Revisiting Berkman’s case for the Hall

HOUSTON — One of the most difficult questions in sports is who is Hall of Fame worthy.

The answer is not as simple as the clichéd notion that the delineation is whether the story of a sport could be told without mentioning this person.

One doesn’t have to be Babe Ruth or Barry Bonds or Satchel Paige or Roger Clemens to be a great baseball player.

Levels of excellence are subjective, with arbitrary criteria separating the great from the rest.

Hall of Famers are not equal talents, but they are equal in honor. You’re in or you’re out.

There is no such thing as the Hall of Very Good.

So Scott Rolen is now on equal footing with Mike Schmidt and Brooks Robinson, whose many awards and accomplishments dwarf Rolen’s.

This week, there was a slew of “Scott Rolen is in the Hall of Fame, but (insert player here) is not?” posts on social media.

The Rolen slander is unfortunate.

Rolen was an excellent defensive third baseman, as evidenced by his eight Gold Gloves, the fourth-most alltime for third basemen. Robinson won 16 Gold Gloves, Schmidt 10. Rolen was a seventime All-Star. Robinson was voted into 18 midsummer classics, Schmidt 12.

That Rolen just squeaked into the Hall by being named on 76.3 percent of ballots cast by Baseball Writers’ Association of America voting members, tying for the ninth-lowest percentage to ever get in, doesn’t make him less of a Hall of Famer.

Rolen, who got in by just five votes, was the only one of the 28 players on the ballot to top the necessary threshold. (Fred McGriff, who will be inducted along with Rolen this summer, was voted in by the Contemporary Era Committee.)

It isn’t difficult to put together a lineup of eligible players not in the Hall who are better than Rolen. Of course, most of them have careers stained by allegations of steroids use.

But Rolen is now an all-time great. He is no longer a borderline case for the Hall.

Don’t let your disdain for baseball writers or the media confuse you. Voters take their role in the process seriously. If there are any exceptions, they are small in number.

Rolen’s inclusion doesn’t lower the bar for the Hall.

There are only 17 other third basemen in the Hall, the fewest of any position. Few would argue that Rolen is not among the top 15 or 20 to play the position.

He is without question a top-five defensive player.

While Rolen was excellent for a long time, he finished in the top five in Most Valuable Player voting just once (fourth in 2004) in 17 seasons. Outside of that year — one of only two in which he hit more than 30 home runs — he did not have a finish below 14.

It was more difficult to impress voters with the inflated offensive numbers being put up at the time. And, generally, you don’t win MVPs for defense.

Former Astros star Lance Berkman, who played around the same time as Rolen, finished in the top seven of MVP voting six times.

Berkman’s postseason excellence, helping the Astros and Cardinals advance to the World Series — St. Louis won it in 2011 — is a factor that should have boosted his candidacy. Perhaps not enough to erase that he played left field and first base and wasn’t a plus defender.

The six-time All-Star was bumped from the Hall ballot because he didn’t earn a high enough percentage of votes in his first year of eligibility (2019). That same year, Edgar Martinez, whose numbers are similar to Berkman’s, was voted in.

There are players who are in the Hall with whom Berkman’s numbers compare favorably. And there will be others who get in who will have accomplished less.

Berkman, a New Braunfels Canyon product who is one of the best switch-hitters of alltime, suffered from bad timing. Thanks in large part to the pileup of Steroids Era players, he ran into one of the most stacked ballots in history.

Rolen earned just 10.2 percent of the vote in 2018. To make the jump from there to the 75 percent Hall requirement in a few years is amazing. With voters limited to 10 selections and a 5 percent requirement for players to remain on the ballot, Berkman got a raw deal.

Were he still on the ballot, Berkman’s chances of getting in would look a lot better now that Rolen has made it. But he is stuck out the outside looking in.

A great player who is arguably Hall of Fame worthy.

We can’t even have the argument since he is no longer on the ballot.

Staff file photo New Braunfels Canyon product Lance Berkman put up numbers that compare favorably to the newly elected Scott Rolen and many other Hall of Famers. But he fell off the ballot in his first year of eligibility.