Baseball Hall of Fame

Recently, Rickey Henderson and Jim Rice received the nod to join the hallowed halls of Cooperstown. No one questioned Henderson's credentials, but some baseball pundits wondered aloud whether Rice's numbers warranted his election. They noted that he did not hit 500 home runs (382) and that he fell well short of 3,000 hits (2,452). While discussing these milestones, the pundits apparently forgot that Rice was one of the top five hitters in the American League for a decade. Few players in either league were among the elite for so long, and that alone makes him a worthy Hall of Famer.

The debate over Rice demonstrates that baseball writers are increasingly obsessed with the big numbers: 300 wins, 500 home runs, and 3,000 hits. While it is hard to argue that a player who reaches one or more of these numbers is not deserving of the Hall, these stats do not always prove that a player was better than someone who fell short of them. Unfortunately, baseball writers do not always see it that way. If a player does not reach one of these milestones, he generally has to wait many years to win election to the Hall, if he is voted in at all.

Let's take an example. Don Sutton, who strung together 324 wins over twenty-three seasons while rarely leading the league in any category, became a member of the Hall after five years on the ballot. Meanwhile, Bert Blyleven, who won 287 games and struck out 3,701 batters (good for fourth on the all-time list), is still on the outside looking in after twelve years of waiting. Simply put, Sutton was not that much better than Blyleven (if he was any better at all). The baseball writers may vote in Blyleven before his eligibility expires after the 2012 elections, but, then again, they might not: Ferguson Jenkins, who was elected in 1991, was the last starting pitcher with fewer than 300 wins (284) to gain enshirnement.

Then there are pundits who have argued that Hall of Famer Kirby Puckett, whose career was cut short by glaucoma, did not reach the necessary statistical thresholds for admission. While it is true that he did not get 3,000 hits or attain one of the other magical milestones, he averaged 658 atbats, 97 runs, 209 hits, 19 home runs, and 99 rbi per 162 games. One must wonder what he would have had to average to satisfy his detractors.

Using the logic of the milestone obsessed, all-time greats such as Bob Feller, Bob Gibson, Carl Hubbell, and Robin Roberts, none of whom reached 300 wins, should now be considered inferior to Don Sutton and Phil Niekro because Sutton and Niekro (thanks mostly to their longevity) crossed the mark. Such hitters as Luke Appling, Richie Ashburn, Sam Crawford, and Frankie Frisch (all of whom hit over .300 lifetime but fell short of 3,000 hits) would be deemed lesser batsmen than someone with a lifetime .280 average who held on enough to leg out 3,000 safeties. The illogical has become the logical for many baseball observers.