Examining the Credentials of the Current and Future Candidates for the Hall of Fame
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 […]
On Tuesday at 6:00p ET, live on the MLB Network and mlb.com, Josh Rawitch, the President of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, will announce the results of the 2024 Hall of Fame voting from the BBWAA (Baseball Writers Association of America). Based on the early reported voting (tallied on Ryan Thibodaux’s Hall […]
On Tuesday at 6:00p ET, the Hall of Fame will announce the names of any players who got at least 75% of the vote on the BBWAA (Baseball Writers Association of America) ballot for the Baseball Hall of Fame. Adrian Beltre, the brilliant third baseman for the Texas Rangers and others, is a lead-pipe cinch […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Adrian Beltre is on the Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA) ballot for the first time, the top new candidate for a plaque in the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. Beltre, a five-time Gold Glove Award winner who finished his career with 477 home runs and 3,166 hits, is the one mortal lock […]
Joe Mauer, the longtime catcher/first baseman for the Minnesota Twins, is on the BBWAA (Baseball Writers Association of America) ballot for the first time. Mauer, a career .306 hitter who won three batting titles and was the 2009 MVP, was the top backstop in the American League for a decade, hitting .323 with a 135 […]
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, […]
On this year’s 2024 Hall of Fame ballot, the case of longtime starting pitcher Andy Pettitte is one of the most interesting and complex. On the “yes” side, you have a 256-game winner who contributed to 5 World Championships and 8 pennants. On the “no” side, you have a pitcher with a career ERA of […]
Today, 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 committee […]
Sometimes it just feels right. Bill White, now 89 years old, is a current candidate to earn a plaque in the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, New York. White is one of eight candidates on the Contemporary Baseball Era Committee ballot (non-players) for the Hall’s Class of 2024. This ballot, which […]
This Sunday, Scott Rolen, one of the greatest defensive third basemen in the history of baseball, will be inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, New York. This January, the 389 voting members of the Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA) elected Rolen to the Hall with 76.3% of the […]
Vida Blue, a left-handed pitcher who won 209 games and three World Series championships in 17 seasons in Major League Baseball, passed away on Saturday at the age of 73. Blue tossed a no-hitter as a rookie in 1970 and was just 22 years old when he won the American Cy Young and MVP Awards […]
Torii Hunter was simply fun to watch when he was roaming center field. He was the quintessential “fly-chaser” who would relish a collision with the outfield wall as if he was still playing free safety in high school, colliding with an opposing running back or receiver. The Arkansas native won 9 Gold Gloves in his […]
A few weeks ago, when the results of the 2023 Hall of Fame balloting were announced, 8-time Gold Glove winner Scott Rolen was anointed as a Hall of Famer. One of the greatest players in baseball history, Alex Rodriguez, was on the Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA) ballot for the second time, but A-Rod […]
Francisco Rodriguez is one of those rare Major League Baseball players who was instantly transformed from someone who was unknown to all but the most hard-core of baseball fans to a household name. Rodriguez, at the age of 20, made his MLB debut with the Anaheim Angels on September 18, 2002. After pitching in just […]
Of all of the candidates on the 2023 BBWAA Hall of Fame ballot, there are none more mercurial or enigmatic than Manny Ramirez, the supremely talented right-handed hitter who hit .312 with 555 home runs in 19 Major League Baseball seasons. Ramirez was a superb hitter, one whose statistical resume is undoubtedly worthy of a […]
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 […]
In a sense, the answer to the title of this piece can be summed up this way: Jeff Kent snuck up on the baseball world as a Hall of Fame-caliber player. Having bounced from the Blue Jays to the Mets to the Indians early in his career, Kent was an average player at best for […]
This evening, Scott Rolen, one of the greatest defensive third basemen in the history of baseball, was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, New York. The 389 voting members of the Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA) elected Rolen to the Hall with 76.3% of the vote in an […]
On Tuesday at 6:00p ET, live on the MLB Network and mlb.com, Josh Rawitch, the President of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, will announce the results of the 2022 Hall of Fame voting from the BBWAA (Baseball Writers Association of America). Based on the early reported voting (tallied on Ryan Thibodaux’s Hall […]
Two former members of the New York Mets, Carlos Beltran and Francisco Rodriguez, are the two most prominent first-time candidates on the 2023 Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA) Hall of Fame ballot. In what’s an unusually weak overall group of new candidates, nobody is likely to be a first-ballot inductee on an overall ballot […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Today is the 71st birthday of longtime Boston Red Sox right fielder Dwight Evans. The 8-time Gold Glover, often called “Dewey,” played in more games in a Red Sox uniform than any player in team history except for Carl Yastrzemski. Next week, Evans may once again be a candidate to be enshrined in the National […]
Maury Wills, the former MVP-winning shortstop for the Los Angeles Dodgers, passed away at his home in Sedona, Arizona, yesterday at the age of 89, just 13 days shy of what would have been his 90th birthday. Wills stole 586 bases in his Major League Baseball career and is often credited with bringing the steal […]
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 […]
Today at 6:00p ET, live on the MLB Network and mlb.com, Josh Rawitch, the President of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, will announce the results of the 2022 Hall of Fame voting from the BBWAA (Baseball Writers Association of America). Based on the early reported voting (tallied on Ryan Thibodaux’s Hall of […]
From 2003-13, Joe Nathan was arguably the second-best relief pitcher in all of Major League Baseball, second only to the greatest of all-time, Hall of Famer Mariano Rivera. Overall, in his 16-year MLB career, Nathan saved 377 games, the 8th highest total in baseball history. The right-handed throwing Nathan, a big man at 6’4″, 230 […]
For five years (1998-2002), Sammy Sosa was one of baseball’s greatest superstars. His Home Run Chase with Mark McGwire in 1998 captivated the nation’s imagination and aided in the sport’s continued healing from the ’94 strike that canceled the World Series. Both players eclipsed the single-season home run mark of 61 (by Roger Maris in […]
Tim Hudson, who won 222 games in his 17 years pitching Major League Baseball, is on the Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA) Hall of Fame ballot for the second time this month. Earlier this year, in his first turn on the ballot, Hudson got 5.2% of the vote, barely above the 5% minimum required […]
Dick Allen, one of baseball’s greatest hitters from the mid-1960s to the early 1970s, has now set a record that his legions of fans hope will not be extended: he’s now twice fallen just one vote shy of a plaque in the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, New York. Allen was […]
In an unexpected piece of news for enthusiasts of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, a whopping six new players were elected today to receive plaques in the great shrine in Cooperstown. On the Golden Days Eras Committee ballot, tasked with electing players from 1950-69, four players received at least 75% of the […]
Later today, at baseball’s winter meetings in Orlando, the 2022 Hall of Fame voting season officially begins when the Golden Days and Early Baseball Committees meet. The Early Baseball ballot (which, this year, features seven former Negro League players) considers players from before 1950. The Golden Days ballot considers players whose primary impact was from […]
Danny Murtaugh led the Pittsburgh Pirates to two World Series titles in 15 years as the team’s manager. A former Pirates second baseman who once finished 9th in the National League MVP vote, Murtaugh was beloved in Pittsburgh. Like Billy Martin with the New York Yankees, Murtaugh was hired multiple times (Murtaugh had four stints […]
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 […]
If a player’s election to the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum were based strictly on the word “fame,” Roger Maris would have been inducted decades ago. Maris, of course, passed the legendary Babe Ruth to set the all-time single-season home run record when he swatted 61 taters in 1961. Just as the baseball […]
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 […]
In the 1950s and early ’60s, a 5’10” left-handed pitcher started three All-Star Games, won over 200 games, and pitched a complete game in Game 6 of the 1962 World Series. If I were to play a game of “Who am I” with those clues, the vast majority of respondents would likely guess that the […]
On December 5th, former St. Louis Cardinals’ third baseman Ken Boyer will be considered for the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum by the “Golden Days” Eras Committee. Boyer is one of ten candidates on a ballot that evaluates players and others whose primary impact on the game was between 1950 and 1969. Although […]
Tomorrow, former Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter, after a wait of over one and a half years, will be inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, New York. Jeter was elected to the Hall’s Class of 2020, along with Larry Walker, Ted Simmons, and former union chief Marvin Miller (who was […]
132 years ago today, on August 22, 1889, Walter Henry Schang was born in South Wales, New York, a farming town about 25 miles from Buffalo. Wally Schang would grow up to become one of the best catchers in all of baseball for the first 60 years of recorded history. While he never got serious […]
In what was not a surprise to most analysts (including this one), the voting writers of the Baseball Writers Association (BBWAA) did not elect a single player into the National Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, New York this year. With the top four returning candidates from 2020 all immersed in controversy, the lack […]
Tomorrow (Tuesday) at 6:00p ET, live on the MLB Network and mlb.com, Tim Mead, the President of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, will announce the results of the 2021 Hall of Fame voting from the BBWAA (Baseball Writers Association of America). Based on the early reported voting (tallied on Ryan Thibodaux’s Hall […]
Last week, the Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA) started mailing out ballots to its members for candidates for plaques in the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, New York. There are 14 returning players to the ballot and 11 first-timers. The approximately 400 voting members of the BBWAA have the option to […]
On Monday, the names of the 25 Hall of Fame candidates on the 2021 Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA) ballots were revealed. There are a total of 14 returning candidates along with 11 newcomers to the ballot. With just 25 listed candidates, this is the smallest BBWAA ballot since 2009, when Rickey Henderson and […]
For those of us who are enthusiasts about the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, today is Christmas. At 6:00p ET on MLB Network Hall of Fame President Tim Mead will reveal the latest members of the Hall. Anywhere from one to three players will join last month’s Eras Committee inductees Ted Simmons and […]
For a couple of years around the recent turn of the century, Jason Giambi looked like a Hall of Fame player in the making. He won a MVP Award and posted eye-popping on-base and slugging numbers second only to Barry Bonds. The first baseman who made his mark primarily for the Oakland Athletics and New […]
On Tuesday, live on the MLB Network at 6:00p ET, one to three new members of the Class of 2020 for the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum will be announced. Whoever gets elected, by receiving at least 75% of the 400+ expected votes, will join catcher Ted Simmons on stage this summer in Cooperstown, […]
For those of us who are enthusiasts about the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, today is Christmas. At 6:00p ET, on MLB Network, Hall of Fame President Jeff Idelson will reveal the latest members of the Hall. Either three or four players will join last month’s Eras Committee inductees Lee Smith and Harold […]
On Tuesday, live on the MLB Network at 6:00p ET, three or four new members of the Class of 2019 for the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum will be announced. I am not a Hall of Fame voter and almost certainly never will be but I’ll stack the number of hours I spend thinking […]
It seemed as if Omar Vizquel played forever and, sort of, he did, for parts of 24 MLB seasons. He debuted in 1989 with Seattle Mariners a few weeks before his 22nd birthday and continued to play until he was 45 years old, finishing his career in 2012 with the Toronto Blue Jays. He is […]
(Photo: Phillie Phanatics) It will be an interesting case come this December when Scott Rolen appears on the BBWAA Hall of Fame ballot for the first time. Rolen was a solid hitter and outstanding defender at third base while manning the hot corner for the Phillies, Cardinals, Blue Jays and Reds during a highly productive 17-year […]
He is one of the greatest post-season pitchers in the history of baseball. His career 80.8 WAR (Wins Above Replacement) is 6th best of any pitcher to debut in the last 40 years. His career strikeout-to-walk ratio of 4.38 is the best for any pitcher with a minimum of 1,500 innings thrown since the 19th […]
(Photo: The Sporting News) As it is with fellow first-time Hall of Fame candidates Scott Rolen and Omar Vizquel, the case for Andruw Jones rests primarily with his glove. According to multiple websites that track advanced defensive metrics, the pride of Willemstad, Curacao is the best defensive outfielder in the history of baseball, better than […]