Golden Era Hall of Fame Ballot announced

[Baseball Rarities]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

You mean like 1978 when he was 17th in MVP voting and was 17-81-.277?

Yeah, but he was still voted the 17th most valuable player in his League. To me, it is all relative to the others players who he played against and how he was perceived at the time. Stats can be deceiving. At the end of the day, his All-Star appearances and MVP voting convince me that he was considered to be a top player of his day.

[Greg Sonk]

Originally Posted by Baseball Rarities

Yeah, but he was still voted the 17th most valuable player in his League. To me, it is all relative to the others players who he played against. Stats can be de dining and matter what they were, he was regarded as a top 20 player in 12 different seasons.

This is a perfect example of stats with no context being useless, so thank you.

What the voting record actually shows was that post 1970, Yaz was a good player, but no longer elite. This is not an insignificant accomplishment, as you can't forget his peak existed, but if we want to use MVP voting records as evidence of value, we need to dig deeper.

Yastrzemski's MVP voting totals after 1970 are as follows
1973: 9 votes for a 3% share
1974: 14 votes for a 4% share
1975: 1 vote for a less than 1% share
1976: 28 votes for an 8% share
1977: 25 votes for a 6% share
1978: 17 votes for a 4% share

So to review, once he reached the other side of his peak, he never received more than 8% of the possible vote totals in MVP voting. These totals in ABSOLUTELY NO WAY show that he was a top 20 player in any of those years. It shows that a vast minority of the voting population thought he was a top player. Those are different issues entirely. How many of those people do you think were from New England?

[JollyElm]

Personally, I think the Hall is way too bogged down--Sutton and Blyleven immediately come to mind as neither was anywhere near dominant in their time--but from your list, and as a son of diehard Brooklyn Dodgers fans (my parents never went to another game--outright refused to go--after the Bums left town, except when my dad relented and agreed to take my brothers and me to Shea in 1976), then it's Gil Hodges for me. Just an RBI machine for a good decade and ridiculously loved and admired as a teammate. I truly hope number 14 is called this year, but after being in consideration for 40 something years, it doesn't seem very likely. That .273 career batting average is such a large speed bump to get over.

[Econteachert205]

Just wondering on Hodges how to factor in his role in the 1969 mets to his credentials? It seems that it should count in some overall manner.

[JollyElm]

Originally Posted by Econteachert205

Just wondering on Hodges how to factor in his role in the 1969 mets to his credentials? It seems that it should count in some overall manner.

Yeah, as a Mets fan, I should've included that aspect, too. Soft spoken, respected leadership.