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Posted By: Kenny Cole

He was an all-star 9 of the 11 years he played, impressed the voters enough to win the MVP when Williams won the triple crown, was in the top 10 in MVP voting 5 times in 11 years, averaged close to 100 runs batted in a year over his career, hit for power when 2B didn't do that, could steal a bag every once in a while, scored 90+ runs 4 times (and 80+ 4 more), and (contrary to some posts above) was considered to be an absolute acrobat around the bag. He doesn't do too well on the black ink test, and is only mediocre on the gray ink test, but I suspect that's true for every HOF 2B not named Lajoie, Collins, Hornsby, Gehringer, Robinson, Carew (who was a much worse fielder than Gordon) or Morgan

I haven't looked at his fielding stats because they are pretty much irrelevant. Guys who are anchored to the bag can have good fielding stats and kill their team because they have no range and can't get to any balls. Guys with range, which I believe those who saw Gordon play would say he had, get the errors because they get to balls that others wouldn't be able to come close to. Gordon also played his home games in what were among the worst parks for right handed power hitters in that time.

Gordon was probably the best 2B of the 40s, with his only competition coming from Billy Herman. Head to head, he beat Doerr practically every year. When his numbers are considered in context, they aren't too bad.

His election doesn't give me too much heartburn. I wouldn't have picked him as the most deserving of the pre-'40s candidates, but he certainly doesn't drag the membership down