Do Roger Maris or Albert Belle belong in the HOF

[SteveMitchell]

This argument in favor of Albert Belle being of Hall of Fame caliber is made with the understanding that Albert was telling the truth when he said, in answer to whether or not he used steroids: “I never did,” said Belle. “I didn’t need to. All you have to do is check the trainers’ weight charts. Every year I’d come to camp weighing 225 to 230 and end the season at about 215 to 220.”

The Cleveland franchise has been in the American League for well over a century. According to Baseball-Reference.com's Cleveland Indians Top 10 Career Batting Leaders, there are 39 positive categories (actually there are 43 but for this purpose, strikeouts, outs made, double plays grounded into, caught stealing have been eliminated). My argument is that after more than a century of play, if you find your name multiple times in the Top 10 of a positive category, you probably belong in the Hall of Fame. Of the 39 positive categories, Albert Bell (despite playing only the equivalent of 6 full seasons in Cleveland) made the Top Ten 16 times.

If you wish to check out this out, for more details see: https://www.baseball-reference.com/t...ders_bat.shtml

Finally, a favorable word for a man I was privileged to know for nearly a decade - Earl Averill, another Cleveland great. Of these 39 categories, Earl Averill placed in the Top Ten 29 times and was the absolute leader 9 of those times. Behind Averill's 9 Number One rankings follow: Tris Speaker (7), Jim Thome (6), Larry Lajoie (4), Joe Jackson (3), Kenny Lofton (2), Manny Ramierz (2) and 7 others including 3 Hall of Famers (tied one apiece).