Today, it’s one day of the year for the Baseball Hall of Fame to shine above everything else baseball.
Tag: Hall of Fame
HAPPY BIRTHDAY KID
Today, April 15th, was John Danks’ 23rd birthday, even with my birthday transposed, I’m older than he is. Danks was starting for the White Sox today versus the A’s.
But that wasn’t what I was thinking about as I got dressed for a big day of baseball. It was Jackie Robinson Day at all MLB Ballparks across America. Minnie Minoso was receiving a lifetime achievement award from the Negro League Hall of Fame. The Negro League Hall of Fame was Buck O’Neil’s place in KC. It’s a travesty and a shame that Buck passed without getting into the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. Maybe his stats weren’t the greatest, but Buck was! O’Neil built the Negro League Hall of Fame and kept the Negro Leagues’ memory alive. He was also the first black coach in the majors, with the Cubs. Minnie Minoso also needs to get into the Hall before he passes, he looks great, but he’s not getting any younger, none of us are.
Joining me behind home plate today was Tade (Buehrle’s game the day before was the first game he missed all year) & Steve (another huge Sox fan, who comes as often as he can). Dick & Bea were also there, Dick told a Bubba story that had Tade & I laughing so hard, we were crying. Visited with Mike & his brother over at the caramel corn stand. Seeing it was a day game I stopped in to see Nancy Faust. Nancy looks as good as ever, a blonde, as cute as could be, and friendly! I sympathized with Nancy at the passing of her mother, who would have been 94 this year, she had cancer, and died shortly after her son-in-law, Nancy’s brother-in-law, died of pancreatic cancer. Why do bad things happen to good people?
Well John Danks celebrated his birthday by firing goose eggs at the A’s. The White Sox really flashed the leather behind JD Jr. Alexi Ramirez cutoff a sure double into right center, whirled, and fired to second to easily gun down a shocked Emil Brown. Brown saluted Ramirez as he headed back to the dugout. Joe Crede made a diving stop toward the line, got to his feet, and threw one into the dirt, that was scooped by Nick Swisher. Then there were a couple of dandies turned in by Orlando Cabrera, our new SS, I think I’m gonna like this guy. Carlos Quentin launched a three run bomb into the leftfield stands. The score was 4-0 when Ozzie Guillen lifted Danks in favor of Scott Linebrink with two out, a runner on 1st, and John at 95 pitches thrown. Linebrink allowed the first two runners to reach in the 9th, was replaced by Bobby Jenks, who allowed a sac fly, and a doubleplay closed it out.
I was off to the Red Line to catch the 2nd game of my doubleheader at Wrigley. Judy had a bleacher ticket waiting for me at the courtesy dropoff window.
HOF Game: Good News, Bad News
This summer, the Cubs will be playing in the annual Hall of Fame Game against the San Diego Padres. They will be playing at, of course, Doubleday Field in Cooperstown, New York on June 16, 2008.
The bad news… it will be the last time the Hall of Fame Game will be played. The tradition that has been going on since 1940 will be discontinued after this year.
HOF prez Dan Petroskey claims that the game has befallen because of “scheduling” issues.
“We’re grateful to Major League Baseball for making an annual Hall of Fame Game possible for so many years, but we also understand their enormous scheduling challenge today, which makes continuing this exhibition game impossible.”
Scheduling seems like a small price to pay, in my opinion.
If you are interested in attending, tickets will be sold over the phone or in person on March 8. Tickets will NOT be sold online.
Looking past the easy stats
As much as I like Harold Baines, I rather enjoyed Ken Tremendous’ posting on Fire Joe Morgan. Bit by bit, he dissects a Mike Downey article from the Chicago Tribune.
A snip:
(quoting from Downey) Harold Baines has more hits than Brooks Robinson, Charlie Gehringer, George Sisler, Luke Appling, Lou Gehrig … (keep going) … Billy Williams, Luis Aparicio, Nellie Fox, Jimmie Foxx, Ted Williams, Reggie Jackson, Ernie Banks … (don’t stop now) …
Who on blog’s green earth would evaluate HOF inductees solely by hits? What kind of insane cherry pick is that? Not any other stat. Not longevity or era…not even taking position into account. Just: hits. Hits! That’s like evaluating pitchers based on saves and deciding Pedro Martinez doesn’t get in because he only has three.
KT’s posting is lengthy, opinionated but actually on the mark.
The Ninth belonged to Gossage
DonS writes:
“How fitting that Rich Gossage was inaugurated in his ninth year of eligibility.“The Ninth” was always Gossage’s time.”
Very true. Gossage did say in his interview with Harold Reynolds that his longest stint was probably an 8 inning appearance when he came in the 6th, gave up the tying run then finished the game.
I don’t think he said if he won the game or not.
Update: I believe I found the game he was talking about. Here is a game between the Red Sox and White Sox where Gossage pitched 7 2/3 innings. He got the loss on a Carl Yasztremski homerun in the top of the 14th.
Harold Reynolds interviews Goose Gossage
2008 Hall of Fame inductee Goose Gossage is Harold Reynolds’ guest on MLB.com’s Baseball Channel. Harold plays a little “This is Your Life” when he surprises the Goose by bringing his former manager Chuck Tanner into the interview. Goose was rather touched it seemed.
Also during the interview, Gossage talked of Dick Allen and how he took him under his wing and was instrumental in teaching Gossage about pitching from a hitter’s point of view.
I’ve heard a lot of things about Dick Allen but this anecdote gave me a different insight into the man.
The Goose gets in… but others get left out
Goose Gossage, top reliever from the 70s and 80s, finally got his due. In his ninth year of eligibility, he was the lone selection by the writers.
Goose is known primarily for his years with the New York Yankees, a stretch of six years where he pitched well enough to even be considered for the MVP and Cy Young (he was third in voting in both in 1980).
That said, he did pitch and pitched well for the White Sox and the Padres where he put together strings of five years each. It was with the Sox in 1976 when he pitched his last start. That year he started 29 games going 9-17 with a 3.94 ERA.
Since then, he didn’t look back and his role was defined. Throughout his career he garnered 310 saves, leading the league three times. He currently is 17th all-time in that category, that record succumbing to the specialization of the bullpen ace.
Like Bruce Sutter who was selected two years before him, Gossage revolutionized the role the bullpen ace. Stats aside, he was part of baseball’s change of bullpen strategy. How it approached the late innings.
The Rest
As much as this story is about Gossage, it also about those who didn’t get in. I don’t remember a year where so many players were on ballot who many feel could be easily justified entry into the Hall.
The Jim Rice debate has been going on for years. He missed this year by 16 votes. Andre Dawson (third in voting this year) has been a favorite of many fans. I’ve always felt Bert Blyleven deserves a nod but he’s never gotten higher than 53.3% of the vote until this year. This time around, BB came close(r) with 61.9% of the vote.
Lee Smith, Dave Concepcion, Dale Murphy, the list goes on.
Then, of course there is Mark McGwire. I get the feeling that for most people, it’s a hot/cold issue. Either you throw out any substance issues out the windows and cast your ballot or you don’t. This year, 128 writers felt he was HOF-worthy and that ain’t gonna cut it.
Rod “Shooter” Beck garned two post-mortem votes. But Travis Fryman?
Rijo: First Again
This has got to be a first:
Jose Rijo is considered a first-ballot eligible in the coming Hall of Fame election.
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.
#35 Baseball Zealot Radio- Hot Stove plus Frick Ballot, Veterans Committee HOF Selections
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:
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:
Time: 48:35
Date Recorded: 12/9/07
Ford Frick Award ballot: King, Morgan and Nuxhall chosen by fans
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.