This has got to be a first: 

Jose Rijo is considered a first-ballot eligible in the coming Hall of Fame election. 

Again.

Rijo actually received a vote in the 2001 writer’s ballot.  Later that year, Rijo made a comeback and pitched for the Cincinnati Reds and pitched for two additional seasons. 

With five more wins and 94 more innings (his totals for 2001-2002 seasons), we’ll see if he gets TWO votes.

Don’t get your hopes up.  For the record, his career record shows 116-91 won-loss with a 3.24 ERA.

Tags: Baseball History, Hall of Fame by The Baseball Zealot
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Todd and Chuck join me for episode number 35 when we discuss all the baseball that’s been in the news lately.  It’s worth a listen just to hear Chuck do his Ron Santo impression. 

Thanks to Todd for the PirateFest link.  He informed me that it still only costs $10/day.  I emailed him back with some smart-a** comment about "you get what you pay for". 

He came back with something about 2 World Series in his lifetime.

Anyway, here are the show notes:

Direct Link to Show #35

Hosts: Tom, Chuck, Todd:

Summary:      It’s December but there has been a lot of baseball news lately.  Todd, Chuck and I discuss the Ford Frick ballot, the Veterans Committee selections for the HOF as well as the latest trades and signings in light of the Winter Meetiings.

Links we talked about: 

2008 Cubs Convention

2008 PirateFest

2008 SoxFest

Time: 48:35

Date Recorded: 12/9/07

Download via iTunes

Other Baseball Zealot Radio Episodes

Tags: Awards, Baseball Podcasts, Baseball Zealot Radio, Broadcasters, Hall of Fame, Hot Stove by The Baseball Zealot
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Like an episode of “Survivor”. all the others were kicked off the island and three remain. The fans voted for Bill King, Joe Morgan and Joe Nuxhall to join seven others to be on the final ballot of the Ford C. Frick Award for excellence in broadcasting.

Those three will be accompanying Tom Cheek, Ken Coleman, Dizzy Dean, Tony Kubek, Graham McNamee, Dave Niehaus and Dave Van Horne who were selected by a research committee from the Baseball Hall of Fame Museum.

They are all legitimate winners but the voting wasn’t close. The sympathy vote for Joe Nuxhall who passed away in November gave him 82, 304 votes to King’s 7,659 and Morgan’s 6,065.

Ironically, he had my vote before he passed.

Those who want a bio snippet of each of the ten broadcasters up for the Frick Award can go the Baseball Hall of Fame website which gives some details.

The announcement of the 2008 winner of the Frick award will take place on February 19.

Tags: Awards, Broadcasters, Hall of Fame by The Baseball Zealot
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“I congratulate the Hall of Fame for electing five new members. I am particularly pleased that former Commissioner Bowie Kuhn is among those who have received this great honor. Bowie was a close friend and a respected leader who served as Commissioner during an important period in history, amid a time of change.”

- MLB Commissioner Bud Selig

I wish I could share Bud’s enthusiam for Bowie Kuhn’s induction but I can’t. Especially when they didn’t have the foresight to elect Marvin Miller.

Shawn from Squawking Baseball puts it best in his article, The Hall of Fame has Issues when he says that “Kuhn, on the other hand, simply did his best to avoid failure.”

I’m quite disappointed that Miller didn’t make it in and that’s compounded by the fact that Kuhn did.

Tags: Baseball Business, Hall of Fame by The Baseball Zealot
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I’m a little surprised that so far in my super scientific poll which asks “Which manager would you vote to induct into the Hall of Fame?”, that Danny Murtaugh has received nary a vote.  He certainly has some credentials in his vitae. 

Daniel Edward Murtaugh was born in 1917 in Chester, PA and even at full stature was a small man at 5′9″ and 165 lbs.  He of course, is best known as the manager who led the Pittsburgh Pirates to five first place finishes and two World Series championships.  However, he had a playing career as a secondbaseman for the Phillies, Braves, and Pirates. 

Murtaugh’s prowess with the bat was nothing to write home about.  In his nine years in the majors, he accumulated only 8 homeruns and 219 rbis.  His runs scored (263) and on-base percentage (.331) weren’t much better even if you neutralize them for the time period he played in. 

He did however, placed ninth in the MVP voting in 1948, his first year with the Pirates.  That year, he hit .290 with 71 rbis.  He was also a good fielding secondbaseman leading the league in putouts, assists and double plays that same year. 

But that’s not why he’s on the ballot. 

He’s up for election to the Hall of Fame in 2008 for his managerial ability.  For 15 years, he managed the Pirates to a 1115-950 record.  Of those 15 years, they finished first one-third of the time.  He brought the town of Pittsburgh a World Championship two times separated by 10 years (1960, 1971). 

Thanks in part to the Pirates’ defeat of the Yankees in the World Series of 1960, Murtaugh was named Sport Magazine’s “Man of the Year”. 

Danny Murtaugh died December 2, 1976 in Chester, PA, the same town he was born.

Tags: Baseball History, Hall of Fame by The Baseball Zealot
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…but it’s still not enough.

Negro League player, coach and ambassador for the game Buck O’Neil will be honored at the Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum with a Lifetime Achievement award. A statue of O’Neil will be erected near the entrance of the museum.

(MLB Commisioner Bud) Selig noted that a special committee spent 18 months seeking a proper way to pay homage to O’Neil after he was not in the Negro League inductees.

Eighteen months? It took them 18 months to come up with this? Hall of Famer Joe Morgan, who was on the committee, came up with this double speak:

“In some ways it’s going to be bigger than getting a plaque in the Hall of Fame,” Morgan said, denying the move was made to right what many saw as a wrongful exclusion of O’Neil.

Sure, Joe. Easy for you to say. You have your plaque up in the hallowed halls. Morgan continues:

“I don’t think it’s really righting a wrong. I think it’s doing something for someone who was a great amabassador for the game. That’s why you see this.”

Ironically, this isn’t the only time Joe has weighed in on Buck O’Neil.and the Hall of Fame. After Buck was denied induction a year ago, Morgan addressed the situation the most tactful way he could, ” “If you’re asking me, ‘Do we lower our standards to get more people in?’ My answer would be no.”

Forget Joe. Let’s get Buck O’Neil in the Hall of Fame not just the museum.

Tags: Awards, Hall of Fame, Negro Leagues by The Baseball Zealot
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If you’re interested in listening to Tony Gwynn’s or Cal Ripken’s acceptance speeches at the Hall of Fame ceremonies, MLB.com has it available for download.

The text of the speeches (Denny Matthews’ and Rick Hummel’s too)  is available from the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum website.

Tags: Baseball Podcasts, Hall of Fame by The Baseball Zealot
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Baseball Zealot Radio just posted another show. We recorded on the eve of the MLB Winter Meetings so we spent some time stoking the fires of the Hot Stove.

We also took some time to peruse the 2007 Hall of Fame ballot.

Take a listen to some good baseball talk.

Tags: Baseball Podcasts, Baseball Zealot Radio, Hall of Fame, Hot Stove by The Baseball Zealot
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Bruce Sutter’s plaque will now hang in the hall of immortals.

Today is not the time to discuss, deliberate, or debate. Today is his day

My memories of Sutter were when he was a Cub. F’instance, his phenomenal year in 1977 when he had a 1.34 ERA and 31 saves. Of course back then 31 saves meant something; good enough for second in the league. Also, he had 129 strikeouts in 107 1/3 innings.

Sutter in 1979

Then there was 1979. With his league-leading 37 saves and 110 Ks in 101 innings, and a 2.22 ERA, he was not only awarded the Rolaids Relief Award (one of four he would receive) but the Cy Young as well.

A bit of trivia about Sutter; he allowed 2 homeruns to Mike Schmidt in the memorable 23-22 Phillies-Cubs game in 1979. The second one was the game-winner. Fortunately, he usually had better days than this.

The image of Sutter on the plaque is wearing a Cardinals cap. I knew that was coming but I still feel a bit disappointed when I see it. If you see Sutter’s stats, you can see that he had the bulk of his dominating years with the Cubs not to mention it was the team he broke in the majors with. But I’m willing to let it go.

Transcript of Sutter’s speech at the Induction Ceremony

Tags: Baseball History, Cubs, Hall of Fame by The Baseball Zealot
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