Who’ll be the next kids in the Hall?
Halladay, Rivera top list of those who could find way into Cooperstown
This year’s Baseball Hall of Fame ballot, announced Monday and mailed to voters this week, is tinged with sadness.
One of the top new candidates, Roy Halladay, died l ast November when a small plane he was piloting plunged into the Gulf of Mexico near his home in Florida. He was 40. Halladay, a two-time Cy Young Award winner with a perfect game and a playoff nohitter, could be the first player elected posthumously by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America since Roberto Clemente in 1973.
Among the other newcomers on the ballot, Mariano Rivera is a lock to be elected. Rivera helped the New York Yankees win five World Series titles while collecting a record 652 saves and compiling a 2.21 ERA, the best of any pitcher born after 1889 with at least 1,000 innings. Here’s a look at each of the other 18 candidates: RICK ANKIEL When Ankiel suddenly lost his ability to throw strikes, in the top of the third inning of the opening game of the 2000 playoffs, Steve Blass watched at home and winced. “Why at the beginning?” Blass said, according to Ankiel’s memoir with Tim Brown. He fashioned a second act as an outfielder and logged a hard-earned 11 seasons in the majors. JASON BAY Early in his career, the native of Trail, B.C., was traded three times in 17 months. When he finally got a chance to start every day at age 25, with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2004, he won the National League rookie of the year award. Bay was terrific for six seasons, averaging 30 homers and 99 runs batted in. LANCE BERKMAN I once asked Berkman about the game-tying single he hit off the Texas Rangers’ Scott Feldman in the 10th inning of Game 6 of the 2011World Series, when the St. Louis Cardinals were one strike from elimination. “It was actually a really good pitch,” Berkman said. “He threw it, I think, right where he wanted to throw it. It was a cutter in, started right on the corner, probably just a hair off the inside corner. He didn’t make a bad pitch. He made all very competitive pitches. It’s just something you can’t really account for. I didn’t hit it all that great, but it found some grass.” FREDDY GARCIA A distinct line connects four of the best pitchers in Seattle Mariners history. Mark Langston starred in the 1980s and was traded to Montreal for Randy Johnson. Johnson starred in the 1990s and was traded to Houston for Garcia, who is from Venezuela and threw changeups. Garcia inspired a young pitcher in Venezuela, Felix Hernandez, to learn the changeup and root for the Mariners. Hernandez signed with Seattle at age 16, wore Garcia’s No. 34 and used a devastating changeup to become the Mariners’ career wins leader. Garcia is fourth on that list with 76 victories; he won 80 more times for six other teams. JON GARLAND Garland went18-10 for the 2005 White Sox, a World Series champion that might as well have played in the 19th century. In the regular season, four Chicago starters combined for more than 890 innings. In the five-game American League Championship Series, the White Sox got 133 of 135 outs from their rotation. In the five games of this year’s ALCS, Boston Red Sox starters got 74 of 135. TRAVIS HAFNER Five players on this ballot — Hafner, Rivera, Andy Pettitte, Vernon Wells and Kevin Youkilis — played their final games with the Yankees in 2013. TODD HELTON We all know that Derek Jeter, picked sixth overall, was the best player taken in the 1992 draft. But who was the nextbest player? By wins above replacement, it was Helton, who was taken 55th overall by San Diego out of high school but attended the University of Tennessee instead. The Colorado Rockies made Helton their first-round choice in 1995, and he played with them for all of his 2,247 career games — exactly 1,000 more than anyone else in franchise history. TED LILLY Lilly made his debut in 1999 for the Expos, who soon traded him to the Yankees for Hideki Irabu. But the Yankees blundered by dealing Lilly to Oakland in 2002 in a three-way deal with Detroit for Jeff Weaver. Lilly had eight career victories before the trade, 122 thereafter, including 37 over three seasons with the Blue Jays. DEREK LOWE What a wild ride for Lowe with the Red Sox in the early 2000s. He made the all-star team as a closer in 2000. He made it again as a starter in 2002, the year he threw a no-hitter. He was 0-3 in the 2003 post-season but 3-0 the next fall, winning the clinching games in the division series, ALCS and World Series. The Red Sox let him go after that, but Lowe remained a solid starter for years. DARREN OLIVER On March 25, 2005, Oliver was pitching for the Rockies in an exhibition game in Tucson when a pack of bees descended on the mound in the fifth inning. The bees chased Oliver away, and while he tried several times to keep pitching, the swarm would not let him. The game was called before the top of the sixth, and afterward, Oliver said that the bees had been attracted to the coconut oil in his hair gel. “I guess I must have smelled good,” he said. “It was kind of funny at first, but after a while, I started getting a little nervous.” On that day, at least, the bees did what Father Time struggled to do: remove Oliver from the mound. The well-travelled left-hander toiled for 20 major-league seasons. ROY OSWALT The Houston Astros issued No. 44 to Oswalt for spring training in 2001. It wasn’t his first choice, but he was a rookie and knew his place. When Oswalt went 14-3 that season, he decided that 44 worked just fine and kept it his entire career, which included 143 victories for the Astros, one shy of Joe Niekro’s franchise record. ANDY PETTITTE In this era of diminishing workloads for starters — especially in October — it’s heartening to see Pettitte’s name in the top 10 on the career list for innings pitched in the World Series. Pettitte threw 77 2/3 innings, eighth behind six Hall of Famers and Art Nehf, a 1920s standout for the New York Giants. Pettitte was 5-4 with a 4.06 ERA in the World Series, starting two openers, winning two clinchers and losing another. His best performance came in a 6-1victory over the Miami Marlins in Game 2 in 2003, when Aaron Boone made an error with two outs in the ninth inning to cost him a completegame shutout. JUAN PIERRE Here was a career of extremes. Pierre had no arm, no power and very little plate discipline. But the things he did well, he did really well. He was durable (five consecutive seasons of 162 games). He was fast. He could bunt. And he was an extreme contact hitter. PLACIDO POLANCO The Detroit Tigers were down to their final out in the 2006 World Series when Polanco came up against the Cardinals’ Adam Wainwright. Polanco represented the tying run. Somewhat miraculously, Polanco drew a walk to save himself the ignominy of making the final out. MIGUEL TEJADA Only two players since 1937 have reached all of these benchmarks in the same season: 200 hits, 100 runs, 30 homers, 150 runs batted in. One was Albert Belle for the White Sox in1998. The other was Tejada for the Baltimore Orioles in 2004. VERNON WELLS Wells spent most of his career with also-ran teams in Toronto, appearing in 1,731 overall games without reaching the post-season. That is a shame, because Wells knows how to toast a special occasion. In retirement, he owns a winery with Rockies catcher Chris Iannetta. KEVIN YOUKILIS Youkilis won the World Series twice with the Red Sox, and to ensure immortality in New England, he married Tom Brady’s sister, Julie, in 2012. He won’t be elected to Cooperstown, but if there were a hall of fame for funky ways of standing at the plate, Youkilis would make it on the first try. MICHAEL YOUNG Young is the career hits leader for the Texas Rangers, which is a pretty cool distinction.