Nominations for the Hall Of Commons - let's play.

[tod41]

Jon Matlack

[UKCardGuy]

Jim Sunburg

[tod41]

Sal Bando
Joe Rudi
Greg Luzinski
Amos Otis
Ken Singleton
Jay Buhner

[KJA]

Luis Gonzalez, Aramis Ramirez, John Olerud, Jason Kendall, Jesse Orosco, Frank Tanana, Chili Davis, Cecil Cooper, Reggie Smith, Eric Davis, Jose Rijo, Rocky Colavito, Juan Pierre, Roy Oswalt, Steve Finley, Jimmy Key, Brett Butler, Brandon Phillips, Matt Holiday

[chalupacollects]

John Olerud


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[darkhorse9]

Keep the names coming. We will do background checks on then and the release the first ballot on Christmas Day. You will have one month to vote on the most deserving for the inaugural Hall of Commons

[ASF123]

Rick Reuschel, as previously mentioned. Granted, neither he nor his brother really looked like plausible professional athletes (If this were any other website I could easily copy and paste a photo of their 1977 Topps card, but you know what I mean.).

[brianp-beme]

Okay, this thread has forced me into creating a list of players with Prewar cards that had at least 2 votes in a single BBWAA election, but also not more than 5. At the end of this list I have included a few notable players that had no more than 1 vote during a single BBWAA election, and some notable players with 5 or less votes on the original 1936 Veteran's Committee vote for 19th century players . I have excluded from consideration any voting from all other committees.

Grouped by the top amount of votes received in any one year, and in no particular order within each grouping:


5 votes

Bill Wambganss
Joe Bush
Fielder Jones
Firpo Marberry
Moe Berg
Max Bishop
Heinie Groh
Bill Bradley
Bill Carrigan


4 votes

Art Fletcher
Dolph Camilli
Cookie Lavagetto
Urban Shocker
George Uhle
Bill Donovan
Bob O'Farrell


3 votes

Jack Barry
Charlie Berry
Mort Cooper
Tony Cuccinello
Bill Doak
Lew Fonseca
Mike Gonzalez
Frankie Gustine
Willie Kamm
Roger Peckinpaugh
Luke Sewell
Bill Werber


2 votes

Joe Jackson
Eddie Foster
Eddie Grant
Deacon Phillippe
Terry Turner
George Earnshaw
Al Schacht
Tommy Thevenow
George Selkirk
Donie Bush
Guy Bush
Hughie Critz
Jim Tobin
Kid Elberfeld
Jake Daubert
George J. Burns
Ossee Schrecongost
Larry Doyle
Gavvy Cravath
Jack Combs
Marty Bergen
Hans Lobert
Sherry Magee
Ping Bodie
Wally Berger
Ossie Bluege
Ray Kremer
Fred Leach
Marty McManus
Lee Meadows
Van Lingle Mungo
Cy Perkins
Bill Sherdel
Riggs Stephenson
Red Kress
Bill Hallahan
George Case
Augie Galan


Notable players with maximum of 1 vote

Bobby Veach
Harry Steinfeldt
Sam Leever
Frank Schulte
Tommy Leach


1936 19th century Veteran's votes

Charlie Bennett - 3
Ross Barnes - 3
Fred Dunlap - 3
Jack Glasscock - 2
Ed Williamson - 2
Bobby Lowe - 2


Brian

[Beercan collector]

Jimmy Ryan
George Van Haltren

[packs]

Larry Doyle

[D. Bergin]

Reggie Smith - As has been mentioned by a couple people already. 64.5 WAR, 137 career OPS+

Ranked 19th All-Time in RF (though he played almost as many games in CF).

Injury history, particularly in the 2nd half of his career, caused him to miss lots of games, costing him plenty of counting stats.

Finished off his career with a couple of pretty strong seasons in Japan, when he left the Giants after the '82 season.

Ranked almost identical to Dwight Evans in many categories, who gets a lot of HOF love from modern day analysts.

3 HOF votes in 1988 and out.

[Yoda]

I believe the enshrinement of Bid McFee brought some collector interest to 19th century cards and memorabilia. When he was elected, his N172 card seemed to quadruple overnight. Fortunately, I had one in my Full Count inventory, so I was naturally pleased. Sold it about a year later for a nice profit.
I was reading an article recently from the old VCBC magazine (Dennis Purdy's great old mag) about 19th Century players deserving the Hall. Barnes was top of the list followed by a sundry of players, eg. Glasscock, Ryan etc. Sure wish VCBC was still around; it was a great reference tool and several board members contributed articles, like Kevin Struss and Barry Sloate.

[T206BrownHindu]

He did get (10) votes, but how Johan Santana didn’t get more is crazy. Two time Cy Young award winner and 6 straight top 7 finishes!

[raineybt]

Saw Moe Berg, probably a +1 on that for a similar reason to my submission.

Curt Flood is perhaps one of the most influential professional sports athletes of all time (in America) and has never even been on the Hall of Fame ballot. Curt Flood's lawsuit against baseball's reserve clause leads directly to the establishment of free agency, in baseball and all other pro sports.

He was also a Senator, so that's a plus 1. Agree on Denny McLean as well - looks like he got 4 total votes.

----

Update to my own post! I was relying on this quote from his daughter: “Interestingly enough, my father has never been nominated to be in the Hall of Fame. He’s never been on the ballot,” Shelly Flood said.

But, according to Baseball Reference, Flood got 16 votes in 1977 and 8 votes in 1978, so - he's out!

I'll submit in his place Camilo Pascual and Pedro Ramos, who played for both the original Senators (that moved to Minnesota) and for the expansion Senators.

[Yoda]

Originally Posted by Yoda

I believe the enshrinement of Bid McFee brought some collector interest to 19th century cards and memorabilia. When he was elected, his N172 card seemed to quadruple overnight. Fortunately, I had one in my Full Count inventory, so I was naturally pleased. Sold it about a year later for a nice profit.
I was reading an article recently from the old VCBC magazine (Dennis Purdy's great old mag) about 19th Century players deserving the Hall. Barnes was top of the list followed by a sundry of players, eg. Glasscock, Ryan etc. Sure wish VCBC was still around; it was a great reference tool and several board members contributed articles, like Kevin Struss and Barry Sloate.

My bad. Correct surname is spelled McPhee. Apologies Bed.

[thatkidfromjerrymaguire]

I think Bo Jackson fits the bill.

Bo.jpg

[jakebeckleyoldeagleeye]

Roy Sievers. he had some really good years on bad teams and played In Griffith Stadium with a long left field distance. Won first AL ROY and beat out Mantle and Williams for a HR and RBI title.

[raineybt]

7 total votes over two years on the ballot (1971 and 1972). If we expanded this to 10 votes or less, Sievers is a first ballot guy! 1957 Home Run Champ!

Originally Posted by jakebeckleyoldeagleeye

Roy Sievers. he had some really good years on bad teams and played In Griffith Stadium with a long left field distance. Won first AL ROY and beat out Mantle and Williams for a HR and RBI title.

[Brian Van Horn]

My all-time favorite Pirate:

Manny Sanguillen.

[packs]

They're technically eliminated because they got 6 votes but I always thought Moises Alou and Alfonso Soriano were great players. WAR does not like them at all.

[benedini]

Hope my research was right that he only got three votes but my favorite player as a kid was Bucky Dent. World series hero and solid player.

[skil55voy]

Mickey Lolich

[Misunderestimated]

Pete Rose...(is he eligible for this HOF?)

[Mungo Hungo]

Originally Posted by Brian Van Horn

My all-time favorite Pirate:

Manny Sanguillen.

If you're having a bad day or are down on human nature, you only need to watch some clips of Sanguillen play, and all seems good.

[KJA]

Originally Posted by Misunderestimated

Pete Rose...(is he eligible for this HOF?)

Pete Rose wouldn't be, he got 41 votes in 1992

[Chris Counts]

Mark Fidrych. For one glorious season, he was the most beloved ballplayer on earth. As for Cecil Travis, it's truly sad that he lived to be nearly 100 and never received the call from Cooperstown. The argument by the Hall of Fame's stingy and utterly clueless gatekeepers is that he didn't play long enough. But he did record the third highest career batting average of any shortstop all-time, and would likely have continued playing, but WWII got in the way, and he lost a couple toes in the Battle of the Bulge. The way I see it, the Hall of Fame was built for guys like Cecil.

[Bigdaddy]

I couldn't find his voting stats, but Chris Sabo was a fan favorite in Cincinnati, 3x All Star and WS Champion in 1980. Also elected to the Reds HOF.

I would be shocked if he received more than 5 MLB HOF votes.

Like the Manny Sanguillen and Sal Bando nominations earlier.

I'll also add Mark Belanger and two former Tiger pitchers with much different careers; one with a meteoric rise and subsequent fall and was the toast of the town - Mark Fidrych, and another that pitched for 21 season with 240 wins - Frank Tanana.

[D. Bergin]

Belanger and Lolich both had too many votes to qualify.

Sabo, Fidrych and Bo Jackson didn't play enough seasons to get on the ballot. Whether that's a disqualifier or not, I'll leave up to the OP.

[Beercan collector]

George Scott
Garry Maddox
Both had 8 gold gloves

[Smarti5051]

I believe Tim Salmon only received 5 votes then was off the ballot. As an Angels fan, it is painful he has not been brought up yet. But, he played his whole career for the Angels, so I guess it makes sense.

[Mungo Hungo]

This breaks the rules, but Frank White. He received fewer than 4% of the vote when he was up.

Per Baseball Reference, the most similar player to Frank White is Bill Mazeroski, and the most similar player to Bill Mazeroski is Frank White. Mazeroski has a slightly higher BWAR. White has a slightly higher FWAR. But Frank did not hit a famous home run.

Side note: Frank is now the executive for the Missouri county where the Royals play, and is largely seen as responsible for torpedoing a deal to build a new stadium for his former team. That should at least qualify him as ... notable.

[cgjackson222]

A lot of great suggestions so far.

A couple more for the list:

Jim McCormick won 265 games, had a career ERA+ of 118, but was never on a ballot. I think he also has the highest bWAR (76.2) of anyone not in the HOF that wasn't disqualified for scandal or is associated with steroids.

Tony Mullane won 284 games, and had a career ERA+ of 117, but never received a vote. On the negative side, Mullane has the record for wild pitches with 343.

Charlie Buffinton won 233 games to only 152 losses, and had a career ERA+ of 115, but was never on a ballot.

Ed Konetchy has never appeared on a ballot. He had a career OPS+ of 123 and is 13th all-time for career triples.

The best Bob Elliot ever did was 4 votes. Elliot was a 6x All Star and won an MVP.

Willie Davis
was never even on a Hall of Fame ballot somehow, despite putting together a nice career with over 60 bWAR.

[Chuck9788]

Mort Cooper and Cecil Travis were old school names that immediately came to mind. I feel that Travis should be in the Hall of Fame.

[packs]

Speaking of Cecils, I've always been a fan of Cecil Cooper even though I didn't really see him play. Way back when he was at a show I was at once and was a really nice guy to everybody there.

Looks like he didn't a single vote. But he's a 3 time silver slugger, 5 time all star and he won the Clemente award. He drove in 120 plus runs three times, which was a pretty big deal in his time.

[darkhorse9]

Bill Melton passed away. He deserves consideration

[D. Bergin]

Rick Reuschel been mentioned a couple times. Compiled a nearly 70 WAR lifetime.

Higher then Jim Palmer in the same amount of seasons and about 400 less innings.

One of the better fielding pitchers of his time.

Had a strong case for the Cy Young in 1977.

Being on bad teams, low win% and a lack of analytics at the time certainly hurt his case.

If not for about 2 1/2 seasons of missed time in the early 80's due to injuries, he might have been in the high 70's WAR wise.

Got 2 votes in 1997 and gone.

[brian1961]

Originally Posted by darkhorse9

Bill Melton passed away. He deserves consideration

Thanks for mentioning Bill Melton. I loved Bill Melton. My cherished memory of Bill is in the summer of 1971. My family and I had had a rough year. So it's late at night, the Sox game is on, and I have to be quiet 'cause we moved into this apartment complex. The White Sox had been battling the Yankees tooth and nail all game, and the Yanks had a two-run lead. Bottom of the ninth, the Sox get 2 on base, and up comes Bill Melton. Melton blasts a 3-run, walk off the field home run, and it's as if, things are going to be ok again. I am jumping up and down, screaming SILENTLY! Made me a Bill Melton fan for life. Man, that was some moment.

I think I'd put Bill Melton into the hall of very good. By the looks of the NET, a lot of other people must have loved Bill. It's never a good time to say goodbye to a hero that meant something to you. --- Brian Powell

[sports-cards-forever]

Thurman Munson - All day.

[ASF123]

Originally Posted by brian1961

Thanks for mentioning Bill Melton. I loved Bill Melton. My cherished memory of Bill is in the summer of 1971. My family and I had had a rough year. So it's late at night, the Sox game is on, and I have to be quiet 'cause we moved into this apartment complex. The White Sox had been battling the Yankees tooth and nail all game, and the Yanks had a two-run lead. Bottom of the ninth, the Sox get 2 on base, and up comes Bill Melton. Melton blasts a 3-run, walk off the field home run, and it's as if, things are going to be ok again. I am jumping up and down, screaming SILENTLY! Made me a Bill Melton fan for life. Man, that was some moment.

I think I'd put Bill Melton into the hall of very good. By the looks of the NET, a lot of other people must have loved Bill. It's never a good time to say goodbye to a hero that meant something to you. --- Brian Powell

That’s a great story. I have similar feelings about Derrek Lee - in 2005 I was having a rough time dealing with the breakup of a long-term relationship in December 2004. The season Lee had in ‘05 was really something else. It was a much-needed distraction.