So yeah, that was a long break. Part of that is I got a promotion that makes me a lot busier. Part of that is hungry joe is no longer able to help with plaques. If anyone else wants to take that on, let me know. Meanwhile, you get horrendous, barely able to read plaques made in Microsoft Paint.
We had a record low 17 voters this time around. But we managed to get a few people into the Hall, including one player who was on his 6th ballot.
Only ten new players on this ballot. For those who do writeups, look below for your assignments.
The stats page hasn't been updated yet. Nibbish will let everyone know when he gets to it.
The votes page hasn't been updated yet. Daneeksaghost will let everyone know when he gets to it.
Fun Fact: 1943 is the first year that zero players retired who had over 30 WAR.
Blurb Due Date: December 11
Final Ballot
Max Carey 37%
Stan Coveleski 68%
Urban Shocker 42%
Zack Wheat 63%
New Hitters
Earl Averill (daneekasghost)
Wally Berger (CanofCorn)
Charlie Gehringer (Beau)
Gabby Hartnett (philosofer)
Buddy Myer (Scot)
New Pitchers
Wes Ferrell (yickit)
Larry French (New Britain Bo)
Lefty Grove (nibbish)
Bump Hadley (bhiggum)
Charlie Root (DPWY)
When philosopher writes about someone, they get voted in unanimously. I love this plaque.
Two unanimous players on one ballot! Rogers wasn't as well-liked, but when you're the best second baseman ever, nobody cares.
Sam Rice hasn't gotten any Twins franchise love, but Goose sure didn't have to wait around. With 90% of the vote, he coasts in on his first ballot.
I love this picture. Great find hungryjoe. Mickey Cochrane garners 84% of the vote, and the Hall hates catchers just a little less.
Remaining On The Ballot (20 Players)
Frankie Frisch debuts as well as one can without getting elected (unless you're Billy Hamilton). Otherwise, not a whole lot of movement, with several players still stuck in the 60th percentile. Joe "Strikeouts Are Fascist" Sewell makes the biggest jump, gaining 25 percentage points. Firpo Marberry's support is dwindling fast.
Frankie Frisch: 74%
Stan Coveleski: 68% +1
Red Faber: 68% -4
Bill Terry: 68% +1
Zack Wheat: 63% +2
Joe Sewell: 58% +25
Sam Rice: 53% +3
Urban Shocker: 42% -8
Max Carey: 37% +4
Hack Wilson: 37% -2
Pie Traynor: 32%
Earl Combs: 26% -2
Wally Schang: 26% +4
Waite Hoyt: 21%
Firpo Marberry: 21% -12
Kiki Cuyler: 16%
Burleigh Grimes: 16% -17
Tony Lazzeri: 16%
Heinie Manush: 11%
George Uhle: 11% -6
Falling Off The Ballot (9 players)
Jim Bottomley was one of those guys I thought was amazing when I was a kid, almost certainly because he was in the Hall. I was baffled to see how pedestrian he seems when looking at his b-ref page. It seems most of you felt the same way.
Travis Jackson: 21% +10
Eppa Rixey: 21% -12
Jim Bottomley: 16%
Jimmy Dykes: 11%
Jesse Haines: 11%
Red Lucas: 5%
Chick Hafey: 0%
Rube Wallberg: 0%
Earl Whitehill: 0%
Last ballot we had one person get elected. I have a feeling this time we might get more than one.
Your random blurb assignments are below.
Blurb Due Date: October 22nd
New Hitters
Jim Bottomley (New Britain Bo)
MIckey Cochrane (daneekasghost)
Kiki Cuyler (bhiggum)
Jimmy Dykes (Beau)
Frankie Frisch (nibbish)
Lou Gehrig (philosofer)
Goose Goslin (Scot)
Chick Hafey (CanofCorn)
Rogers Hornsby (Beau)
Tony Lazzeri (DPWY)
Heinie Manush (nibbish)
Pie Traynor (Pepper)
New Pitchers
Jesse Haines (DPWY)
Waite Hoyt (AMR)
Red Lucas (yickit)
Rube Wallberg (freealonzo)
Earl Whitehill (philosofer)
A few of you got more than one assignment. I purposely gave philosofer two because last time he got assigned a Yankee slugger he whined about it. The others I just randomly assigned. If you can't do two, just let us all know and we'll try to cover it.
Also, thanks Pepper for the assist.
God I love baseball so much. When I was eight years old I memorized every statistic of every player in R.B.I. baseball. I would annoy the shit out of my parents by reciting things like how many homers Ellis Burks and Tony Armas had for the 86 Red Sox (20 and 43 respectively, even though Burks's rookie year was 1987 and they used Armas's 1984 stats). I'm so glad I found a community on-line where I can be myself with glorious baseball history. 27 years later and my love for this game is stronger than ever.
We had 18 voters this time around. It was a relatively weak ballot. But we will still have an election ceremony.
Dazzy Vance squeaks in on his second ballot, pulling down 78% of the electorate. It's a good thing he had another trick up his sleeve. He sure ain't gettin' by on his looks.
Remaining on the Ballot (15 Players)
Red Faber: 72% +28
Stan Coveleski: 67% -5
Bill Terry: 67%
Zack Wheat: 61% +5
Sam Rice: 50% -6
Urban Shocker: 50% +0
Hack Wilson: 39% -5
Max Carey: 33% +5
Burleigh Grimes: 33% -6
Firpo Marberry: 33%
Joe Sewell: 33% +0
Eppa Rixey: 33% +5
Earl Combs: 28% +6
Wally Schang: 22% +0
Travis Jackson: 11%
Not a lot of movement here, except for Red Faber who had a huge jump of 28 percentage points and was the only player to fall one vote short. Bill Terry made a pretty strong first ballot showing. Firpo Marberry must have been swayed by philsofer's plea as only 5 of 18 voters voted nay. A lot of people on the fence there. Some people on the fence about Travis Jackson as well thanks to nibbish's lukewarm report.
For the first time in a while we will have zero players on their final ballot next go round.
Falling off the Ballot (9 Players)
Eddie Cicotte: 39% +11
Heinie Groh: 22% -6
Edd Roush: 17% -5
Lefty O'Doul: 11% -6
Herb Pennock: 11% -6
Rabbit Maranville: 6% -11
Freddie Lindstrom: 0%
Tom Zachary: 0%
General Crowder: 0%
I'm honestly surprised how well Eddie Cicotte did. Perhaps I shouldn't be given how much overwhelming support Shoeless Joe got. I thought that was a case of, "Well, he was so dominant we can ignore the cheating." As it turns out, Eddie's borderline case overcame that as well.
As for the rest, we see a lot of real-life Hall-of-Famers getting kicked to the curb. Pennock, Maranville, Roush, and Lindstrom all say goodbye, the voters unimpressed by the various Veteran's Committees.
There were so many holdovers from the previous ballot that we're going through only one year this time. So I've decided to assign some blurbs for players that have been on a while that have been getting some votes.
So the new format of Half-Baked Hall was a success in that we had a robust discussion about all of the new players. We also had the lowest voter turnout yet. I'll blame the heat. If anybody else wants to volunteer for bios, let me know.
Arguably the best player of all-time managed to snag 100% of the vote. Good job voters.
Mauer's career is arguably already better than Sisler's due to positional adjustments, but man Sisler fell off a cliff. Still good enough to nab 83% of the vote, though.
I asked Nibbish for a quote for Heilmann's plaque, as nobody has ever talked about him in the history of the WGOM. This is what he said. Harry got 78% of the vote. Now let's stop talking about him.
Remaining on the Ballot (19 Players)
Nearly everyone who carried over got a bump this time around, with Zack Wheat and Urban Shocker leading the way. Coveleski gets oh so close to election on his 3rd ballot. Scot's avatar starts out with 56%, so I think he has a chance.
The only guy to lose major ground was a catcher. Go figure.
Stan Coveleski (72%) +4
Dazzy Vance (72%)
Sam Rice (56%)
Zack Wheat (56%) +14
Urban Shocker (50%) +13
Red Faber (44%) +12
Hack Wilson (44%)
Burleigh Grimes (39%)
Joe Sewell (33%) +7
Max Carey (28%) +2
Eddie Cicotte (28%) -4
Heinie Groh (28%) +12
Eppa Rixey (28%) +7
Earl Combs (22%)
Edd Roush (22%) +6
Wally Schang (22%) -10
Rabbit Maranville (17%)
Lefty O'Doul (17%)
Herb Pennock (17%)
Falling Off The Ballot (11 players)
Bobby Wallace falls just short of election on his final ballot. Carl Mays, who somehow snuck onto a 2nd ballot, crashes and burns this time.
Senator Joe Judge completely whiffs.
Bobby Wallace (72%) +9
Sherry Magee (39%) +2
Sad Sam Jones (17%)
Max Bishop (11%)
George Grantham (6%)
Willie Kamm (6%)
Carl Mays (6%) -15
Riggs Stephenson (6%)
Joe Judge (0%)
Dolf Luque (0%)
Marty McManus (0%)
So we're going to be this a little bit different now. We have some wonderful volunteers who agreed to write a small blurb about a player or two to generate discussion and help us all learn more about baseball history.
Final Ballot
Sherry Magee
Bobby Wallace
Below is the list of new batters and who is responsible for writing about them. Remember, this is just a short blurb. Don't stress out about it. Find one thing interesting about the person. You can talk about if you like them for a vote or not but you don't have to. If it's more than two paragraphs you're probably trying too hard.
Due Date For Blurbs: June 30th
New Hitters
Max Bishop (CanofCorn)
Earl Combs (Freealonzo)
George Grantham (nibbish)
Joe Judge (AMR)
Willie Kamm (Beau)
Rabbit Maranville (bhiggum)
Marty McManus (DPWY)
Lefty O'Doul (Geoff)
Sam Rice (New Britain Bo)
Babe Ruth (philosofer)
Riggs Stephenson (yickit)
Hack Wilson (daneekasghost)
If I get any more volunteers, I'll add them to the pitcher list. Otherwise, I'll probably write something up.
New Pitchers
Burleigh Grimes
Sad Sam Jones (philosofer)
Dolf Luque (Scot)
Herb Pennock (Scot)
Dazzy Vance
From now on I vow never to add a player during the middle of a ballot. The spreadsheets got all wonky. I can only hope I got everyone's vote right in the end. I think I did.
Babe Ruth retired in 1935, so you're going to have to wait to argue about his candidacy. For now you'll have to settle for these scrubs.
Final Ballot
Miller Huggins
Joe Tinker
New Batters
Dave Bancroft
Lu Blue
Eddie Collins
Harry Heilmann
Edd Roush
Wally Schang
George Sisler
Cy Williams
New Pitchers
Grover Cleveland "Pete" Alexander
Red Faber
Jack Quinn
Eppa Rixey
Eddie Rommel
Ballots Released: About Tuesday, May 19
Ballots Due: Tuesday, May 26
