NO ONE MO WORTHY
DUNN: Rivera deserves to be first unanimous Hall of Fame inductee
The first Hall of Fame class — Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, Walter Johnson, Honus Wager and Christy Mathewson — was chosen in 1936. It would be difficult to find a more illustrious group of inductees. And yet…
…None of them was chosen unanimously.
Two hundred and twenty-six seasoned baseball writers participated in the first selection process. Five of them chose not to vote for Cobb. Ruth’s and Wagner’s names were omitted from 11 ballots each. Nap Lajoie, Tris Speaker, Cy Young and Rogers Hornsby were also on the ballot and failed to muster the 75 percent required for induction. In fact, Young and Hornsby didn’t even get 50 percent.
A precedent was established. The Baseball Hall of Fame would be a place where America’s Pastime honors its immortals. Unfortunately, mortals would be the ones making the selections and mortals could never seem to agree on who the immortals are. Receiving the requisite 75 percent of the votes needed for enshrinement would be attainable. But no one would be elected unanimously.
So far, no one has. Consider… Twenty voters chose not to vote for Ted Williams in 1966; 52 did not vote for Sandy Koufax in 1972; 43 ignored Mickey Mantle in 1974 and 23 refused to check the box next to Willie Mays’ name in 1978. Henry Aaron came close in 1982 but ultimately fell nine votes short. Joe DiMaggio and Yogi
Berra weren’t even elected their first year of eligibility.
History would tell us there is no way any player will ever get 100 percent of the votes the first year he is eligible. And yet, I think there’s a chance someone will and that it could happen this year when Mariano Rivera’s name appears on the ballot for the first time. Rivera was indisputably the greatest closer in baseball history.
Notice I don’t say the greatest relief pitcher, although he might have been that as well. But there is no question he was the greatest closer. I’m not just splitting hairs when I draw the distinction.
At one time the best relief pitchers were called “firemen.” Metaphorically, they put out lateinning fires. It was common for them to pitch multiple innings in one game.
The fireman has all but disappeared from the game. For the past two decades good relief pitchers have become one-inning specialists. Some are “middle relievers,” some are “set-up men,” and the best are the “closers” — pitchers who work the ninth inning when their team has a narrow
lead. That was Rivera.
Rivera was a closer for 17 of his 19 seasons. He finished 952 games in his career and saved 652 — both records. In 11 seasons, his earned run average was less than 2.00. He did all this as a consummate professional who never brought dishonor or controversy to his team or to his sport. How can anyone refuse to vote him?
His name is the first one I’m going to check this year.
I’m also going to vote for two other first-year candidates — pitchers Andy Pettitte and Roy Halladay. Pettitte won 256 regular-season games and 19 more in the postseason. He pitched 200plus innings 10 times. Halladay had a shorter career and didn’t play with as many great teams as Pettitte did, but he still won 203 games and surpassed 200 innings eight times.
I gave a lot of thought to yet another newcomer, Todd Helton, but ultimately left him off my ballot. Helton’s overall numbers (1,406 RBIs and a .316 lifetime average) are impressive, but they were clearly aided by the fact that he played 1,141 of his 2,247 career games in hitter-friendly Coors Field. On the road, his batting average was .287. Only 39 percent of his RBIs came in road games.
Lance Berkman is also worth some thought because his best
years were brilliant. He just didn’t have enough of them.
That leaves the holdovers. Edgar Martinez is on the ballot for the 10th and final time. He was named on more than 70 percent of the ballots last year and deserves to go over the top this time. The rap on him is he was primarily a designated hitter. So what? He won two batting titles. He drove in 1,261 runs and scored 1,219 more.
A year ago, I declined to vote for Mike Mussina. My reasoning was that his numbers don’t match those of Tommy John or Jim Kaat, neither of whom were elected by the writers. I’ve had a year to mull that over. I still feel that John and Kaat belong in Cooperstown, but I now realize two wrongs (or three wrongs) don’t make a right. Mussina also deserves to be there and he gets my vote this time around.
One general manager once described Curt Schilling as a being a horse every fifth day and only part of a horse (you can guess which part) the rest of the time. I agree with that assessment, but the horse anchored four pennant winners in three separate cities. He won 216 games in his career and was 11-2 in the postseason. I might not vote for him if he enters politics (which he has threatened to do) but I can enthusiastically
mark his name on this ballot.
Omar Vizquel received only 37 percent of the vote last year and Fred McGriff got 23.2 percent. I’m probably wasting my vote with both of them but I’m supporting them regardless.
Vizquel won 11 gold gloves in his 24 seasons and probably deserved even more. His career fielding percentage (.985) is the second highest ever achieved by a shortstop. He had 2,877 lifetime hits and likely took away more than that with his fabulous glove. That’s a Hall of Fame-player in my book.
Fred McGriff’s hit 493 homers (exactly the same as Lou Gehrig) and drove in 1,550 runs. He led each league in home runs once but never led in RBIs even though he surpassed 100 eight times. Most years his numbers were overshadowed by contemporaries, but many of those players were later identified with likely steroid use. As far as we know, McGriff was a clean player in a dirty era. This will be his last year on the ballot and I think he deserves much more than 23.2 percent of the vote.