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Gilbert MainesAny holder of a lifetime record, or other significant accomplishment can be portrayed by showing his rookie and last card (as well as other ways). An overview of some of the applicable milestones could include the following:
- 2 of the top 4 & 4 of the top 13 lifetime BA holders are not in the HOF
- half of the top 6 in stolen bases and runs scored are also not in the HOF
- 4 of the top 10 season BA holders are not in the HOF
- although most are not eligible for HOF status, it does not diminish their achievement.
- then there are shorter term acomplishments, many of whom escaped HOFdom: four triples in a game, strike out 17 batters in a game, when you had to record 4 strikes to get a K, pitch a 26 inning complete game, get 9 hits in a game, etc.
- Plus there are those whos stats are equal or superior to HOFers, yet are not enshrined. An easy to miss example of this follows:
Rip Sewell W/L = 143/97, ERA = 3.48, Ks/Inn Pitched = 636/2119, HOF = no
Candy Cummings W/L = 143/94, ERA = 2.49, Ks/Inn Pitched = 130/2149, HOF = yes
Don Newcombe W/L = 149/90, ERA = 3.56, Ks/Inn Pitched = 1129/2154, HOF = no
Dizzy Dean W/L = 150/83, ERA = 3.02, Ks/Inn Pitched = 1163/1967, HOF = yes
Admittedly there are differences among these statistics, however, in my view, they are trivial, or easily explained by the eras pitched.