Baseball's Hall of Fame or Hall of Shame (17 page)

Splitting time between the Washington Senators, St. Louis Browns and Detroit Tigers, Goslin topped 120 RBIs four times during his career, batted over .340 three times, scored more than 100 runs seven times, and collected at least 10 triples nine times. He finished with 248 home runs, 1,609 runs batted in, 1,483 runs scored, 2,735 base hits, 173 triples, and a .316 batting average, and did relatively well in the MVP voting, finishing in the top 10 on three different occasions. Although he played during a hitter’s era, Goslin stood out as one of the very best batsmen of his time.

Lou Brock/Willie Stargell

Although their styles of play could not have been more dissimilar, Brock and Stargell have been grouped together because they were players who excelled during the same era, albeit at different aspects of the game.

Prior to Rickey Henderson, Lou Brock was the greatest leadoff hitter in major league history. Although he is remembered more as a great base-stealer, Brock was an exceptional all-around player. He finished his career with 3,023 hits, 141 triples, 1,610 runs scored, and a .293 batting average. He batted over .300 eight times, scored more than 100 runs seven times, and compiled more than 200 hits four times. Brock had probably his finest all-around season in 1967 when he established career-highs in home runs (21) and runs batted in (76), batted .299, stole 52 bases, collected 206 hits, and led the N.L. with 113 runs scored. The following season, Brock became the first National League player since Honus Wagner in 1908 to lead the league in doubles, triples, and steals.

Nevertheless, Brock’s reputation was built largely on his base-stealing ability. Along with Maury Wills, he is largely responsible for changing the way the game was played. During a nine-year stretch, from 1966 to 1974, Brock led the National League in stolen bases eight times. He established a major league record by stealing 50 or more bases in 12 consecutive seasons, from 1965 to 1976. Although Rickey Henderson eventually shattered both marks, Brock once held both the career (938) and single-season (118) stolen base records.

Using our Hall of Fame criteria, although Brock was never considered to be among the five or six best players in baseball, or even the best player at his position, he does very well in all other categories. He was selected to the National League All-Star Team six times, and he finished in the top 10 in the MVP voting five times. In fact, when Brock stole 118 bases in 1974, not only did he finish second to Steve Garvey in the MVP balloting, but he was named Man of the Year by
The Sporting News.
In addition, Brock was a huge contributor to his team’s success, and he clearly did the little things to help his team win. After the St. Louis Cardinals acquired him in a trade with the Chicago Cubs during the 1964 season, they went on to win three pennants and two world championships in the next five years. Brock’s base running and abilities as a leadoff hitter had as much to do with that as anything. He was a selfless player who, despite possessing good power himself, sacrificed hitting home runs for getting on base and upsetting the opposing team’s pitcher and defense. Brock was also a tremendous clutch performer, exhibiting his ability to perform well under pressure in every World Series in which he appeared. In the 1967 Series, he batted .414 against the Red Sox, collecting 12 hits and establishing a Series record by stealing seven bases. The following year, against Detroit, Brock batted .464, rapped out 13 hits, and equaled his own Series record by stealing another seven bases.

Although he was a mediocre outfielder and a below-average baserunner, Willie Stargell was one of the great sluggers the game has seen and was one of the most feared and dangerous hitters of the 1960s and 1970s. In fact, even though he finished his career with 475 home runs, Stargell probably would have hit many more long balls had he not spent his first seven seasons playing in Pittsburgh’s cavernous Forbes Field. Although he surpassed 30 homers there once, and was able to knock in over 100 runs twice, it was not until the Pirates moved to Three Rivers Stadium prior to the 1970 season that Stargell became a truly dominant hitter. From 1971 to 1973, he was one of the five best players in the game, and, perhaps, baseball’s most productive hitter. In 1971, he led the National League with 48 homers, knocked in 125 runs, batted .295, and finished runner-up to Joe Torre in the MVP voting. The following season, he hit 33 homers, drove in 112 runs, batted .293, and finished third in the MVP balloting. In 1973, he led the league with 44 homers, 119 runs batted in, 43 doubles, and a slugging percentage of .646, while batting .299 and finishing second to Pete Rose in the MVP voting.

In 1979, nearing the end of his career, Stargell was recognized for his team leadership and integral role on the Pirates’ team that eventually went on to win the World Series when he was voted co-winner of the league MVP Award, along with Keith Hernandez of the Cardinals. In all, Stargell finished in the top 10 in the MVP voting seven times during his career and was selected to the N.L. All-Star Team seven times.

In addition to his other credentials, Stargell was one of the classiest men the game has known and epitomized the “integrity,” “sportsmanship,” and “character” traits that Hall of Famers, in theory, are supposed to possess.

Monte Irvin/Ralph Kiner/Billy Williams

Although Irvin, Kiner, and Williams would all fall just short of being ranked among the ten greatest leftfielders in baseball history, they each had some very impressive credentials that legitimized their places in Cooperstown.

Monte Irvin did not arrive in the major leagues as a member of the New York Giants until 1949, when he was already 30 years old. He spent seven seasons with the Giants and one with the Chicago Cubs before retiring at the end of the 1956 campaign. Irvin was a good major league player, having two extremely productive seasons for the Giants. In 1951, he helped lead them to the National League pennant by hitting 24 home runs, leading the league with 121 runs batted in, scoring 94 runs, and batting .312. After suffering a serious leg injury that cost him most of the following season, Irvin returned in 1953 to hit 21 homers, knock in 97 runs, and bat .329. Over the course of his eight big league seasons, Irvin hit 99 home runs and batted .293.

However, Irvin was not elected to the Hall of Fame because of his major league career. Prior to signing with the Giants, he spent ten seasons playing in the Negro Leagues and was considered by many to have been one of the finest talents ever to come out of them. Although he played mostly leftfield in the majors, Irvin made his mark in the Negro Leagues primarily as a shortstop. He had the full package: strong arm, speed and power.

“He was just a terrific talent,” said Robert Ruck, a Negro League historian and a history professor at the University of Pittsburgh. “The only thing that kept him from jumping into the major leagues before Jackie Robinson was he went away to the service.”

Irvin was a power hitter who hit a league-high .395 in 1941 before joining the war effort. After missing three seasons due to military service, he returned in 1946 to lead the Newark Eagles to the Negro League title, batting a league-leading .404 and being selected league MVP.

In 2000, the Negro League Baseball Museum did an unscientific survey of roughly 200 living ballplayers. The players were given a list of key players in the Negro Leagues, and they were asked to pick the “best of the best.”

“Irvin was picked at outfield,” said Raymond Doswell, the curator at the museum. “Again, unscientific, but they considered him a great player.”

Ralph Kiner did not hit for a particularly high average (.279 lifetime), and was not a great outfielder by any stretch of the imagination. However, he was one of the greatest sluggers in the history of the game. Although he played only ten seasons, Kiner managed to hit 369 home runs and set a major league record by leading his league in home runs for seven consecutive seasons—a record that still stands.

From 1947 to 1951, only Stan Musial prevented Kiner from being the most dominant player in the National League. For those five seasons, Kiner was clearly one of the two or three best players in the N.L., and one of the five best in the majors. He hit over 40 homers and knocked in well over 100 runs in each of those seasons. He also batted over .300 three times. Kiner’s two finest seasons came in 1947 and 1949. In the first of those years, he hit 51 home runs, drove in 127 runs, batted .313, and scored 118 runs. Two years later, Kiner once again topped the 50-homer mark by hitting a career-high 54 long balls, while driving in 127 runs, batting .310, and scoring 116 runs.

Over the course of his career, Kiner knocked in more than 100 runs, scored more than 100 runs, and drew more than 100 walks six times each, while batting over .300 three times. He led the league in runs batted in once, walks three times, runs scored once, on-base percentage once, and slugging percentage three times. He was selected to the N.L. All-Star Team five times and, in spite of the fact that he spent most of his career playing for weak Pittsburgh Pirates teams, finished in the top 10 in the MVP voting five times.

Billy Williams had the misfortune of coming up to the Chicago Cubs at a time when four of the greatest outfielders in the history of the game were already established on other National League teams. By the time Williams came up to stay with the Cubs in 1961, Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, Frank Robinson, and Roberto Clemente were already All-Stars on their respective teams. By the late ’60s, two of Williams’ contemporaries, Willie Stargell and Lou Brock had also established themselves as All-Stars. Therefore, it could not legitimately be said that, at any point during his career—with the exception of two seasons—Williams was considered to be one of the top two or three players in his league, or, for that matter, the best player at his position. He was, however, a consistently outstanding performer who, although overshadowed by others for much of his career, was one of the finest players of his era.

Billy Williams finished his career with 426 home runs, 1,475 runs batted in, 1,410 runs scored, 2,711 base hits, and a .290 batting average. During a pitcher’s era, for 13 straight seasons from 1961 to 1973, he never hit fewer than 20 home runs, drove in less than 84 runs, or batted less than .276. He hit more than 30 homers five times, drove in more than 100 runs three times, scored more than 100 runs five times, collected more than 200 hits three times, and batted over .300 five times. He had three seasons that could be described as true Hall of Fame type seasons.

The first of these came in 1965, when he hit 34 home runs, drove in 108 runs, batted .315, scored 115 runs, and collected 203 hits. Then, in 1970, Williams had his finest season. That year, he hit 42 homers, knocked in 129 runs, batted .322, and led the N.L. with 205 hits and 137 runs scored, finishing second to Johnny Bench in the league MVP voting. Two years later, in 1972, Williams hit 37 homers, had 122 RBI’s, and led the league with a .333 batting average and a .606 slugging percentage. Once again, he finished runner-up to Bench in the MVP voting. However, in both the 1970 and 1972 seasons, it could be argued that Williams was as good an all-around player as there was in the game. He was selected to the All-Star Team six times during his career and finished in the top 10 in the MVP voting a total of three times.

Pete Hill

It took Pete Hill more than 80 years after he played his final game to be admitted to Cooperstown. But all available evidence seems to indicate that the Veterans Committee made a wise decision when it finally elected him in 2006.

Joseph Preston “Pete” Hill spent 22 seasons playing for seven different teams in the Negro Leagues. During that time, he was considered to be the cornerstone of three of the most talented teams in the pioneer years of black baseball. From 1904 through 1907, Hill was the star leftfielder for Sol White’s hard-hitting Philadelphia Giants. From 1908 to 1910, he played for Rube Foster’s Leland Giants. In his years with the Giants, Foster depended heavily on Hill’s leadership skills, treating him much as a second manager. In Hill’s final year with the team, the Giants posted a remarkable record of 123-6 against the best talent in the Midwest. In 1911, Hill joined Foster’s newly formed Chicago American Giants, and was subsequently named team captain the following year.

Hill was an excellent defensive outfielder, with outstanding speed and a strong throwing arm. At the plate, he was a lefthanded line-drive hitter who hit to all fields. With the American Giants in 1911, Hill batted safely in 115 of 116 games against all levels of competition. While it is true that the Giants faced mostly minor-league level competition that year, they also played some teams that had major-league quality pitching, including Hall of Famers Eddie Plank, Chief Bender, and Mordecai Brown.

Cum Posey, owner of the Homestead Grays, called Hill “the most consistent hitter of his time. While a lefthanded batter, he hit both lefthanders and righthanders equally well. He was the backbone, year in and year out, of great ball clubs.”

Due to the extremely limited availability of statistical data surrounding the early years of the Negro Leagues, it is difficult to ascertain just how good a hitter Hill actually was. But he obviously had many of the intangible qualities desirable in a Hall of Famer. Furthermore, a poll taken in 1952 by the African-American weekly
Pittsburgh Courier
named Hill the fourth-best outfielder in Negro League history, behind only Oscar Charleston, Monte Irvin, and Cristobal Torriente.

Jim Rice

One of baseball’s most dominant hitters for more than a decade was Boston Red Sox leftfielder Jim Rice. In 11 full seasons between 1975 and 1986, Rice averaged 30 home runs, 110 runs batted in, and 95 runs scored, while compiling a batting average of .305. He was particularly outstanding from 1977 to 1979, averaging 41 homers, 128 RBIs, 114 runs scored, and .320 over that three-year stretch. Rice hit at least 39 home runs four times during his career, drove in more than 100 runs eight times, batted over .300 seven times, accumulated 200 hits on four separate occasions, and scored more than 100 runs three times. He led all major league players with 1,276 runs batted in between 1975 and 1986. Rice had his greatest season in 1978 when he was named the American League’s Most Valuable Player for batting .315, scoring 121 runs, and leading the league with 46 home runs, 139 runs batted in, 15 triples, 213 hits, 406 total bases, and a .600 slugging percentage. It was one of six times he finished in the top five in the MVP balloting.