Quote:
Originally Posted by GasHouseGang
I was going to ask, why do you think Cy Young didn't make the initial cut of Hall Of Famer's?
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Probably because he was the oldest of all the players being mentioned, and had stopped playing much earlier than the rest of them. it was clearly a modern bias, the exact same kind that still exists to this day. The general public and those electing the initial HOF inductees had much more experience and ability to have actually seen the players that did get elected in the inaugural class. And that carried over to other players that also didn't get elected in the initial class, but still did better than Young in the voting, like LaJoie and Speaker.
As others have mentioned, the fact that there were a limited number of voters, and thus a limited number of players that actually could have been elected/inducted that first year, says a lot about the fact that Cobb had the highest percentage of votes of anyone. You can take all the statistics and everything else you want, and factor in all the modern bias as well, but when you look back at how the people who actually got to witness and compare these players in person, and how they said with their HOF votes that Cobb was the best, says it all as to who they thought was the best IMO. The hype and such that continued with Ruth, and his playing for the Yankees, kept pushing and promoting his legend. He continued in the public eye and still had stories being written about him, acting in movies, having movies made about him, and then culminating in his own legendary farewell appearance at Yankee Stadium. Meanwhile, Cobb was a bit more private and not so much in the public eye and as continuously attracting public attention. Much of that may be attributed to him not residing in a major media area, like New York City, after he was done with baseball. And then you have the not so favorable story of Cobb's life that came out right after he passed away in 1961, that included all the lies that Al Stump had put in it about Cobb. And that was just as the civil rights movement was at its height, and basically amounted to pouring gasoline on a fire in regard to the even more toxic public opinion that was then directed towards Cobb because of it. And even as much as Cobb did have issues when he played, and may not have gotten along well with all other players, he definitely had everyone in and associated with MLB's respect. Ruth did not, and it wasn't even close. The fact that Ruth openly wanted to be a manager of an MLB team, and no team would have him, kind of says it all when it comes to baseball's perception of him. Meanwhile, Cobb managed and played for Detroit for six seasons. He didn't have an overly great managerial history, but at least he was given the opportunity, something no one in MLB ever thought Ruth was deserving off.
And then also came the eventual change in how the game was viewed in later years where the emphasis switched from being a great overall player to being more of a slugger and home run hitter. Cobb is definitely what would be considered a five-tool-player, long before the term was ever coined, and remained so for much of his career. Meanwhile, Ruth was never a five-tool player, even at the height of his prime. Nowadays the sluggers seem to get all the hype and attention in baseball, much more so than the players with the highest average and most hits. Just look at how much Ichiro seems to have been ignored by the fans and media, yet he is arguably a hitter on the same level as Cobb and Rose.
And quite honestly, the initial HOF class showed an additionally definite, overall, then modern bias as it only allowed for a very limited few players to be elected, yet professional baseball had technically existed since about 1869 at that point, almost 70 years. What should have been done was something more in line with what occurred when MLB finally recognized and inducted all the Negro League Players they did, in one entire group, back in 2006. Instead, many of the 19th century and other early dead ball era players were ignored and passed over, despite being very deserving of such recognition. And unfortunately, as time has gone on, people's knowledge and memory of them has shrunk ever so much more, making their eventual recognition even less possible.
03-11-2023, 11:46 AM
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