Tommy John | The Baseball Zealot

HOF ’09: We’re Done!

Well, with Teddy Ballgame’s write-up on Greg Vaughn earlier today, we’ve concluded HOF ’09, our series of profiles of this year’s candidates for the Hall of Fame. It’s been fun and I think we’ve even learned a bit along the way.

As for me, it was an interesting group of players to profile for a couple reasons. A big one was that most of these players were big stars while I was a teenager and young adult when I was forming my serious interest in baseball. Dave Parker, Jim Rice, Tim Raines, Andre Dawson… I have fond memories. Not to mention that some of these players played in the era when the Chicago Cubs finally became a post season threat (I can still remember the ’84 series against the Padres… ugh).

Also, these players came from a time when baseball had more of a balance of power, speed, and pitching. Appropriately enough, that is reflected in the 2009 Hall of Fame ballot. With the speed of Henderson and Raines, the power of McGwire and Rice and the pitching of David Cone, Bert Blyleven and Tommy John, this class is well represented.

Who will get elected? Well, we put our opinions down who we think SHOULD get the call but as to who WILL get elected is another matter. The BBWAA has been rather stingy lately and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. It’s very possible that just one (Rickey Henderson??) will get elected and others will have to wait.

Time is running out for some, though. The midnight hour is chiming for Jim Rice as it’s his last ballot. There are some (myself included) who feel that his career and contribution is worthy of the Hall.

We’ll find out tomorrow and the chips will fall where they may. No doubt, many bloggers and pundits will be unhappy no matter how it goes. I’ll predict at least one writer will have his credentials questioned and will be asked to step down from the BBWAA. Unfortunately, THAT is the safest prediction I make right now.

All that said, here are the opinions we’ve made in the last month. Links go to our profiles on the players.

Thanks for reading!

	Hall of Fame	Hall of Very Good	Why is he even on the Ballot?
Harold Baines
Jay Bell
Bert Blyleven
David Cone
*Andre Dawson*
Ron Gant
Mark Grace
Rickey Henderson
Tommy John
Don Mattingly
Mark McGwire
Jack Morris
Dale Murphy
Jesse Orosco
Dave Parker
Dan Plesac
Tim Raines
Jim Rice
Lee Smith
Alan Trammell
Greg Vaughn
Mo Vaughn
Matt Williams

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Teddy Ballgame and DonS for their help with his project.

Also, a lot of research went in to this. I’d like to give props to the websites that were helpful.

Baseball Reference: I can’t say enough about this web site. If there are baseball fans out there who haven’t seen this site and what it can do, you need to check it out.

Baseball Page: Very helpful for bios and such.

Baseball Musings’ Day by Day Database: Good for finding stats between established periods of time (and lots of other stuff).

Baseball Almanac: another good bio site. Good for the quotes too :)

HOF ’09: Tommy John

My favorite pitcher growing up was Tommy John. John pitched for my Chicago White Sox. My White Sox team at this time were on the verge of going to Milwaukee. In an effort to keep the Sox in Chicago, we traded him to the Dodgers in exchange for Dick Allen. Attendance was down to nothing, we needed a savior, and that savior was Dick Allen.

So my team was safe in Chicago, but what about my favorite pitcher, Tommy John? Despite the fact that John had a losing record three of his last four years with the White Sox, but then he showed he was a winner with LA. In his first three years with the Dodgers Tommy was 11-5, 16-7, & 13-3, before his arm fell off. He missed the second half of the 1974 season & missed the entire 1975 season, recovering from Tommy John Surgery. John wasn’t the first pitcher to have the procedure to replace a tendon in his throwing arm, but he was the first to have a successful career following the procedure.

It didn’t happen over night, he was 10-10 in 1976. But then he bounced back to have the greatest success of his career. He posted records of 20-7 in 1977 & 17-10 in 1978, before leaving LA for the Yankees. With New York at the age of 36, John pitched more innings than ever before 276′ & 265′ innings, completing 33 games over these two years, with a record of 21-9 & 22-9.

He pitched an incredible 26 years in the major leagues, posting a record of 288-231, working 4,710′ innings, with a lifetime ERA of 3.69. Somehow his longevity may also be working against him, a lot of people remember him as a soft tosser, but nothing could be further from the truth. Sure he got by with guile while battling into his forties, but in his hay day, Tommy John could buzz them by you.

	Hall of Fame
	Hall of Very Good
	Why is he even on the Ballot?

While we wait for January 12 ballot results, The Baseball Zealot will be profiling those players who are on the 2009 Baseball Hall of Fame ballot. Read the rest the of the profiles.

HOF ’09: Profiling the Candidates

This winter, The Baseball Zealot will be doing profiles of the Hall of Fame candidates for 2009. In addition, we’ll give our opinion on their inclusion in the Hall. This post will serve as the entry point for the HOF ’09 series.

Here is the link to all the profiles written to date.

The results will be announced on January 12th, 2009. With any luck, we’ll get them all in before then.