eras committee candidates baseball HOF
 

Does anyone know what date the eras committee will announce their HOF candidates? last year they did it on Oct 19th? This is for
The Classic Baseball Era, consisting of the period prior to 1980 and including Negro Leagues and pre-Negro Leagues stars.

November 4th according to a tweet by Jay Jaffe.

https://x.com/jay_jaffe/status/1849569944712905089

Chad

Dick Allen
Ken Boyer
John Donaldson
Steve Garvey
Vic Harris
Tommy John
Dave Parker
Luis Tiant

Allen missed in 2022. I don't think he's eligible again so soon?

Vic Harris and John Donaldson from the Negro Leagues?

It’s Cobra’s time.

Vic Harris and John Donaldson from the Negro Leagues?

I hope Harris gets in. I purchased a Type I photo of him a couple of years ago. Can’t be too many of them floating around haha.

They voted on Donaldson recently too. I hope that isn't the final list.

Maybe they changed the rules but I read Allen isn't eligible again until 2026. I think it's every 4 years. Not seeing anywhere online where the list has been officially released. I thought Boyer was up last time too. I think both have legitimate cases given today's standards. I don't see any daylight between Tommy John and Jim Kaat. I'm a big Tiant fan. Parker feels to me like Hall of Very Very Good. Garvey no.

I'd be fine with all the major leaguers listed by MuncieNolePAZ (I had said ballot but looking back Jaffe said the ballot won't be released until tomorrow) except Garvey and Parker - their basic stats far outstrip their overall value.

I don't think Vic Harris belongs. Harris was an outfielder with an okay glove and a career OPS+ of 112. BR places his career value at 10.6 WAR for 645 games - and that's assuming that the Negro Leagues were 100% as good as the white major leagues, which I am skeptical of. I think he'd be close to the the worst hall of famer if inducted - probably better than Tommy McCarthy but not better than many others.

I have an open mind about Donaldson - he's an unusual case and I'd have to study his career deeply to be sure either way. His brief time in BLK/NLB is uneven - he seems to have been very good in 1918 and 1919 but undistinguished in other years. Because of that, the case for his greatness would have to depend heavily on his time pitching in the semi-pros. He dominated there, but a thorough study of the quality of his opposition would have to be made before we can know what that really means.

Donaldson was voted on in 2021 as part of the early days ballot. I would like to see new players considered.

No love for George "Tubby" Scales... *sigh*

Just refreshed my memory. Where the heck was he from 1930-34 when he had no stats? Those would have been his peak years.

I am not sure why his, or anyones, stats with the Montgomery Grey Sox arent included in any tallies. '32 was when the Negro Southern League was a de facto major league but the numbers never show up. Likely not enough box scores to complete the season, but it seems they should add what has been found.

Me I would vote for Tommy John #1

His pitching stats should get him in AND he has a surgery named for him. That covers the fame.

Honestly, any one on this list is worthy and it would be a shame to have either Allen or Tiant go in after they passed when we could have gotten them in when still alive

Rich

Vic Harris was a tremendous ballplayer and an even better manager. He managed the Grays to first place 8 times in 11 seasons and never had a losing record. He was sort of Joe Torre candidate. Although I think there are many more deserving negro league players. starting with Lundy, Marcelle, Beckwith, Scales, Wright, Poles, Redding, Home Run Johnson, Oms, Rap Dixon, Fats Jenkins, Nip Winters, etc. But Harris was the best manager, hands down, and deserves to be in the HOF for that alone.

Seriously bizarre list. I just read that Vic Harris was also just voted on in 2022.

This category is supposed to be for players passed over but about if the list was voted on in the last 5 years. What has changed in terms of their candidacy in that short time?

If you put the same names over and over and over and over on a small ballot with a small discussion group voting, you’ll eventually get those names voted in.

Steve Garvey would be my pick

Is there a source that this is in fact the ballot? I am not finding one, and I am reading pretty definitively Allen for example is not eligible for another year.

What an absolutely boring list.

Ah. I guess in 2022 they restructured the era committees so the old rules about eligibility after rejection must be moot. To your point, it does seem if you put people up over and over again eventually more and more will get in.

Boyer and Tiant would head my list. And I'm ok with the rest, although I have reservations about Garvey.

A vote tor Dick Allen - nearly his entire career (1963-1977) played during a modern pitcher-dominated dead ball era - yet a .912 OPS , that and his 162 game average is much better than any other hitters on the list ..
Admittedly his abbreviated career doesn’t help

I feel like usually the ballot is quickly broadcast around the online baseball world but I’ve seen this ballot basically nowhere except the Hall’s own site.


I would vote for some of these guys, but it kind of gets ridiculous when it’s the same handful of names the selection committee wants to put in over and over and over again. This format guarantees they will pretty much all be out in eventually. It’s not like we have a shortage of candidates who merit honest consideration, and have not had 25 chances. A number of 19th century players for example I don’t think have ever seriously been considered. While I would vote for Dick Allen, just putting him on every ballot until he eventually gets selected is not a very honest or meritorious selection process. How you frame and set up votes effectively determines eventual outcomes, and that’s what they keep doing with the vet committee’s here - feed the same names to a very small group of voters until those names get picked.

Steve Garvey has been on the ballot 20 times, including 5 by the veteran's committee (2011, 2014, 2018, 2020, and now 2024). He got 37.5% of the vote in 2020. I don't understand why they can't give someone else a chance, especially after he didn't come close to getting in the last time.

Dick Allen has been on the ballot 21 times, including 7 by the Veteran's committee. But I believe he missed by only 1 vote in both 2015 and 2022 (68.8%).

Too bad they couldn't Allen in during his lifetime.
Same goes for Tiant. (And Minnie Minoso and Gil Hodges).

I think Allen and Tiant are both deserving.

Tiant had been vocal about wanting to be elected while alive:

“I already told my family, ‘They put me after I die, don’t go anywhere. Don’t go to the Hall of Fame, don’t go to Cooperstown, don’t go no god— place,’” Tiant said. “‘Cause I think it’s wrong what they do.”

Tiant doesn’t see the benefit of posthumous induction.

“What good is that they put you after you die?” Tiant said, adding, “You can’t do nothing with your family and your friends.”

I think it is helpful that the number of candidates has been reduced from ten to eight. I've said in the past that it requires collusion to vote someone in per this process -- especially when the ballot is balanced with many relatively worthy candidates. It should also help that Garvey and Parker will get no support imo.

Dick Allen recently missed by one vote and Vic Harris by two. That might indicate they are more likely -- but sometimes the support just disappears, e.g., Bill Dahlen a few years ago.

I expect that all on this ballot, except Parker and Garvey, will eventually be inducted, unless they get LaRussa/Reinsdorf/Baines-type support.

Parker will get in, probably within the next 10 years or so

It's pretty sad that the Major League choices only extend back to a lone 1950's debut. There are an abundance of more deserving people to choose from. Tiant?

Wasn't Hodges rejected about a million times before he made it?

I'm a big advocate of Tiant and Dick Allen.

Garvey, despite the fact I think he's a schmuck - probably belongs in as well.

The fact that the HOF encompasses baseball from is beginnings to the year 1980 in one category is a joke. When the man that contributed the most to in establishing the rules for baseball (Doc Adams) is not in the HOF, There is something really wrong. The HOF claims to be the claims to be the bastion of baseball history. Unfortunately, it has become a bastion of the flavor of the month.

Bill Dahlen and Jim McCormick fans in shambles.

I don't know enough about the NL players to opine on them, but the rest are Hall of Very Good.

I really wish they would put Glasscock on a ballot.

Yep. I remember wondering as a teenager why Hodges wasn't in. It finally happened 30 some years later...

And how many times does this make for Boyer?

My guess is that Allen and Boyer get in. Not awful, but could have been so much better with more historic candidates.

As I've posted to match other sports, the BB HOF needs a "contributor" category.

Doc Adams. Lefty O'Doul. Curt Flood. etc

Rich

I sent my Dick Allen GU flannel in to SGC (Dave Grob) to get evaluated/graded last week. I'm counting on him getting in and wanted to get pre-HOF pricing.

Rich is right about Contributors

I’m probably in the minority, but I wish the Hall of Fame would considered the PCL pre-1946 as major league service years. I don’t think it’s necessary to rewrite the record books, but guys like Lefty O’Doul, Buzz Arlett, and Jigger Statz are glaring omissions to me. I’m also of the opinion of that if the Cuban Winter League was important enough for American Baseball executives to try to dictate how the league operated it should be considered a Major League as well.

What about Dwight Evans? He seems comparable to Garvey and Parker

WAR
38.0 Garvey
40.1 Parker
67.2 Evans
Not even close. But Evans gets no love.

Bobby Grich?

Probably won't happen, but I would love to see Allen and Boyer in. But that's personal feelings; I don't know their stats.

Dwight Evans, like Bobby Grich, and Keith Hernandez straddle the 1980 cutoff, which I think puts them at a disadvantage.

Garvey and Parker straddle it too. The difference is that unlike Hernandez, Evans or Grich, neither Parker nor Garvey were very productive after 1980, when they hit 30 years old. Yet Garvey and Parker seem to be favored by the committees.

Pulling for Tommy John to be elected with an assist from Dr Frank Jobe

288 Wins (most wins following surgery)
Only pitcher to compile 80 or more wins with 3 different major league teams

Would also get guys like Joe Torre and Dusty Baker for their total body of work since they were very good to great players and highly successful managers. Yes Torre got in and Baker will as just managers, but they were much more than just HOF Managers.

I'd say Dave Parker did a helluva lot after 1980 ... I mean the dude was getting MVP votes at 38 and 39.