Bob Feller - Is he a top tier Hall of Famer?

[bcbgcbrcb]

I wanted to ask for everyone's opinion on the above subject. I have decided to trim down my original 300 piece Baseball Hall of Fame Rookie Cards collection to include only the pre-war, "top tier" players. Based on my synopsis, I have a total of 21 HOF'ers plus Shoeless Joe (couldn't leave him out) but am on the fence with one individual, Bob Feller. In the context of pre-war HOF'ers, would you consider Feller to be top tier or just a step below?

[slipk1068]

half a step below

[sayhey24]

Absolutely yes -- and four years serving his country in WW II.

Greg

[calvindog]

He would have had 350 wins if not for his military service -- absolutely.

[HRBAKER]

I say no question

[jp1216]

Yes vote here. OT - I was in Des Moines 2 weeks ago and really wanted to go to his museum in Van Meter (10 miles from my hotel). Unfortunately, it is only open 3 days a week during the season. May not survive too much longer (in Iowa anyway).

[Peter_Spaeth]

My top tier would be
Anson
Cobb
Speaker
Wagner
Lajoie
Collins
Johnson
Young
Mathewson
Alexander
Hornsby
Ruth
Grove
Gehrig
Foxx
Greenberg
Feller
DiMaggio
Williams

[KCRfan1]

Originally Posted by calvindog

He would have had 350 wins if not for his military service -- absolutely.

And add on 1000 strikeouts. Feller is underrated as a HoF'r imo. He had just over 260 wins ( 266 I believe ) and less than 2600 strikeouts. For the time he did play, the numbers speak for themselves. If not for his service in the military, 350 wins and 3500 k's. Feller would be routinely mentioned with the greats of the game. I think he gets overlooked many times since he did not hit those magic numbers for pitchers, 300 wins and or 3000 strikeouts.

[bcbgcbrcb]

Since I have a tendency to underrate Pitchers, same question with this small group of four pitchers:

Mordecai Brown
Eddie Plank
Rube Waddell
Addie Joss

I should also mention that I am not including Negro Leaguers in this survey.

[Runscott]

I did not mention Carlton, etc, so yes, you misunderstood my post

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[K-Nole]

He must have been having a bad day, because when I went to see him in the late 80's, I was a teen, and he could not have been any more kind.

I informed him that he was grandpa's favorite pitcher of all time and he actually took time from his signing to talk to me about my grandpa's WWII service. Signed a beautiful 8" X 10" for free and was one of the kindest guys i had ever met.

[CMIZ5290]

Absolutely....

[Big Ben]

Very much a top tier Hall of Famer. On a side note, I saw Feller 4 times at shows in the mid 1980's. He was very nice at each show. One show was during Memorial Day weekend and was not well attended. I ended up talking baseball with Feller for over an hour!

[the 'stache]

Definitely top tier. I'll break down his stats after dinner.

[K-Nole]

Of coarse being 42 years old, I never seen him, but if my GrandPa says he was the best he ever saw, that is good enough for me!

[Fred]

I'm not quite sure how Feller couldn't be considered top tier. He lost almost 4seasons to military service. If you average out what he did right before and after WW2 his numbers would be around 350 wins, about 3700 Ks, his overall ERA would have been closer to 3.00 (or less) had he not missed any time to serve our country. If that aint top tier then I don't know what is.

[oldjudge]

Top tier player, even better human being. They broke the mold when they made him.

[David W]

Originally Posted by Fred

I'm not quite sure how Feller couldn't be considered top tier. He lost almost 4seasons to military service. If you average out what he did right before and after WW2 his numbers would be around 350 wins, about 3700 Ks, his overall ERA would have been closer to 3.00 (or less) had he not missed any time to serve our country. If that aint top tier then I don't know what is.

Devil's advocate question for those who give Feller 300+ wins due to loss of time while in the military.

Could you not argue he may have blown his arm out, pitching all those innings and they were long innings, lots of walks and strikeouts in there, and that the 4 years off saved his career from gross overuse?

But as for impact on the game, he was a huge legend at the time, throwing 100 mph, 17 years old and in the majors, strikeout titles and all, etc... and had a great career. He was always disappointed he never won a game in the 48 World Series.

[Vintageclout]

FYI, my strong opinion is that Tom Seaver, Bob Gibson, Randy Johnson, Greg Maddux, and Pedro Martinez are ALL superior pitchers to Bob Feller and their statistics support that notion. You might also want to make an argument for Roger Clemens if it was truly determined when he started using performance enhancing drugs. Bill James always stated Tom Seaver may be the greatest post-war pitcher of them all and his incredible 2.62 ERA over his first 15 CONSECUTIVE 15 seasons (1967 - '81) stakes a claim to that notion (2.86 overall with 4,700+ innings pitched). NO pitcher can boast such a low ERA over that consecutive span of time averaging 230 innings pitched per season after 1920....an absolutely amazing statistic for a starting pitcher.

Joe T.

[Runscott]

I have never bought the argument that old people get to be grumpy. You shoudn't be using your extra years as an excuse for earned bad behavior. You should be getting wiser with age, if for no other reason than that you have put in more years of observing than younger people. We all know examples of both ends of the spectrum.

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