The new inductees to the Baseball Hall of Fame will be announced on Jan. 10 – if there are any.
There are a lot of interesting names on the ballot, but none that stick
out as clear-cut Hall of Famers, at least in the eyes of those holding
the votes. Since I don’t own one – and it’s a damned shame that I don’t
– I think it’s more interesting to take a trip down memory lane and
look at those on the ballot with Sox ties.
In alphabetical order (links courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com's awesome
automatic linking tool):
Albert Belle:
I discussed his White Sox career
in an earlier post, but it’s an
interesting case. If he were a media favorite, he’d most likely be in.
But that wasn’t the case, so he’ll most likely be stonewalled. Not that
he deserves to be in – he’s a member of the Hall of the Very Good,
along with his moody slugging predecessor, Richie Allen.
Goose Gossage: He began his career as a White Sox, had a dominant 1975
season as a reliever before being converted into a starter, where he
was below-average. Then
Bill Veeck dealt him to Pittsburgh with
Terry Forster for the best season of
Richie Zisk’s life and
Silvio Martinez. That season under
Chuck Tanner was the last time he would ever start a game.
It’s hard to say why Tanner started him, but it’s easy to understand
why Veeck dealt him – Veeck was running out of money, and he couldn’t
retain Gossage. Zisk was the centerpiece of the memorable 1977 South
Side Hit Men; Gossage only pitched one year in Pittsburgh before going
off to New York and starting his HOF resume.
Gossage should deserve to make it, but he likely won’t be inducted this
year. I’m guessing his telling the New York Post, “God couldn't get out
of some of the situations that I was brought into” didn’t win any
points with Him or the HOF voters (who often confuse themselves with
Him when it comes to voting), since it kinda insults both of them.
Ozzie Guillen:
A terrible offensive player who gave away at-bats like college
activists give away fliers, at least Guillen was a Gold Glove defender
before a knee injury in 1992 permanently limited his range. He was an
outgoing, flashy player, but not particularly heady – he was caught by
the hidden ball trick twice in the 1989 season, and you can see them
both on the World Series DVD. Because of this, I was scared crapless
when Ozzie became manager of the Sox and said his team would play the
game his way.
He won’t make the HOF as a player. As a manager down the road, who
knows? He’ll only be 42 years old this season (his birthday is January
20), and he already has one World Series title under his belt. Sure,
lots of bad managers have won championships, but Ozzie isn’t a bad
manager. In fact, he was the best in the league last year, and won the
Manager of the Year trophy accordingly. Time will tell if he’ll keep up
the good work, but the early returns are encouraging. He may rack up a
gaudy win total by the time he’s done, and a couple more rings aren’t
out of the question as well.
Tommy John: The possible new radio man for the Sox pitched on the South Side early in his career before he became famous for
Tommy John
surgery. John was a .500 starter, though more because of the teams he
was on than his actual ability. He never had a below-average ERA with
the Pale Hose, and once posted a 1.98 ERA over 25 starts in 1968,
though that was also the same year
Bob Gibson posted a 1.12 mark and
Denny McLain won 31 games, so there you go.
As was the case with Gossage, the Sox traded a possibly HOF-caliber
pitcher for a hitter who provided immediate results. He was dealt to
the Los Angeles Dodgers for
Dick Allen,
who promptly won an MVP for the White Sox in 1972 . John performed well
with the Dodgers for two years before having his elbow worked on by Dr.
Frank Jobe. After taking the 1975 season off, he worked his way back
into the league in 1976 and then averaged 20 wins a season from
1977-1980.
John has his work cut out for him if he’s going to make it to the HOF;
I’m more concerned about whether he can be a decent broadcaster.
Alex Fernandez:
A fine pitcher with the White Sox, but I remember him being better than
his numbers indicate. He finished in the top five in ERA twice,
including a stellar 1993 when he went 18-9 and posted a 3.13 ERA. He
was the victim of bad luck and bad defense in the 1993 ALCS, losing
both his starts against Toronto despite only surrendering three earned
runs in 15 innings.
Fernandez left the White Sox for the Florida Marlins via free agency –
the Fish signed him to a five-year, $35 million deal. It was money well
not spent for the White Sox – Fernandez had one good season, two
injury-shortened seasons, and missed the other two completely. He’ll be
one-and-done on the HOF ballot, much like 1993 teammate
Jack McDowell was last year.
Minnie Minoso
will be on the special Negro League voting session that will commence
in late February, so he may be the White Sox’s best chance of having
one of their players enter the Hall in 2006. It’s a strange case for
Minoso, who might’ve been as young as 24 when he entered the major
leagues, thus rendering his Negro League experience to be generally
equivalent to time spent in the minors. An argument could be made for
his entry into the Hall of Fame, and it’s hard to find a nicer guy in
the sport, so any way he can get into Cooperstown will work.
Aside: In 2002,
Ozzie Smith
entered the Hall of Fame on his first try, garnering nearly 92 percent
of the votes. Meanwhile, in his first shot at the Hall of Fame, fellow
shortstop
Alan Trammell
garnered only 16 percent of the vote.
What gives?
Sure, Smith won 13 Gold Gloves and made 15 All-Star teams,
but he generally had no competition in the National League as far as
shortstops were concerned. For crying out loud, Smith won a Silver
Slugger award in 1987, a year in which he hit zero homers. Zero!
Trammell won four Gold Gloves himself and was generally an excellent
defender – but he was vying for the same awards as
Cal Ripken Jr. and
Robin Yount.
He also had a fair amount of speed, stealing as many as 30 bases in a
season, and had far more power, hitting 185 homers to Smith’s 28. He
posted a higher career batting average, on-base percentage and slugging
percentage in comparison to Smith. Trammell even played in Detroit for
his entire 20-year career, something HOF voters usually eat right up.
If you had to pick one to have on your team for 10 years, which one
would you pick? I’d pick Trammell easily, but even if your mileage
varies, the fact that there’s even an argument to be made should
indicate that a 75-percent difference in votes is ridiculous.
Maybe HOF voters have something against Detroit Tigers from the 1980s.
Sweet
Lou Whitaker
didn’t make it to a second ballot after earning only 2.91 percent of
the vote in 2001. Yet he posted nearly identical career numbers to
Ryne Sandberg,
who made the Hall of Fame on his third try. It makes no sense
whatsoever.
Perhaps if Trammell had more managerial success, he would be receiving
a harder look from HOF voters. Had Trammell won a World Series before
becoming eligible for the Hall like another Ozzie already mentioned in
this column, he could very well have double the votes he earned last year. But piloting the Tigers to a
near-record 119 losses – not that it was his fault – probably
hurt his case far more than it should have.