill Donovan
Ed Reulbach
Eddie Plank
Ed Walsh
That's the only reason I need!
Geez...talk about your rabbit hole there.
I remember hearing about that card at age 7 and going through the ones my dad bought me (1991 Topps) to see if I had one. It's always fascinated me.
Hey guys, vote for Jim O'Rourke.
I don't think we'll be voting for any Moore, Gordon, Ranaldo, or Shelley, at least any time soon.
So this is the best we're gonna get to having SY in the HOF.
Have the ballots gone out yet? Haven't seen one in my inbox.
Nope. I wait a few days for discussion.
I don't know what I was thinking with some of my maybes last time around.
I still think Burkett, Dahlen, Clarke, should be in.
I'm less sure of McGinnity now.
For newbies I'll probably vote Walsh, Wagner, Wallace, Crawford, Planke, but I have to take a deeper look still at a few of those. I keep looking at the bottom of the sheet for this Wagner fellow. huh.
Walsh, Wagner, Wallace, Crawford, Planke is definitely what catches the eye. I'm going to be voting for all of them.
So Addie Joss needs your votes. He only had nine years and doesn't come close on the typical markers or JAWS score. And perhaps the 2nd best ERA of all-time doesn't mean much given the era. But he does have the best WHIP in history at .968. So of all the dead-ball era, he was the dead-ballsiest. And it's not like he flamed out. He died from meningitis at the age of 30. Consider it a Puckett like case.
Hear, hear!
Sorry forgot about to talk about addie explicitly, he's moving to a yes from me.
I've sat out a few of these lately, as I haven't had the time to devote to it. And, honestly, I've been kind of frustrated by all you small hall guys. I feel like all of my yeses aren't mattering anyway, so...
I know I should probably stump here more, but the couple times I have done so, it hasn't seemed to matter much.
Just thinking out loud here, not really meaning to be too serious about any of this.
Things have gotten better. The large hall folk need your help (though I obviously understand the time issue).
Has anyone not in the actual hall been voted in yet? I could figure it out, I suppose, but... lazy.
Glasscock and Barnes so far.
Barnes, Glasscock, McCormick.
And if you noticed, Amos Rusie missed election by one vote and Buck Ewing missed by two votes. Buck Ewing gained 36% points on the final ballot after some stumping.
....and McCormick
Alright. I'll start trying again.
Maybe you can be that Amos Rusie vote.
The fewer small hall folks, the more small hall it's going to be. Despite my stinginess, I lean large hall, especially for modern players. I've had difficulty adjusting to the different era and so have leaned to judging more strictly. People stumping here have convinced me to at least go medium hall.
People who need your support.
* Dahlen - I'd like to hear an argument against. Sure, a big chunk of his value is in defense (and those metrics can be dodgy, obviously, but he was still near the top in fielding percentage and WAY up there in range factor, which seems to imply that he got to balls fairly often). That being said, he compiled a lot of offensive value over the course of his career, too (62 rWAR), and JAWS rates him the 10th highest shortstop (ahead of Trammel, Larkin, and Jeter).
* Fred Clarke - Elect him as a player (67 WAR), elect him as a manager (1602 wins over 19 seasons managing some very good Pirates teams). Just elect him.
* Joss - For the reasons beau outlines above.
But none of those guys has a funny name like Glasscock
Ballots will be delayed until next week. I'll extend the deadline to January 26
Ballot sent. Deadline is now January 28
Looking at Hughie Jennings, the all-time HBP king. What an odd career. Beginning with his age 25 season, he had one all-star year, four consecutive MVP-type seasons, and then just nothing.
Not sure how much I like Sherry McGee, but he had an interesting career.
And he then famously knocked an umpire unconscious and was suspended during a pennant race. After baseball, he decided to become an umpire. People thought he was just being cheeky, but as it turned out he was a superb umpire, respected by his peers. But then one year after he started that, he died of pneumonia.