[howard38]

Originally Posted by bbcard1

I've actually had an interesting exercise sorting my APBA all time greats set into two decade teams 1900-1920, 1920-1940, 1940-1960 and 1960-1980. It works amazingly well...i've only found a couple of folks who straddled those lines...certain Mays and Aaron did, but with DiMaggio, Mantle, Snider, Musial and Williams already in the 1940-1960 out pasture, moving them to the 1960s was easy. Greenberg was a hard call, but with Foxx and Gehrig (and Sister as a reserve option) already at first in the 1920-40 team, i moved him to the 1940-1960 team.

I think there are several pre1900 and deadball players who got the benefit of the doubt. Elmer Flick and Harry Hooper were pretty normal in the context of their times. Lloyd Warner reported was elected after the veterans committee errantly received the statistics of his brother Paul. Maranville, Bancroft, and a whole slew of 1920-1940 pitchers can have a compelling case. Odd as it sounds, if anything the 1960s seem very underrepresented. Allen, Oliva and Freehan are better than a lot of guys in the hall.

I disagree with the description of Elmer Flick as "pretty normal". His career numbers are fairly low because his career was shortened by illness but when healthy he was one of the very best hitters in baseball.