OT- what baseball season had the most HOFers in it?

[darkhorse9]

UPardon if this has been asked before.
What baseball season had the most players in it that went on to the Hall Of Fame.

I'm not asking about card sets, but actual seasons?

[bk400]

I'm going to guess 1957

[rats60]

There were 35 active Hall of Famers in 1957. In 1928, 1929 and 1930 there were 53 and that doesn't include the Negro Leagues.

[jayshum]

Originally Posted by rats60

There were 35 active Hall of Famers in 1957. In 1928, 1929 and 1930 there were 53 and that doesn't include the Negro Leagues.

Are you saying that 1928, 1929 and 1930 are the years with the most? Just wondering where you got the numbers from. I did a few quick Google searches and couldn't easily find anything to answer the question about which year had the most.

[Peter_Spaeth]

1965 has 39 without counting players who later became HOF managers (at least Joe Torre fits that category). But hard to imagine topping the late 20s with so many marginally worthy players getting in many years later.

[brianp-beme]

Originally Posted by rats60

There were 35 active Hall of Famers in 1957. In 1928, 1929 and 1930 there were 53 and that doesn't include the Negro Leagues.

Too bad there is a lack of larger, well-distributed sets from this 1928 to 1930 run of years, because a set with most of those Hall of Famers would be an awesome one to collect. The 1930/32 W517 set (normally identified as 1931, see below link spelling out the more likely distribution dates for the two printings of this set) does the best job during this stretch:

https://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=336159

32 Hall of Fame players (plus an additional card of each Ruth and Cochrane) in the 54 card set is pretty impressive...but imagine a 100+ card issue with something closer to 50 Hall of Famers. Alas, prewar collectors once again suffer from the baseball card issuing droughts of the past.


Brian

[Peter_Spaeth]

Smaller set, but almost every baseball player in US Caramel is a HOFer.

[Harliduck]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

1965 has 39 without counting players who later became HOF managers (at least Joe Torre fits that category). But hard to imagine topping the late 20s with so many marginally worthy players getting in many years later.

Just curious...did you count Satchel Paige in that 39? I know he did pitch in one game in 1965. I've always thought how cool it would have been to have had a 1966 Topps Paige card made...

[Peter_Spaeth]

Originally Posted by Harliduck

Just curious...did you count Satchel Paige in that 39? I know he did pitch in one game in 1965. I've always thought how cool it would have been to have had a 1966 Topps Paige card made...

John no, I just went off my 65 Topps cards, so if we count Paige, 40.

65 also has a number of HOF manager cards (some in as player, some as manager) -- Stengel, Hodges, Alston, Lopez, Herman, Schoendienst off the top of my head.

[conor912]

My mistake. I misread the OP. More like half that.

[bk400]

Originally Posted by conor912

1982 had over 90.

That's quite the cool surprise!

[brunswickreeves]

I exported all HOFers from Wikipedia and for their Career (years played), I checked off each year played by each player in all leagues, for a total by year of all those future HOFers playing in that respective year. My top totals by year are below (excludes Umpires, Managers, and Execs).

[darkhorse9]

Kind of sad that the most prolific seasons of Hall of Famers came when baseball cards were all but non existent.

[Mike D.]

Originally Posted by darkhorse9

Kind of sad that the most prolific seasons of Hall of Famers came when baseball cards were all but non existent.

It's a good thing the Hall of Fame standard has never been higher and we'll never see something like this 1920's debacle again.

[Peter_Spaeth]

And only 16 teams in the 1920s right? So teams are averaging 4 HOFers and of course teams like NYY, NY Giants and A's probably have 8 or more. Crazy.

[clydepepper]

Originally Posted by Mike D.

It's a good thing the Hall of Fame standard has never been higher and we'll never see something like this 1920's debacle again.

as long as another Frankie Frisch around...

[Balticfox]

Originally Posted by Harliduck

Just curious...did you count Satchel Paige in that 39? I know he did pitch in one game in 1965. I've always thought how cool it would have been to have had a 1966 Topps Paige card made...

Here's a great picture of Satchel in a snazzy St. Louis Browns uniform:



It's a pity that his Topps 1953 card is just a boring head shot. It's a pity too that he didn't get any more cards because he didn't play in the major leagues through the rest of the 1950's. Given that his ERA was only 2.44 in four AAA seasons (1956-58 with the Miami Marlins and 1961 with the Portland Beavers), I think he was capable of pitching in the major leagues for a few more seasons.

[Balticfox]

So much for the auto picture size reduction feature that was theoretically implemented. Looks like I'll have to do it myself.

[rats60]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

And only 16 teams in the 1920s right? So teams are averaging 4 HOFers and of course teams like NYY, NY Giants and A's probably have 8 or more. Crazy.

32 teams in 1925 and 1926 if you are using the 71 Hall of Famers including Negro Leagues. 53 Major Leaguers in 1928-30 works out to 3.3125 per team.

[rats60]

Originally Posted by Balticfox

Satchel looks great in his St. Louis Browns uniform here:



It's a pity that his Topps 1953 card is just a boring head shot. It's a pity too that he didn't get any more cards because he didn't play in the major leagues through the rest of the 1950's. Given that his ERA was only 2.44 in four AAA seasons (1956-58 with the Miamii Marlins and 1961 with the Portland Beavers), I think he was capable of pitching in the major leagues for a few more seasons.

A 1953 Bowman Paige would have been amazing.

[Balticfox]

Originally Posted by Harliduck

Just curious...did you count Satchel Paige in that 39? I know he did pitch in one game in 1965.

I don't understand why Charlie Finley didn't extend his contract after that outing. Satchel Paige pitched three innings with one strikeout and zero walks while allowing zero runs and only one hit, that being a double by Carl Yastrzemski (who touched up just about every AL pitcher at some point during his illustrious career).

[Peter_Spaeth]

Originally Posted by Balticfox

I don't understand why Charlie Finley didn't extend his contract after that outing. Satchel Paige pitched three innings with one strikeout and zero walks while allowing zero runs and only one hit, that being a double by Carl Yastrzemski (who touched up just about every AL pitcher at some point during his illustrious career).

Yeah, at age 55 or 60 or whatever it was he surely would have enjoyed great success.

[egri]

Originally Posted by rats60

A 1953 Bowman Paige would have been amazing.

I wish Bob Lemke had done a 1953 Bowman Paige as one of his 'cards that never were'. As it is, the closest I could find was a 1951 Bowman Paige he did that was auctioned off by Collect in July 2019: https://collectauctions.net/lot-27220.aspx .

[Balticfox]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

Yeah, at age 55 or 60 or whatever it was he surely would have enjoyed great success.

Until he proved otherwise. In the meantime his inclusion on the roster would have helped at the box office.

[theshowandme]

I am only getting 55 HOFers who played a game in 1925 (no matter how they got into the HOF, e.g., Casey Stengel)



Pete Alexander
Dave Bancroft
Charles Bender
Jim Bottomley
Max Carey
Ty Cobb
Mickey Cochrane
Eddie Collins
Earle Combs
Stan Coveleski
Kiki Cuyler
Leo Durocher
Red Faber
Jimmie Foxx
Frankie Frisch
Charlie Gehringer
Lou Gehrig
Goose Goslin
Burleigh Grimes
Lefty Grove
Chick Hafey
Jesse Haines
Bucky Harris
Gabby Hartnett
Harry Heilmann
Harry Hooper
Rogers Hornsby
Waite Hoyt
Travis Jackson
Walter Johnson
George Kelly
Freddie Lindstrom
Ted Lyons
Heinie Manush
Rabbit Maranville
Rube Marquard
Herb Pennock
Sam Rice
Eppa Rixey
Edd Roush
Red Ruffing
Babe Ruth
Ray Schalk
Joe Sewell
Al Simmons
George Sisler
Billy Southworth
Tris Speaker
Casey Stengel
Bill Terry
Pie Traynor
Dazzy Vance
Zack Wheat
Hack Wilson
Ross Youngs

[brunswickreeves]

Here’s the 1925 season list I extracted from Wikipedia and filtered…

[darwinbulldog]

Originally Posted by theshowandme

I am only getting 55 HOFers who played a game in 1925 (no matter how they got into the HOF, e.g., Casey Stengel)



Pete Alexander
Dave Bancroft
Charles Bender
Jim Bottomley
Max Carey
Ty Cobb
Mickey Cochrane
Eddie Collins
Earle Combs
Stan Coveleski
Kiki Cuyler
Leo Durocher
Red Faber
Jimmie Foxx
Frankie Frisch
Charlie Gehringer
Lou Gehrig
Goose Goslin
Burleigh Grimes
Lefty Grove
Chick Hafey
Jesse Haines
Bucky Harris
Gabby Hartnett
Harry Heilmann
Harry Hooper
Rogers Hornsby
Waite Hoyt
Travis Jackson
Walter Johnson
George Kelly
Freddie Lindstrom
Ted Lyons
Heinie Manush
Rabbit Maranville
Rube Marquard
Herb Pennock
Sam Rice
Eppa Rixey
Edd Roush
Red Ruffing
Babe Ruth
Ray Schalk
Joe Sewell
Al Simmons
George Sisler
Billy Southworth
Tris Speaker
Casey Stengel
Bill Terry
Pie Traynor
Dazzy Vance
Zack Wheat
Hack Wilson
Ross Youngs

Seems like kind of a caucasian list.

[theshowandme]

::doh::

Baseball Reference and the Lahman database still only have American/National Leagues in their records.

[UKCardGuy]

I had a few mins this evening so I thought I'd play with the data.

Of the 50 HOFers who were playing in 1926, 2 teams aren't represented (Phillies and the Browns). The Phillies and the Browns had no players from their 1926 squads who were eventually inducted into the HOF.

Looking at the teams the HOFers were playing for in 1926 (rather than the team they were inducted into the HOF as), gives these results:

Boston Braves 1
Boston Red Sox 1
Brooklyn Robins 4
Chicago Cubs 3
Chicago White Sox 4
Cincinnati Reds 2
Cleveland Indians 2
Detroit Tigers 4
New York Giants 6
New York Yankees 6
Philadelphia Athletics 4
Pittsburgh Pirates 5
St. Louis Cardinals 4
Washington Senators 4

• Rabbit Maranville was inducted to the HOF with his primary team being the Boston Braves, but in 1926 he was actually playing for Brooklyn.
• Frankie Frisch was inducted as a Cardinal but in 1926 he was playing for the Giants.
• Kiki Cuyler was inducted as a Cub but was playing for the Pirates in 1926.
• Stan Coveleski was inducted as an Indian but played for the Senators in 1926
• Red Ruffin was inducted as a Yankees but played for the Red Sox in 1926
• Grover Cleveland Alexander was inducted as a Philly but played for the Cubs in 1926
• Dave Bancroft was inducted as a Philly but played for the Braves in 1926
• Heinie Manush was inducted as a Senator but played for the Tigers in 1926