17 new Hall of Famers!

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Posted By: warshawlaw

HOF voting is more about perception than specific statistics. Puckett, Joss, Youngs, Koufax, Dean all prove that point, as do Mattingly, Sutton, Blyleven, John.

Puckett and Mattingly have virtually identical career numbers but Mattingly had two distinct careers: the first half was all world instant first ballot HOF second coming of Lou Gehrig, then he got hurt and had a second half that was more Will Clark/Mark Grace. Puckett was a stellar player who was cut down in mid-career. We don't have a several year period of declining play to watch.

Don Sutton waited for years to get into the HOF despite being over 300 wins; Don Drysdale scooted in with around 90 fewer wins because he had a couple of great years and was perceived as a money player. To me, Sutton is more Eppa Rixey or Ted Lyons: a very accomplished player who isn't really in the pantheon of greats. Blyleven and John fall within the same category as Sutton, IMHO. Really fine players but not worthy of the Hall.

The ones I feel for are the guys who went to the Majors well after they were ready because of race and who are on the cusp as a result, like Minoso or Don Newcombe. Newk told me that he was told by the Dodgers that he was held back for three years in the minors because the Dodgers were not going to bring up that many black players all at once. Now add 50-60 wins to his career taking him over 200 with a very high winning %, ROY, MVP and Cy Young award as he has and you are looking at a HOFer. Poor Min (Cab Calloway reference) has the same problem. He wasn't perceived as enough of a pioneer to get there as Doby and Irvin did despite a very similar career.

O'Neill falls within the same hard to define place as Lefty O'Doul does. He has a lot to recommend him as a HOFer but not enough in any one category to cause the voters to rally to him.

Have to disagree with the comment re LaSorda. As much as I hated him when he was managing against my Yankees in the series, the division titles, four pennants and two WS wins qualifies him as a HOF manager, IMHO. When he retires, I think Joe Torre will also get in as a manager for his run in the Bronx, as will Bobby Cox for the ATL.