There are a whole lotta things in life I don’t understand. One of them is major league baseball’s Hall of Fame voting. How on God’s green earth can a player not make it one year, but make it the next. Or 5 years later. Or 15 years later! In my simple mind, you’re a Hall of Famer, or you’re not.
Not to get in the weeds about the process, but last year — in Moose’s second time around of “eligibility”, he received 24.6% of the votes. This morning he hit 54%. What happened over the last 365 days — 7 years after Mussina retired — that accounted for this apparent increase in support? Did his stats change? Then what? I dunno, the whole thing is imperfect. It does not make sense, but that’s just me. I would love to hear a position on exactly how and why this serves baseball to the level of respect a Hall of Fame induction demands.
This is why I never watch The Academy Awards, The Emmy’s, Golden Globes, etc. — they are inbred, industry circle-jerks that have no real meaning or value to anyone, other than those who gift the statuette and those who receive it. Sure, it may help market a film or television show, but who really pays attention to that? I’m concerned baseball’s HOF process may turn into this — but I do have faith that the voting members of today indeed care about the integrity of game and it’s ultimate honors. With the juice-era guys now in consideration, let’s see where this thing goes. Fingers crossed, nonetheless.
Jorgie Up Next in 2017
An integral component of the Yankees ‘run’, and bearer of no less than 5 World Series Championship rings, Jorge Posada has to be strongly considered for the Hall. To my thinking, inclusion should be about not only stats, but heart and soul. More specifically, heart and soul that produced tangible results — like 5 titles.
Here’s a snippet of a great piece in today’s Washington Post by Neil Greenberg:
Posada was drafted by the New York Yankees in the 24th round of the 1990 amateur draft and would never wear the uniform of another team, spending 17 years in the Big Apple and watching his No. 20 retired by the Yanks.
Posada retired as a career .273 hitter, hitting 275 home runs with 1,065 RBI, winning five Silver Slugger awards and finishing in the top six of MVP voting twice. He was one of the most offensively gifted catchers to ever play baseball, with his ranks among all catchers since 1901 looking very favorable:
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- 275 home runs — No. 8
- 2,065 RBI — No. 11
- 20.848 OPS — No. 6
- 2,936 walks — No. 3
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The only backstops who had a higher OPS over at least 7,000 plate appearances after adjusting for the era they played were Mike Piazza, Bill Dickey, Johnny Bench, Gabby Hartnett and Yogi Berra. But his overall Hall-of-Fame worthiness falls short. He ended his career with an HOFm of 98, an HOFs of 40 and a 37.7 JAWS, more than five wins lower than an average Hall of Fame catcher (43.1 JAWS).
While the metrics say he’s short, Posada’s case for enshrinement could get a boost when you factor in his five World Series rings.
MEMORY LANE : On today’s date in 2006, former Yankees GM Bob Watson, received the Jackie Robinson Lifetime Achievement Award from the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum. The honor was bestowed on the first black general manager in baseball history during the organization’s Legacy Awards ceremonies in Kansas City…
On January 7th, 1924, the Yankees traded Elmer Smith, $50,000 cash (in today’s money, that’s just under $679,000) — and a player to be named to Louisville of the American Association for Earle Combs.
(h/t: Baseball-Reference.com, Today in Baseball History)
