[howard38]

Originally Posted by z28jd

Someone like Rivera, a failed starting pitcher, will get in on the first ballot and fairly easy I'm sure, but Bill Dahlen, one of the best defensive players of his era(when everyone played small ball) and an above average hitter, people doubt.

Dahlen batted 10,405 times, Rivera faced 5103 batters. So Dahlen spent double the time in the batter's box than Rivera did on the mound, plus played somewhere around 18,000 innings on defense,where remember, he was one of the best back then.

I don't know how anyone can think the relief pitcher that throws one inning is better than one of the best shortstops ever to the point one is iffy and the other is a sure thing. Shouldn't it be totally reversed when talking about these two?

They should have never let Hoyt Wilhelm in the Hall, because that led to Rollie Fingers, down to Goose Gossage, to Bruce Sutter and now we are putting in a one inning pitcher on the first ballot! How ridiculous is that, his position is pitcher, not relief pitcher. If a ball is hit to him and he throws the ball to first base for the out, it goes down as a 1-3 in the scorebook, not RP-3. Their position is pitcher and it's pathetic that someone like Jack Morris gets questioned with all his time on the mound and people throw in failed starters like they accomplished something special.

I wouldn't call Rivera a failed starting pitcher. He was an outstanding starter in the minors but only had a chance to start ten games in the majors which is not enough to establish whether or not he would have failed. If it was then Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine would not be getting inducted into the hall of fame this year. The fact of the matter is that Rivera never got another chance to start because he was so good when he came out of the pen not because he "failed" as a starter.