A cursory examination of Hafey's numbers might not blow your socks off. But Hafey is one of those rare exceptions where the numbers alone don't tell the whole story.
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“I always thought that if Hafey had been blessed with normal eyesight and good health, he might have been the best right-handed hitter baseball had ever known,”-Branch Rickey
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Putting aside Mr. Rickey's appreciation of Hafey's talent, of course, Hall of Fame election has to be based on merit, and not what the player was capable of doing.
Chick Hafey played from 1924 to 1937. He only came to the plate 5,115 times, which is going to immediately limit the wow factor when viewing his stats. But Hafey's production compares quite favorably to the other great hitters from his era.
Without getting into a lot of advanced metrics, one of my favorite statistics is OPS, or on base plus slugging. OPS, of course, combines slugging average, the metric for power, and on base percentage, which measures the frequency with which a player got on base via a hit, a walk, or being hit by the pitcher. The truly great hitters of the game bring power, as well as the ability to get on base.
Let's look at the players from Hafey's era with the best OPS figures. For my analysis, batters will be required to have at least 3,000 at bats between the years 1924 and 1937.
114 hitters registered in excess of 3,000 at bats during the course of Hafey's career. Chick Hafey had the 18th highest OPS over this period. When you consider that several of the players ahead of him on this list are immortals of the games, namely Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Rogers Hornsby, Jimmie Foxx, and Mel Ott, in addition to other Hall of Fame superstars including Al Simmons, Chuck Klein, Harry Heilmann and Hack Wilson, Hafey's .898 OPS total is pretty impressive.
Hafey's OPS beat out fellow Hall of Famers Mickey Cochrane, Charlie Gehringer, Bill Dickey, Kiki Cuyler, Tony Lazzeri, Joe Cronin, Earle Combs, Luke Appling, Frankie Frisch, Pie Traynor and Billy Herman, among others.
Hafey was plagued by vision problems throughout his career, resulting from multiple beanings, and sinus problems. He was the first star to ever wear glasses, and one of only two Hall of Famers to wear them (Reggie Jackson being the other). He missed half the 1932 season because of a sinus infection. The sinus problems became chronic, and though he played more games in 1933 and 1934 than he ever had before, they affected his hitting. He left his team before the end of the '34 season to have corrective surgery. His career, for all intents and purposes, was done after the '34 season--at age 31. He did play 15 games in 1935, but was stricken with influenza. He decided to retire. He attempted a comeback in 1937, but his eyesight was so bad he could not hit, and had no power. He was no longer the player who set a Major League record with ten straight hits, who hit for the cycle, or even who won the National League batting title in 1931.
If you consider Hafey's career before 1932 when his illnesses robbed him of his hitting abilities, his OPS was .948. Consider his performance against his peers between 1924 and 1931. During that period, he had the 9th best OPS of all Major League hitters with over 2,500 at bats.
If you consider Hafey's 5 year peak, which took place from 1927 to 1931, Hafey's OPS was 4 points lower than Hack Wilson's, and 5 points lower than Jimmie Foxx's.
Author Lawrence Ritter and baseball historian Donald Honig included Hafey In their 1981 book
The 100 Greatest Baseball Players of All-Time. They cited what they called "the Smoky Joe Wood Syndrome," where a player of truly exceptional talent might rank with the all-time greats on merit, despite a career sharply curtailed by injury. It's no secret that Hafey was described as a great hitter by his peers. He also had a legendary throwing arm, with arm strength and accuracy that has been compared to that of Roberto Clemente.
So, do I think Chick Hafey was a no brainer for the Hall? No. But he was a truly great player who had his career hampered, and shortened, by injury. I certainly do not feel his inclusion should be questioned.
I'll leave you all with one more thing. Chick Hafey has the 54th highest slugging percentage of all-time at .526. Here's a list of some of the players with a career slugging percentage below Chick Hafey's:
Shoeless Joe Jackson
Willie McCovey
Ty Cobb
Eddie Mathews
Harmon Killebrew
Bill Terry
Joe Medwyck
Jim Rice
Tris Speaker
Roy Campanella
Ernie Banks
Orlando Cepeda
Ted Kluszewski
Reggie Jackson
Rocky Colavito
Norm Cash
George Brett
Bill Dickey
Joe Adcock
Fred Lynn
Yogi Berra
Charlie Gehringer
Al Kaline
Mickey Cochrane
Tony Oliva
Roger Maris
Eddie Murray
Johnny Bench
Roberto Clemente
Dave Winfield
Jackie Robinson
Paul Waner
Joe Cronin
Tony Lazzeri
Honus Wagner
Napolean Lajoie
Carl Yastrzemski
Ken Boyer