December Pick ups

[jchcollins]

Originally Posted by Samsdaddy

In my opinion, the Hall of Fame is reserved for the VERY BEST players of their era at their position. !

I would agree the best players of their era, but with the caveat that anymore that does NOT just mean the best players of all time. There are those out there that believe the HOF is only for the biggest names (Cobb, Mathewson, Ruth, DiMaggio, Mantle, Mays, Williams, Aaron, etc.) and that simply is not true. You saw this argument a few years back on Ron Santo and some people claiming well sorry, he simply wasn't "the best of the best." The by position analysis and especially throwing in things like SABR-type stats would argue well...if someone like George Kell is in the Hall (Bill James ranked him at like the 30th best 3rd baseman of all time) then why is Santo who is by their rankings the SIXTH best 3rd baseman of all time not? If the argument is that the Hall is only for the elitist of the elite, then we would have to go back to the 1940's and earlier and kick a bunch of people out. That's simply not historically what the Hall has ever been about.