Hall of Fame | The Baseball Zealot

Read the transcript of BBWAA interview with Andre Dawson

If you haven’t already, take the time to read the transcript of the BBWAA conference call interview with Andre Dawson after the announcement of his selection to the Hall of Fame. It’s a good read.

During the interview, he spoke at length about his family especially his mother and his grandmother, Eunice Taylor, who he considered a “mentor”.

Dawson seemed to have a high opinion of playing in Chicago and of the Chicago fans:

I just went out and said I was going to have fun. The fans embraced me from day one of spring training. And I think even though I pressed a little bit at the outset, I hit a grand slam home run that kind of got me going.

And from there, you know, things just started to happen on a daily basis. But for the most part of the six years that I was there, I really enjoyed the reception, the fact that I had an opportunity to play amongst fans who really didn’t put any pressure on you, you know.

Plus he had great comment about one of my favorite baseball people:

Don Zimmer always would make the comment, get here early and don’t really go out and do something that would embarrass the fans.

Something else about the interview struck me too. Something that some people might appreciate more than others:

Andre Dawson: Okay, thank you.

…

Andre Dawson: You’re welcome.

…

Andre Dawson: Thank you.

…

Andre Dawson: Thank you, sir.

…

Andre Dawson: Thank you.

…

Andre Dawson: Thank you.

…

Andre Dawson: Thank you, (Ian).

…

Andre Dawson: Hi Toni. Thank you.

etc, etc..

you get the idea. Grandmother raised him right.

Big Unit saying goodbye after 22 years

Randy Johnson has retired and we’ve lost one of this era’s best pitchers. Given his age, probably last era’s, too.

You’ve heard the big numbers on the Unit… five Cy Young awards, 303 wins, etc. Here are a few lesser known ones:

…he was tops among active pitchers (well when he WAS active) in complete games. And you know what? It’s not even close. His 100 is almost double of second place Tom Glavine’s 56.

…Led the majors in Strikeouts per 9 IP an amazing eleven times.

…Was baseball’s second oldest player at the time of his retirement at 46. Most of us know that greybeard Jamie Moyer is the oldest (he’s 47). And some of us might even make a guess at John Smoltz as the third oldest at age 42. But who’s the fourth oldest? Answer later.

…Back to Randy Johnson… he was the active leader in shutouts with 37.

…All told he led the majors in 56 various (positive) stat categories throughout his career (not counting the times he led in walks or HBPs because he did that too). Pretty impressive.

I had a friend (you know who are) who once felt the Big Unit wasn’t Hall of Fame-worthy. Granted, this was five or so years ago but we had a discussion about it. I’m wondering if he’s changed his mind by now.

Five years from now, I hope we’re not quibbling about whether Randy Johnson should be inducted into the Hall. He had the rare combination of longevity and intensity. The kind of pitcher that played for years but yet, was the kind that you wanted to pitch in the big game.

Like him or not, he gets in. For my money, if you could pit him against the current class, he gets in before any of them.

KO on the Hall vote

The Hall of Fame musings of MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann make for an interesting read whether or not you agree with his politics.

I can agree for the most part with his conclusions though I think he comes off a little sanctimonious when it comes to McGwire:

Hall of Fame? For what? For pretending to Congress that nothing happened before that steroid hearing? Fine. You got your wish. Nothing happened. Your lifetime numbers are 0-0-.000. And by the way, why is it ok for him to just waltz back in as batting coach of the Cardinals? Would we let Bonds come back in? This is unacceptable, and it gives credence to the very disturbing claim that race is at play when it comes to the punishment of steroid cheats. Mark McGwire is a steroid cheater.

Otherwise, I can’t argue too much with someone who would be willing to put Dawson AND Lee Smith in had he a vote.

Hall of Fame election tidbits

The baseball bloggers of the SB Nation affiliates held their own Hall of Fame balloting and the results are in. If they were in charge, only one player would get in and that player was a bit of a surprise… Bert Blyleven.

Don’t get me wrong… I’ve been a Blyleven supporter for years. I just would have expected more support for Alomar or Larkin. My guess is that there was a bit of the “not getting in the first year” element factoring in.

There’s a shared document which has a list of 50 or so (and growing) BBWAA writers and their publicly announced Hall of Fame ballots.

It’s a small sample size of course but I’m heartened to see a good portion of votes going to Andre Dawson (at this moment out of 53 listed, 41 are supporting his induction).

Maybe it’s me but it seems like there’s a bigger push for Edgar Martinez among a few for the Hall.

More support for Dawson from Hal Bodley, senior correspondent for mlb.com who goes on to say that he thinks that this will be (or maybe more accurately “should be”) the year for Dawson and Blyleven. His ballot: Dawson, Blyleven, Alomar and Jack Morris.

and it wouldn’t be Hall of Fame ballot time unless a writer wasn’t defending his ballot, right. Only it seems now they’re doing earlier and earlier before the official announcement.

Andre Dawson: In or out?

The Chicago Tribune has announced who their seven major sports writers support for the 2010 baseball Hall of Fame ballot. Aggregately, the seven of them would vote in Roberto Alomar and Andre Dawson.

Dawson has always been on the bubble when it came to the Hall. It didn’t help that he had 438 homeruns short of the (what used to be) the magical number to get in, (whether or not you like that litmus test. I don’t) It also doesn’t help that he played for a team that doesn’t exist anymore and another that for the most part was mediocre (Dawson did his part winning the MVP for the last place 1987 Cubs).

Hopefully, this is his year. If you really want to see him in the Hall, you can help push for his election by joining Cubcast’s Twitter blitz aptly named #Dawson4theHall. More info on their website.

Dawson may have an uphill battle, though. Seems to me that the BBWAA is becoming more selective in recent years, with the possible exception of Bruce Sutter (sorry Sutter fans, I liked him too).

But mostly in the ‘00s, they’ve only voted in the creme de la creme, something the Veterans Committee should perhaps look into. In 2009, it was Rice (long time comin’) and Henderson (shoo-in). In 2008, Gossage. In 2007, two obvious choices in Ripken and Gwynn. Others in this decade: Boggs, Sandberg, Eckersley, G. Carter, Eddie Murray, Ozzie Smith. Kirby Puckett.

Ok, there WAS Mazeroski. *snicker*

As far as his legacy is concerned, Dawson can be thankful he was picked up by the Chicago Cubs in 1987 after playing eleven years with the now defunct Montreal Expos . He was 32 years old and played only six years for Chicago but recently the Cub faithful have really taken up his cause for the Hall with a vengeance. See the above Twitter effort as an example.

Point is, as much as I like Dawson (and I do, being a Cub fan. Besides being a good player, he had a pretty cool WGN theme song based around him), it might be a tough row to hoe.

PS I couldn’t think of it at the time but the song was “Andre’s Army”.

‘One-and-done’ Maddog

Joe Posnanski of Sports Illustrated wrote an article on those players who got between 15 and 20 votes in their first of eligibility for Hall of Fame consideration. “One-and-done” he calls them. Good enough to get more than a few votes but not enough to remain on the ballot for subsequent year.

It’s a list littered with players who were more than fair, in my opinion. Players like Lou Whitaker, Joe Carter, Ted Simmons (you’ll get a lot of arguments from Cardinals fans on this, I know), Rusty Staub, and Al Oliver.

One player on the list who I saw a lot growing up was thirdbaseman Bill Madlock. ‘Maddog’ has some interesting stats in way. Posnanski makes the point that eleven players have won four or more batting titles. Of those, ten are in the Hall of Fame. Bill Madlock is not. That said, I get the sense Posnanski wasn’t necessarily bemoaning Madlock’s omission from the Hall.

Madlock had a career .305 batting average to go along with his four batting titles. While he had that going for him, his stats look good-but-not-great otherwise. Bill Madlock usually hit the double digits in homeruns but never passed the 20 mark for a season. His highest was 19 in 1982 for the Pirates. Not much of a doubles hitter either from the looks of it. He passed 30 only twice.

He had decent speed also sometimes hitting double digits in stolen bases. Only once though did he pass 20 when he stole 32 this time in a split season in 1979 between the Pirates and Giants.

In essence, Maddog earned his paycheck by winning batting crowns.

Zeile fun

Looks like someone is floating Todd Zeile’s name out as a HOF candidate.

All kidding aside, Teddy Ballgame already posted earlier about TZ being the only player to hit for more than ten major league teams.

Apparently, he also committed more errors than anyone in the 1990s, a record I never knew about.

Manager Connie Mack

connie-mack-hof-1 Here is another fact off my tear-off White Sox trivia calendar. Who holds the record for most years as a Major League manager? Connie Mack (53 years)

He is the longest-serving manager in MLB history, holds records for wins (3,731), losses (3,948), & games managed (7,755), with his victory is almost 1,000 wins more than any other manager. Mack was the manager of the Philadelphia Athletics for the club’s first fifty years before retiring at the age of 87 in 1950.

Connie played eleven years (10 in the NL & one in the Players League) in the major leagues, as a light hitting catcher, .245 career average. He hit five home runs in 2,931 at bats, three in 1888, when he sacrificed average for power, batting only .187 (his only season below .200). His best season as a player was in the Players League in1891 when he batted .266 with12 triples, he was HBP 20 times. His last three seasons as a player, were also his first three as a manager, as he was the Pittsburgh Pirates player/manager (even back then they were trying to save money).

Mack wanted men who were self-directed, self-disciplined, and self-motivated; his ideal player was Eddie Collins. As a manager, he won nine pennants and appeared in eight World Series, winning five.

Over the course of his career he had three pennant-winning teams. His original team, with players like Rube Waddell, Ossee Schreckengost, and Eddie Plank, won the pennant in 1902 and 1905, losing the 1905 World Series to the New York Giants. During that season, New York’s manager John McGraw said that Mack had “a big white elephant on his hands” with the Athletics. Mack adopted a white elephant as the team’s logo, which the Athletics still use today.

As his first team aged, Mack acquired a core of young players to form his second great team, which featured Mack’s famous “$100,000 infield” of Eddie Collins, Home Run Baker, Jack Barry, and Stuffy McInnis. These Athletics, captained by catcher Ira Thomas, won the pennant in 1910, 1911, 1913, and 1914, beating the Cubs in the World Series in 1910 and beating the Giants in 1911 and 1913, and losing to the Boston Braves in 1914.

That team was dispersed due to financial problems, from which Mack did not recover until the twenties, when he built his third great team. The 1927 Athletics may have been the best second-place team in history, featuring several future Hall of Fame players including veterans Ty Cobb, Zack Wheat, and Eddie Collins as well as players in their prime such as Mickey Cochrane, Lefty Grove, Al Simmons, and rookie Jimmie Foxx. That team won the pennant in 1929, 1930, and 1931, beating the Chicago Cubs in the World Series in 1929 and beating the St. Louis Cardinals in 1930, and losing to the Cardinals in 1931.

The Veterans Committee voted Connie Mack into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1937.

Jeter’s bid to Hall is secure

Last night in a game against the Orioles, Derek Jeter passed Lou Gehrig on the all-time list. The fact that Gehrig was a revered Yankee player and that Jeter got his hit in front of 46,000+ fans added to the significance of the event in the eyes of the media.

That puts him #53 on the all-time list. With 2,722 hits, Jeter still needs a couple hundred more plus a few more if he wants to meet the goal of the magical 3000. At the age of 35, barring any major injury, he’ll most likely accomplish that goal.

Where does Jeter fall on the all-time lists in other offensive categories? Here is a quick breakdown:

Batting Average	65th	.316
At-bats	89th	8539
Runs Scored	50th	1564
Total Bases	85th	3945
Doubles	109th	437
Runs Created	65th	1572
HBP	22nd	142
Times on Base	64th	3738
OBP	118	.387

Oh yeah, he’s 47th in singles with 2,005 but that seemed like kind of a back handed compliment.

These numbers are very good but they don’t really jump out at you. That said, Jeter’s hit total is second (behind Ken Griffey) among active players. The difference is that Jeter is only 35.

I’m sure there will be plenty out there who will be comparing Jeter’s hitting stats to others claiming East Coast bias and Jeter-hype. Those will no doubt be the same who will bring up the argument of Jeter’s reputation of mediocre defense (fair or unfair).

But let’s face it. Barring a major scandal, Jeter’s bid for the Hall is pretty much secure when the time comes, like it or not. The phenomenon of Derek Jeter, a player who played his whole career for the Yankees, became their team captain and helped them win in the postseason, counts for more than any stat or fact that you can analyze.

Comparing catchers

Mike, our commissioner in the Illowa APBA League sent this out to our members and it generated a fair amount of discussion.

“Can you identify these catchers. Which ones are in the Hall of Fame?”

Player Avg HR RBI Runs

# 1 .285 248 1389 1074

# 2 .262 324 1225 1025

# 3 .269 376 1330 1276

# 4 .308 427 1335 1048

Mike, is a Cardinals fan so he had an agenda behind this all. Two are in the HOF, one is waiting, and the other, in Mike’s eyes, is unfairly being denied entry to the hallowed halls.

Yeah, you guessed it, it’s former Cardinal Ted Simmons who is #1 on the above list. The question of the day is Does Ted Simmons who also spent time with the Brewers and the Braves, belong in the Hall of Fame?

By the way, the others listed are #2- Gary Carter, #3- Carlton Fisk, and #4- Mike Piazza.

Per the Simmons question and comparing hitting only, he holds his own against the other three with the stats provided. Yes, the dinger stats are down but the batting average and run production is comparable if not better.

So why the hate on Mr Simmons? He has plenty of supporters. Fungoes, a Cardinals blog with a SABR bent, puts Simmons second on their list of best Cardinals not in the Hall of Fame. Our dear commissioner, dogmatic fan that he is, would probably rank him over Bench.

Well, there’s the defense issue. Simmons had an reputation problem with the glove. While reports say that earlier in his career he had trouble, in reality, he was an AVERAGE fielding catcher. But in an age where every catcher was being compared to Johnny Bench and you’re the only decent alternative to him (read: backup in the All-Star game), people are going to look at your weaknesses.

Maybe a question for time: Mike Piazza- First ballot Hall of Famer? Hall of Famer at all?