Examining the Credentials of the Current and Future Candidates for the Hall of Fame
Last night, Dick Allen was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum by the Classic Baseball Era Committee. Allen was elected posthumously along with his good friend Dave Parker, who is still alive but battling Parkinson’s disease at age 73. Allen, one of baseball’s greatest hitters from the mid-1960s to the early […]
One of the most colorful and significant players of the second half of the 1970s, Dave Parker was elected last night to the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Parker and his friend, the late Dick Allen, were elected to the Hall by the Classic Baseball Era Committee. Parker received 14 out of 16 votes, two […]
Tomorrow at the baseball winter meetings in San Diego, Negro Leagues legend John Donaldson will be on the Classic Baseball Era Committee Hall of Fame ballot. Donaldson, a barnstorming left-handed pitcher who reportedly won 428 games in 33 seasons across the USA and Canada, will be considered for a plaque in Cooperstown, New York, along […]
If you’re a baseball enthusiast contemplating the best managers in the history of the game, the names that pop into your head will likely include John McGraw, Casey Stengel, and Sparky Anderson. Next Sunday, you may hear a lot about a manager named Vic Harris, the player-manager who led the Homestead Grays to a record […]
On December 8th, former St. Louis Cardinals third baseman Ken Boyer will be considered for the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum by the Classic Baseball Era Committee. Boyer is one of eight candidates on a ballot that evaluates players and others whose primary impact on the game was between 1871 and 1980. Although […]
For the casual baseball fan under the age of 35, Tommy John is the name of a surgical procedure. Older fans remember the pitcher for whom the procedure was named, the left-handed starter whose ulnar collateral ligament in his left elbow was replaced by a new ligament harvested from a tendon in his right wrist. […]
Earlier this month, the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum announced the names of eight candidates for a Cooperstown plaque via the Classic Baseball Eras Committee, which is tasked with voting on players previously overlooked in the Hall of Fame vote. One of those candidates is Steve Garvey, the long-time first baseman for the […]
Luis Tiant, the colorful right-handed pitcher best known for his years with the Boston Red Sox, passed away at 83 just five weeks ago. Last week, the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum announced that Tiant would be one of the eight candidates for Cooperstown on the “Classic Baseball Era Committee.” The cigar-chomping Cuban-born […]
Last Friday at Dodger Stadium, Freddie Freeman had his Hall of Fame moment. In the bottom of the 10th inning of Game 1 of the World Series, with two outs and the bases loaded, Freeman drilled the first pitch from the New York Yankees’ Nestor Cortes into the right field bleachers, turning a 3-2 deficit […]
Unless you’re 50 years of age or older, it’s hard to appreciate the phenomenon of Fernando Valenzuela. The left-handed starting pitcher from Mexico became an instant star in the spring of 1981 when, as a 20-year-old rookie, he became the ace for the Los Angeles Dodgers and sparked “Fernandomania” throughout the sport of baseball, especially […]
Adrian Beltre is the headline act of baseball’s Hall of Fame Class of 2024, one of four men who will be inducted into the Hall this Sunday in Cooperstown, New York. Beltre, who was elected overwhelmingly by the BBWAA (Baseball Writers Association of America) in January, with 95.1% of the vote, will be joined on […]
For 17 years, Todd Helton was a mainstay at first base for the Colorado Rockies. The left-handed-hitting Helton was a consistent force with both the bat and the glove during his 17 years playing in the Mile High City. A former quarterback at the University of Tennessee, Helton had an exceptionally strong and accurate throwing […]
Joe Mauer, the longtime catcher and first baseman for the Minnesota Twins, was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in January by the BBWAA (Baseball Writers Association of America). In his first year on the BBWAA ballot, Mauer earned 76.1% of the vote, putting him just above the 75% required to […]
Last December, Jim Leyland was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame as the lone inductee by the Contemporary Baseball Era Non-Players Committee. Leyland was on an eight-member ballot that included managers Lou Piniella, Davey Johnson, and Cito Gaston, executive Hank Peters, player/broadcaster/executive Bill White, and umpires Ed Montague and Joe West. On a […]
Hall of Famer Orlando Cepeda, the right-handed-hitting slugger affectionately known as the “Baby Bull,” passed away on June 28th at the age of 86. Cepeda’s death came only ten days after Hall of Famer Willie Mays died on June 18 at age 93. Cepeda and Mays were teammates with the Giants from 1958 to 1966. […]
Willie Mays was the quintessential five-tool player and arguably the greatest in the history of baseball. He could hit for average with light-tower power, run like the wind, chase down balls in the outfield, and throw. Mays played with panache, from his basket catches to wearing a hat just a bit too loose so that […]
This evening, Adrian Beltre, Joe Mauer, and Todd Helton were elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, New York. The 385 voting members of the Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA) elected Beltre with 95.1% of the vote, Helton with 79.7%, and Mauer with 76.1% in an election that requires […]
There have been four all-time great relief pitchers eligible to make the Hall of Fame in the past seven years. On the January 2018 ballot, Trevor Hoffman was voted into the Hall. In July 2019, Lee Smith and Mariano Rivera received plaques in Cooperstown. If the 2018-19 voting were a game of musical chairs for […]
If you’re a baseball fan of a certain age or one with a strong sense of the sport’s history, the title of this piece may seem patently bizarre. If you’re an Atlanta Braves fan who watched Andruw Jones play every day from 1997-2006, your answer might be a simple “yes, of course, he is.” If […]
Carlos Beltran‘s 20-year career in Major League Baseball started with a Rookie of the Year Award in 1999 with the Kansas City Royals. After laboring in small-market obscurity, he became a household name in 2004 with a fantastic postseason performance with the Houston Astros. He then spent all or part of 10 of his next […]
Chase Utley, who had a distinguished 16-year Major League Baseball career with the Philadelphia Phillies and Los Angeles, is currently on the Hall of Fame ballot for the BBWAA (Baseball Writers Association of America) for the first time. Utley made six All-Star teams during his years on the diamond and won a World Series ring […]
Gary Sheffield, one of the most feared sluggers in baseball for 22 years, is on the BBWAA (Baseball Writers Association of America) Hall of Fame ballot for the 10th and final time right now, with the results scheduled to be announced next Tuesday. For 14 years (a remarkably long time for a player’s “peak”), Sheffield […]
David Wright, one of the greatest players in the 62-year history of the New York Mets, turned 41 years old today. Wright, who retired after the 2017 season, is currently on the Baseball Hall of Fame ballot for the BBWAA (Baseball Writers Association of America). Wright is one of several strong first-time candidates on the […]
Longtime Philadelphia Phillies shortstop Jimmy Rollins was a fun player to watch. The 5’7″ switch-hitter could hit equally well from both sides of the plate. He could run; Rollins was an excellent base-stealer and legged out more triples than any player in the game during his prime. He was a sure-handed defensive player, a part […]
If you’re a mild Hall of Fame enthusiast, you might have read something like this in the postscript of the January 2019 BBWAA election of four players: “The ballot is much less clogged in the next two years, with Derek Jeter the only obvious Hall of Famer becoming eligible in 2020 and no obvious candidates […]
If you’re a baseball fan over the age of 50, Mark Buehrle was a pitcher who would remind you of baseball in the 1970s. He didn’t throw over 95 miles per hour. Even at 6’2″ and 240 pounds (per Baseball-Reference), Buehrle could be described as a “crafty” lefthander, one who mixed a curve, slider, cutter, […]
Omar Vizquel played more games at shortstop than any other man in the history of baseball. His career spanned four decades and 24 seasons, over which he won 11 Gold Gloves. Vizquel will be on the Hall of Fame ballot for the seventh time this December and is seeing his chances at the Hall of […]
Today in San Diego, the Hall of Fame’s Eras Committee made it abundantly clear that two of the greatest players in the history of baseball, Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens, are not going to get into the Hall of Fame anytime soon. Bonds and Clemens were two of the eight candidates of the Contemporary Baseball […]
Rafael Palmeiro, one of the most tragic figures of baseball’s steroid era, is on a Hall of Fame ballot tomorrow for the first time since 2014. Tomorrow in San Diego a 16-member panel, known as the Contemporary Baseball Players Committee, will consider the candidacies of Palmeiro and seven other players for a spot in the Hall […]
Gaylord Perry, the 314-game winner for eight different teams, passed away today at the age of 84. Perry died at his home in Gaffney, SC at about 5 a.m. Thursday of natural causes, Cherokee County Coroner Dennis Fowler said. had an extraordinary 22-year career in Major League Baseball, pitching 5,350 innings for eight different teams. […]
Dale Murphy, the long-time outfielder for the Atlanta Braves, was one of baseball’s greatest stars in the early part of the 1980s. He won back-to-back National League MVP trophies and then finished in the top 10 for the two years that followed. Unfortunately, in the years after his seventh and final All-Star Game appearance, his […]
More than at any time in its history, today’s Hall of Fame voting is polarized based on moral issues. No longer are the debates about who deserves a plaque in the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum based strictly on the merits of each player’s performance on the diamond. Today, the additional question is […]
Albert Belle is eligible for the Hall of Fame next month, as one of eight candidates on the Contemporary Baseball Players Committee ballot. If the Hall of Fame were only about fame, there are few players from the 1990s who generated more headlines than the enigmatic Belle. During his brief career, which ended shortly after his […]
He was known as “The Hit Man” and “Donnie Baseball.” New York Yankees first baseman Don Mattingly, one of the very best players in baseball in the mid-1980s, is once again a candidate on the Eras Committee Hall of Fame ballot. This ballot (the “Contemporary Baseball Ballot”), which features eight men whose primary contributions occurred […]
Today the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum released the names of the eight players who will be on the Contemporary Baseball Players ballot. The eight candidates include three players (Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, and Curt Schilling) who were on the Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA) this past January for the 10th and […]
Tonight at Minute Maid Park, Dusty Baker‘s Houston Astros defeated the Philadelphia Phillies 4-1 in Game 6 to win the 2022 World Series title. Left fielder Yordan Alvarez, who started Houston’s march to the title with a walk-off 3-run home run in Game 1 of the ALDS, was the hero in Game 6. The tall left-handed […]
I was watching the Los Angeles Dodgers play the San Francisco Giants last night when the news came that legendary Dodgers broadcaster Vin Scully had passed away at the age of 94. Scully died at his home in the Hidden Hills section of Los Angeles. Scully was the primary voice of the Dodgers for 67 […]
Usually, when I write about a Hall of Fame candidate, I render my final verdict about the player’s Hall-worthiness at the end of the piece. With respect to David Ortiz, I have put my opinion in the title. This January, Big Papi was elected to receive a plaque in Cooperstown by the BBWAA (Baseball Writers […]
Today, Jim Kaat, 39 years after the end of his 25-year pitching career, was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, New York. Kaat, now 83 years old, was the lead-off speaker from the Hall of Fame’s Class of 2022. The love of baseball is often passed on from father […]
Today, Gil Hodges was posthumously inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, New York. Hodges, an 8-time All-Star first baseman for the Brooklyn Dodgers, had been a candidate for enshrinement in Cooperstown since 1969 when he managed the New York Mets to the franchise’s first World Series title. Hodges’ widow, […]
In December 2021, a bit more than 96 years after he was born and over six years after his death, Cuban-born outfielder Minnie Minoso was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, New York. He was inducted posthumously today, with his widow Sharon speaking on behalf of her late husband. […]
Today, former Minnesota Twins right fielder Tony Oliva, 46 years after playing his final game in Major League Baseball, was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, New York. Oliva (who turned 84 on Thursday) was joined on stage today by his longtime Twins teammate, pitcher Jim Kaat. The two […]
I spent the last two nights at Dodger Stadium, enjoying Monday’s Home Run Derby and the American League’s 3-2 victory last night in the All-Star Game. Besides the thrilling battle between two young sluggers from the Dominican Republic (Seattle’s Julio Rodriguez and Washington’s Juan Soto), Monday’s home run fireworks show featured an unexpected first-round win […]
Keith Hernandez, first baseman for the St. Louis Cardinals, New York Mets, and (briefly) the Cleveland Indians, was not a prototypical first sacker. Hernandez wasn’t a prolific home run hitter or RBI man. Instead, he was a solid offensive producer and quite possibly the best defensive first baseman in the history of baseball. To young […]
Today, one of the game’s prominent future Hall of Famers, the Detroit Tigers’ Miguel Cabrera, achieved a second statistical benchmark that has traditionally ensured a plaque in Cooperstown. Cabrera, now a 20-year MLB veteran, has 502 Home Runs and 3,000 Hits, putting him into the ultra-exclusive club of players with 500 taters and 3,000 knocks. […]
Longtime rivals and now fellow Fox Sports analysts Alex Rodriguez and David Ortiz are the headline first-time candidates on the Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA) Hall of Fame ballot. While A-Rod and Big Papi join a ballot for the first time, some of the biggest stars in the game in the last 35 years […]
Seemingly in every October, former Boston Red Sox designated hitter David Ortiz takes on a high profile. Besides being a regular figure on postseason diamonds from 2003-16, the likely future Hall of Famer has been a fixture in recent years on the FOX Sports postseason pre-game and post-game coverage along with Frank Thomas and Alex […]
The baseball Hall of Fame family lost another member on Friday when the news broke that Hank Aaron, the man who broke Babe Ruth‘s all-time home run record, had passed away at the age of 86. Aaron, who played 23 years in Major League Baseball, was one of the last living Hall of Famers whose […]
Last night in Arlington, Texas, about 20 miles from his hometown, Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw finally won a World Series championship. Kershaw, now a 13-year Major League Baseball veteran, has been one of the best regular-season pitchers in the history of baseball but had always had the blemish of not being able to […]
Tom Seaver, arguably the greatest and most beloved player in the history of the New York Mets, recently passed away at the age of 75. Seaver died peacefully at his home in Calistoga, California on August 31, 2020, due to complications from Lyme disease, dementia, and the Coronavirus. Seaver, known affectionately as “Tom Terrific” and […]
Yesterday, the Houston Astros officially introduced longtime manager Dusty Baker as their new skipper. For Baker, who described his new gig as a “last hurrah,” this is 5th job as a Major League Baseball skipper and gives him a final chance to pursue a World Series title, which is possibly the missing link on what […]