I will take the thread to a slightly different course. While I think the hall has done s pretty good job a dealing with the players who lost time mid career because of the war I don’t think that Hall or baseball history in general has done a good job of dealing with players who’s career was delayed by the war. I will use Al Rosen as an example. Rosen who is not well remembered today was the 1953 AL MVP and almost won the triple crown. He had five straight seasons of 100 RBI and had a career war of 35 in a really short career. He is not considered a baseball victim of WWII because his first full year in the majors was 1950. But his first year in the minors was in 1942 when he had a great year as an 18 year old. He then is in the military for 4 years and misses those years. But for the war it is very possible that he makes it to the bigs as a 21 year old rather then a 26 year old and there is s good chance he has 10 straight 1000 seasons and maybe another MVP. I could list many players along this type.
|