Worst player in any Hall of Fame

[Aquarian Sports Cards]

This is not necessarily the least deserving as there is a subtle difference. I'm looking for guys who just weren't all that good at their sport.

I'm torn between Rabbit Maranville and Joe Namath, honorable mention to Ray Schalk and Phil Rizzuto

[Snapolit1]

Joe Namath won the biggest game in his sport in a legendary upset. Has to count for a lot. Not arguing he deserved the Hall, but far from the least deserving candidate I can imagine.

[The-Cardfather]

I know that I'm going to take a lot of flack for this, but my choice is........

Cal Ripken, Jr.

A very good player who was fortunate enough (and healthy enough) not to ever take or need a day off. But NOT a Hall-of-Fame player, IMHO.

[D. Bergin]

Originally Posted by The Cardfather

I know that I'm going to take a lot of flack for this, but my choice is........

Cal Ripken, Jr.

A very good player who was fortunate enough (and healthy enough) not to ever take or need a day off. But NOT a Hall-of-Fame player, IMHO.

Consider this flack given LOL. Contrarian choice. Ripken is a no brainer, streak or no streak. 2 MVP Awards, 8 Silver Sluggers for his position, reliably fielded his position no matter what anybody says about his range, though he seems to be ranked near the top of his position in nearly every defensive metric on Baseball Reference for good portions of his career.

[Econteachert205]

Bill Bradley NBA, only in because of New York.

[Snapolit1]

I would clearly support the idea that Cal would win my award for most hysterically over hyped player of my lifetime who was nowhere near the great player than many made him out to be. I also though his pursuit of the streak showed him to be a self obsessed boob who egotistically put his personal stuff ahead of everything else. (Sure this hasn't been debated before. . . .) Had a few truly excellent years but many more seasons where he hit around .250.

[Aquarian Sports Cards]

Originally Posted by Econteachert205

Bill Bradley NBA, only in because of New York.

Ah, but the Basketball HOF is just that, the BASKETBALL HOF, not the NBA HOF. So his college and Olympic exploits are really what got him in. To me the Basketball HOF is hard to even quantify because of its weird structure.

[rats60]

Originally Posted by D. Bergin

Consider this flack given LOL. Contrarian choice. Ripken is a no brainer, streak or no streak. 2 MVP Awards, 8 Silver Sluggers for his position, reliably fielded his position no matter what anybody says about his range, though he seems to be ranked near the top of his position in nearly every defensive metric on Baseball Reference for good portions of his career.

Joe Namath is a no brainer for the Hof. 2 MVP awards. Only QB to throw for 4k yards under the old rules. Bart Starr never threw for 2500 yards. Bob Griese never threw for 2500 yards. Len Dawson never threw for 2900 yards. All contemporaries of Namath and in the Hof.

Baseball - Tommy McCarthy
Football - Bob Hayes
Basketball - Bill Bradley

[Aquarian Sports Cards]

Originally Posted by rats60

Joe Namath is a no brainer for the Hof. 2 MVP awards. Only QB to throw for 4k yards under the old rules. Bart Starr never threw for 2500 yards. Bob Griese never threw for 2500 yards. Len Dawson never threw for 2900 yards. All contemporaries of Namath and in the Hof.

Baseball - Tommy McCarthy
Football - Bob Hayes
Basketball - Bill Bradley

So because he threw the ball a TON more than other QB's of his era he was great???

The two years he won MVP he threw as many INT's as TD's and completed barely 50% of his passes. Just because some yutz gives you an award doesn't mean you are great.

You also seem to conveniently have left out contemporaries like Unitas and Tarkenton and focused on good QB's from run oriented teams.

QB Rating

Namath - 65.5
Starr - 80.5
Griese - 77.4
Dawson - 82.6
Tarkenton - 80.4
Unitas - 78.2

Completion Percentage

Namath - 50.1
Starr - 57.4
Griese - 56.2
Dawson - 57.1
Tarkenton - 57
Unitas - 54.6

Interception Percentage

Namath - 5.8
Starr - 4.4
Griese - 5
Dawson - 4.9
Tarkenton - 4.1
Unitas - 4.9

Now just for grins and giggles let's look at some NON-HOF guys of his era with similar numbers

Rating

Lamonica - 72.9
Roman Gabriel (Who won an MVP) - 74.3
Norm Snead - 65.5


Completion %

Lamonica - 49.5
Gabriel - 52.6
Snead - 52.3

INT%

Lamonica - 5.3
Gabriel - 3.3!!!
Snead - 5.9

It's pretty obvious which group Namath belongs in and he's not even the class of that group!

[Bored5000]

Originally Posted by The Cardfather

I know that I'm going to take a lot of flack for this, but my choice is........

Cal Ripken, Jr.

A very good player who was fortunate enough (and healthy enough) not to ever take or need a day off. But NOT a Hall-of-Fame player, IMHO.

What? Ripken is in the top 25 all-time for WAR; the only two shortstops ahead of him are Honus Wagner and Alex Rodriguez, who obviously was not a shortstop his entire career and was a steroid guy.

Even if you are not a new-age stats guy, 3,184 hits and 430 home runs are not HoF numbers? Have you looked at Ray Schalk's career numbers?

[Peter_Spaeth]

Originally Posted by Bored5000

What? Ripken is in the top 25 all-time for WAR; the only two shortstops ahead of him are Honus Wagner and Alex Rodriguez, who obviously was not a shortstop his entire career and was a steroid guy.

Even if you are not a new-age stats guy, 3,184 hits and 430 home runs are not HoF numbers? Have you looked at Ray Schalk's career numbers?

Agreed. Sure Ripken got overhyped because of the streak, but independent of that he was an easy first ballot HOFer, one of the very few greatest shortstops ever.

My choice would be Lloyd Waner -- negative WAR if I recall.

[JustinD]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

My choice would be Lloyd Waner -- negative WAR if I recall.

First name that popped into my mind. Worst stats in the hall.

As far as football Aikman makes Namath look like comparing Ruth to Rick Ferrell. No reason he is there other than the lucky Qb for that team during the Dallas run. Zero all-pros, 5 of 12 seasons below .500 and an almost 50/50 touchdown to INT rate. God-awful for the busts in that room.

[Aquarian Sports Cards]

Originally Posted by The Cardfather

I know that I'm going to take a lot of flack for this, but my choice is........

Cal Ripken, Jr.

A very good player who was fortunate enough (and healthy enough) not to ever take or need a day off. But NOT a Hall-of-Fame player, IMHO.

Well I don't know if you like modern stats but his WAR is quite impressive, and regardless of whether or not he belongs he's FAR from the worst player in the Hall.

[Davino]

I say Bill Mazeroski, Phil Rizzuto, Rollie Fingers, and Bruce Sutter are not worthy, but the worst player(modern-ish) is:


Hoyt Wilhelm

[packs]

Oh come on, Hoyt was the prototype for the modern relief pitcher. He even led the league in ERA without even making a start as a 29 year old rookie. A 2.52 ERA over 2,200 innings. Goose Gossage's ERA is a half run higher after pitching 400 less innings and he's always talking about how great he was.

[bravos4evr]

Worst in ANY HOF is pretty tough to figure out, but IMO, the worst "big name" player in any HOF is Joe Namath.

115 career approximate value puts him in the neighborhood of guys like Cutler, Phil Sims and Bartkowski.

50.1% career completion percentage is woeful

173 TD's and 220 INT's isn't much better , in fact his TD passes only exceeded interceptions 3 seasons...

He's a pretty league avg type of QB who got in on hype, style and "the guarantee"

[D. Bergin]

Originally Posted by Snapolit1

Joe Namath won the biggest game in his sport in a legendary upset. Has to count for a lot. Not arguing he deserved the Hall, but far from the least deserving candidate I can imagine.

Namath had a fairly pedestrian game. Matt Snell and the Jets D won that game.

[Aquarian Sports Cards]

Originally Posted by Snapolit1

Joe Namath won the biggest game in his sport in a legendary upset. Has to count for a lot. Not arguing he deserved the Hall, but far from the least deserving candidate I can imagine.

I specifically noted the difference between worst and least deserving. I stick to my guns that he is the worst player in the NFL HOF.