Revamped Veterans Committee
February 1, 2008 by Michael Hoban · 3 Comments
There is now a special segment of the Veterans Committee that will examine the most deserving of those players who played prior to 1943 but are not in the Hall of Fame.A good question is – how many such players have
According to the NEWS HOF Gauge (based on win shares), there are ONLY THREE position players from this period who have a NEWS score of 280 or greater (obvious
| Player | NEWS | |
|---|---|---|
|
62.
|
Sherry Magee | 293 |
|
65.
|
Joe Jackson
|
291
|
|
72.
|
Bill Dahlen | 286 |
Sherry Magee is the #62 best position player of the 20th century. As you can see, the NEWS Gauge puts his career slightly ahead of that of Joe Jackson. It also puts him ahead of such players as Willie Stargell and Rod Carew. Magee averaged better than 27 win shares per season for his ten best seasons – an outstanding accomplishment (25 win shares is considered to be an All Star season).Of course, Joe Jackson is not eligible for election to the Hall.
Sherry Magee and Bill Dahlen are the position players who should get the most consideration from this new committee.
The NEWS gauge also suggests that there are ONLY THREE pitchers from this period who deserve a special look.These are the only pitchers who have obvious
| Player | NEWS |
|---|---|
| Wilbur Cooper | 246 |
| Jack Powell
|
242
|
| Carl Mays | 237 |
It is my hope that the revamping of the Veterans Committee will result in some of these deserving players being inducted into the Hall of Fame.
For more information on the NEWS HOF Gauge, see BASEBALL’S BEST: The TRUE Hall of Famers on this site.
I’m not at all familiar with Sherry Magee, or Bill Dahlen. But Wilbur Cooper is right in my wheelhouse. I’m curious how close Babe Adams is, Cooper of course is the all time Pirates wins leader, but he isn’t that far ahead of Babe. I’ve said repeatedly that Carl Mays is an obvious HOFer, I think the prejudice against him killing the shortstop for the Indians(whose name escapes me) has kept him out and needs to be dealt with. I’m also unfamiliar with Jack Powell.
Is Paul Derringer a close case? He had a pretty good career pitching on some terrible Reds teams in the 30’s and was rewarded finally getting to win a World Series in 1940. I’d think either him or Bucky Walters would be a deserving candidate, Walters has to be the winningest pitcher who spent his first few years as a position player, and he also played on some terrible teams before he got to the Reds.
John,
Good call on Bucky Walters. He is fairly close to the three that I mentioned above. Here are a few other pitchers who might deserve a look.
George Mullin 232
Wes Ferrell 230
Bucky Walters 230
Eddie Cicotte 221Babe Adams 215
I am pretty sure Cicotte is not eligible and Adams is somewhat below the others.
One other point on Bill Dahlen. He was a shortstop who played for many years. I believe that he has the distinction of being the player with the most career win shares (396) who is not in the Hall. Every player with 400 has been inducted.
Mike
Mays is getting screwed, but a lot of his problem is that he was an asshole as well as the guy who nailed Ray Chapman in the head. He should be excused for the fatal beaning as most accounts have Chapman freezing like a deer in the headlights and many insist the ball was in the strike zone when it hit Chapman. Some also claim that the ball was scuffed and should have been removed from the game, but Ban Johnson had asked his umpires to use as few baseballs as possible to cut down on costs. The umpires speculated that Mays most likely scuffed the ball himself as he was wont to do on many occasions. Mays admitted that he thought Chapman was preparing to bunt and threw an inside fastball to make it more difficult for the Indians shortstop to lay one down.
Regardless Mays had already proven himself to be a prick long before the Chapman incident. Today’s committee members no doubt didn’t have to deal with him, so that may not be a factor. All of that is moot, however. The guy deserves to be in the HOF.