Numbers and the Hall of Fame

This is the first in a series of short articles and/or comments that I will be writing regarding baseball’s Hall of Fame.

Who belongs in the Hall of Fame?According to the guidelines set forth for the BBWAA election process, “ Voting shall be based upon the player’s record, playing ability, integrity, sportsmanship, character, and contributions to the team(s) on which the player played.” This statement clearly says that “integrity, sportsmanship, character” may be considered.It does not saythat accomplishments such as managing, broadcasting, etc. may be considered.There are some fans who feel that Phil Rizzuto, for example, was elected by the Veteran’s Committee partly because of his long broadcasting career.And since he played and was a broadcaster for the same team (the Yankees), one could interpret the statement above as allowing for this.

But what about Joe Torre?Should Torre’s success as the manager of the New York Yankees be considered for his induction as a player since he never playedfor the Yankees (“contributions to the team on which the player played”)?The answer is – obviously not.Of course, Torre could be elected by the Veteran’s Committee as a manager.

In any case, I think it is fair to say that the official statement above makes it very clear that a player’s on-field performance (as a player) should be regarded as the most important considerationfor induction into baseball’s ultimate shrine.

In the NEWS HOF Gauge, I have used Win Shares to create a series of standards to tell us which players (including pitchers) have HOF numbers based on their on-field performance during the regular season.It is important to note that the purpose of the NEWS Gauge is to identify those players who DEFINITELY have HOF numbers.There are some players (like Dick Allen) who have met the NEWS standard and have not been elected to the Hall (presumably on the “sportsmanship” issue).

There will be some other players who are in the Hall (such as Ernie Banks) who do not meet the NEWS standard.This does NOT mean that such a player does not belong in the Hall of Fame.In my view, Banks definitely belongs in the Hall based on the criteria quoted above.However, there are a number of players who are in the Hall who are certainly questionable choices.

With the induction of Cal Ripken, Jr. and Tony Gwynn in 2007, there were 120 major league position players in the Hall of Fame (by my count) who had played the majority of their careers in the major leagues during the 20 ^th century and had been elected by either the BBWAA (baseball writers) or the Veteran’s Committee.And, as most fans know, there has always been a note of controversy regarding some of these players – as to whether they truly belong in the Hall.Suggestions have been made that anything from popularity to politics have driven their induction – rather than their actual performance on the field in the major leagues.

As a case in point, it has been said that three players who were inducted into the Hall of Fame together by the Veteran’s Committee in 1946 are there not so much because of their playing ability but rather because they were the subject of a popular poem.Joe Tinker, Johnny Evers and Frank Chance were “immortalized” in a poem written by Franklin Pierce Adams in 1910.The NEWS Gauge suggests that none of these three players comes close to having the performance numbers that would justify induction into the Hall of Fame.

For more information, check out the material in BASEBALL’S BEST: The TRUE Hall of Famers on this site.