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jay behrensI will admit, I suffered a major brain fart and was rushed to head out the door, so I didn't ahve time to look up other players. Hornsby easily had the greatest 5 year stretch of hitting that anyone ever had, including Ruth. I love Bonds, but Bonds still hasn't hit .400 with 40HRs in the same season.
I still a firm believer in putting the dominant players at their position while they played. Sandberg was THE 2B of his era. Same goes for Jack Morris. There was no better pitcher for the entire 80s. He won more games than anyone else int hat 10 year span and was a feared pitcher. What more do you what.
Everyone can't be Grover Alexander, Matty or the Big Train. You simply have to honor the best players of their time becuase, no matter how hard you try, there is no way to compare players across. And this comes from a numbers a geeks that eats up everything put out my James, Palmer, THorn, etc. You can come up with good generalizations, but you have no way of knowing how Morris would have fared in the DEadball Era, or how Matty would have performed today. This leaves voting in the best players compared against their peers. And Morris was the best of his era.
Rice should be in under the "Koufax" rule. Rice was easily the most fear hitter of his day and put numbers that were jsut staggering for their time. He was first player to get over 400 total bases in over years and took about another 15 years before someone else did it again.
Hell, take Dwight Gooden's career, flip it around, and you have Koufax. So why shouldn't Gooden get in if he has the same type of performance? He burst onto the scene dominating the game and fizzled out instead of sucking ass for 6 years then becoming a dominant player. So why should he be penalized for having Koufax's career in reverse?
The reliever not getting any love at all is Lee Smith. Looks like he is the Paul Krause of baseball, but I fear Smith will enver get in. How do you not induct the All-time leader? I don't think anyone is gonna be closing in on this record any time soon.
Jay
Wow upside down is Mom. Mom upside down is what dad wants to see.