Editor’s note: “Does he belong in the Hall of Fame?” will return next week. For now, please enjoy this piece from Doug Bird. __________________ Hack Wilson came from the Pennsylvania steel country and left school after the sixth grade. He worked throughout his childhood and developed his enormous upper body strength swinging heavy hammers at [...]
Archive for January, 2012
Hack Wilson: A Forgotten Star Who Burned Brightly and All Too Briefly
Posted: 31st January 2012 by Doug Bird in MLB2
Enshrinement rates and the relative size of the Hall of Fame
Posted: 30th January 2012 by Brendan Bingham in Baseball Hall of FameHave you noticed what’s been happening recently? The Hall of Fame has been getting smaller, at least in relative size. In one way, the HOF is like the Roach Motel. Players check in but they don’t check out. In absolute terms, the HOF can only get bigger. But I prefer a different view. For HOF [...]
Two Home Runs Kings Reunite; Aaron and Oh Meet in Los Angeles
Posted: 28th January 2012 by Joe Guzzardi in MLBA few weeks ago around the Hall of Fame voting announcements, I took a Cyberspace visit to the Ted Williams Museum and its Hitters Hall of Fame. Using what Williams described as his “secret formula” (actually the stat OPS), he identified his twenty greatest hitters of all time. BPP readers can and have debated over [...]
Editor’s note: Please welcome another “Any player/Any era” from Albert Lang. ________________ What He Did: You mean aside from being born Fury Gene Tenace? Well, he finished his 15-year career with a .241/.388/.429 line with 201 HRs, playing primarily catcher and first base. He appeared in 846 games at catcher (.245/.396/.437) and 582 at first [...]
1.) George Uhle: Uhle might have played an everyday position had he not pitched so well, inventing the slider, once walking a batter to strike out Babe Ruth, and winning 200 games lifetime. One of a handful of pitchers with more than 10 offensive WAR for his career, Uhle hit .289 in his career with [...]
Does he belong in the Hall of Fame? Kevin Brown
Posted: 24th January 2012 by Alex Putterman in Kevin BrownEditor’s note: Please welcome the latest from Alex Putterman. ____________________ Claim to Fame: Brown pitched for six Major League teams in his 19-year career, and while our lasting memory of the righty might be of him floundering in the Bronx, his pre-Yankee days were filled with high innings counts and low ERAs. By the time Brown [...]
When my colleague and fellow baseball historian Adam Darowski wrote that Richie Ashburn was a better player than he had thought, I was pleased. Like the BBWAA writers, I have my biases and one is Ashburn. But using the standard that Adam developed for the “Small” Hall of Fame that I favor, Ashburn came up [...]
Editor’s note: Please welcome the latest from Doug Bird. _______________ We’re all sitting here waiting, still, on Prince Fielder to sign. At this point I’m well past caring who he signs with, just sign so we can get on with our usually inaccurate pre season predictions. Of course I’d like to think that once signed, [...]
What he did: I first knew Doug Glanville as a name from my baseball card collection and the sports page when I was growing up in the 1990s. This is how it often goes, and in the years since I started writing about baseball regularly, it’s always been a funny feeling to meet a player whose [...]
An open letter to the Hall of Fame: Consider honoring Robert Creamer this summer
Posted: 18th January 2012 by Graham Womack in Baseball Hall of FameTo whom it may concern: My name is Graham Womack, and I am founder and editor of Baseball: Past and Present. I had the pleasure recently to conduct an interview with founding Sports Illustrated writer and celebrated baseball author Robert Creamer for my site. I couldn’t have asked for a better interview, and it’s had [...]