It’s the end of a catching era; Pudge Rodriguez is hanging up the spikes.
Why have two of the top 30 position players since 1950 been ignored by BBWAA voters and bloggers alike?
While we wait breathlessly for word from Cooperstown about the results of the new Veterans Committee balloting, the STATLG-L Internet Hall of Fame voters have spoken their collective mind here on BP.
Almost from the day it opened, the Baseball Hall of Fame has had some form of a Veterans Committee to supplement the player selections voted on by the Baseball Writers Association of America. In fact, Cy Young, who finished sixth behind the first five inductees, also received the fourth-highest 1936 vote total from the Old-Timers Committee.
A total of 3558 voters cast ballots this season.
In an article a couple of weeks ago, I ranked the best hitters outside the Hall of Fame, and concluded that Dick Allen deserves the top spot. Of course, hitting by itself doesn’t determine Hall-worthiness; defense–the difficulty of the position and the quality of play–and baserunning are parts of the picture as well. So who are the best all-around position players not in the Hall?
It was an innocent enough question. When I did my column comparing Ozzie Smith and Omar Vizquel as regards their Hall of Fame resumes (or lack thereof), out of the blue the query came: is Larry Walker a Hall of Famer?
Were the stats of 1990s stars inflated by expansion?