Quote:
Originally Posted by rats60
Using WAR, which is what most are arguing for exclusion, Baines is the best player on your exclude list and better than some you left off. I would leave Bottomley and Baines in, but the other 10 are clear mistakes.
From your should be in list, Barnes only played 9 years and 499 games. Bond only played 10 seasons and one he pitched 2 games, another 3. I don't think they played long enough and if they were really famous or popular, they would be in. The other guys I wouldn't have a problem with and there are some other guys you missed like Dick Allen and Ted Simmons.
The Hof has already gone down the road of electing a lot of marginal candidates. I think we are going to see a bunch of those guys who played in the 60s-80s elected by the VC over the next decade.
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You are making the mistake of comparing players like Barnes and Bond to players of more recent eras using a measuring stick that doesn't apply. Any player can only fairly be compared to players from his era. The early game was baseball, yet quite different than today. Also, in Barnes defense, he played 5 seasons prior to 1871, the first year of the professional National Association, at the highest levels available at the time. The 10 year rule is not relevant to Barnes, as well as many other players, who played part or all of their careers prior to the start of the professional leagues. These players are the pioneers of baseball and have been neglected by the Hall of Fame, basically, because all or most of the voters have no understanding of the early game and fail to properly evaluate the early players.