Well, Barry Bonds is definitely one of the 5 best position players in baseball history and Roger Clemens is definitely one of the 5 best pitchers in baseball history, and both are eligible for the Hall of Fame… but the voters have shunned them, so far, due to (well founded) supicion that they used steroids.
Among pro football players, I fully agree that Ken Anderson is the best quarterback not elected to the Hall of Fame in Canton.
A few other football players I’d like to see elected:
Charles Haley
Sam Mills
Edgerrin James
Randy Gradishar
Chuck Howley
L.C. Greenwood
Otis Taylor
Bob Kuechenberg
Lemar Parrish
Joe Klecko
Joe Jacoby
Isaac Bruce
Isaac Curtis
Tommy Nobis
It’s tough to go by best athlete for a Hall of Famer because there have been a lot of great athletes who never panned out. Deon Sanders would probably be another guy for baseball. But again he has no business being in the MLB HOF.
Some Guy’s in my opinion who deserve consideration for MLB Hall of Fame. Just off the top of my head.
Cecil Travis…WW2 cost him a plaque
Gil Hodges
Sherry Magee
Lou Whitaker
Alan Trammell
Minnie Minoso
Billy Pierce
Tim Raines
Richie Allen
Chino Smith…Negro league player
Ted Simmons
I also think Pete Rose, Shoeless Joe Jackson and every steroid user who had a Hall of Fame career should be in too. Sosa probably wouldn’t make my cut though. I don’t think he was a Hall of famer without roids. I do think Bonds and Clemens were.
There are also quite a few eligible major league players who have not been elected because… well, there’s no evidence thye DID use steroids, but, well, so many of their contemporaries did, and it’s hard to be sure, and there are whispers that maybe this guy bulked up a little too much or that that guy was kinda chummy with a guy mentioned in the Mitchell Report…
I have to figure a LOT of players would already have been elected by now if nobody was worried about possibly electing a steroid user.
Or his DP partner Alan Trammell with his 6 All-Star appearances and 4 Golden Gloves?
mmm
ETA: And lifetime .285 average over a 20-year career
Yeah Bagwell and Piazza will both probably be kept out due to suspicion. I don’t get why Biggio gets a lot of support, if anybody used, that little guy should be at the top of the list for suspicious players.
There’s so much sheer guesswork involved. In too many cases, voters make guesses based on how muscular or bulky guys look. Greg Maddux was elected because he never looked big or muscular. But many of the guys who HAVE been nailed for steroid use have been pitchers, and not even particularly good ones.
Many mediocre middle innings relief pitchers have used steroids NOT to get big but to recover quickly after pitching several innings so they never have to tell the manager, “Sorry, Skip, I’m too tired to pitch today.”
Do we KNOW Greg Maddux never used steroids late in his career to help him recover and keep making his starts every 5 days? Of course we don’t know- just as we don’t know if Jeff Bagwell used. But suspicions are keeping Bagwell out thus far.
Agreed, but in keeping with the OP, “Best athlete not in his/her sport’s Hall of Fame?”
Yeah, Pete Rose. I doubt his record will ever be matched.
The OP is worded a little weird. Not sure if he’s looking for the “Mendoza line” of each sports Hall, or if he’s looking for a collection of special “athletes” in the Bo Jackson mold who probably belong if not for the vagaries of the process and injury.
Upon first reading I inferred the former, and I think that’s probably an unanswerable question. People loudly and aggressively argue the merits of the players on the cusp and one persons “best not in” is a Hall of Very Good type guy while another’s is a unspeakable travesty of justice that will be rectified once those old hacks doing voting die off.
For the NFL I’ll go with everyone else and say Bo Jackson, but I’m pretty sure that falls in the OPs “external factors” caveat since, really, he never had a shot. Tim Raines is the guy I think of for baseball, but admittedly I’m not much of a baseball honk and he’s the guy that seems to have the most justifiable beef with the committee. Of course, I’m sure more than a few of the steroid guys are better than Raines, but I guess that falls into the “external factors” caveat.
Not sure why but you don’t hear that much about the basketball HOFs almost-but-not-quite guys that much. I bet there’s a few good candidates there. On a whim I Googled it and got this old ESPN Page 2 article from 2002. Interesting stuff, and I think I’d say Bernard King and Artis Gilmore fit the bill.
Bernard King reminds me of a baseball equal to like Al Oliver or Harold Baines. Good one dimensional type of players.
I’ll comment on the ones I feel capable of commenting on:
Lemar Parrish - absolutely. I remember the first time I really became aware of him and Isaac Curtis was in a Redskins-Bengals game in 1974. The 'Skins were still a good team, though down from their 1972 peak, but Curtis and Parrish looked like they were playing the game on a whole different level than the Redskins were - faster, stronger, better moves. Every time the 'Skins got close, one of those two would do something spectacular, and we’d be down by 11 again.
I don’t have as much of a sense of Curtis’ career as a whole, but Lemar came to the Redskins in 1978, and instantly improved the defense.
Joe Jacoby - you bet. He and Russ Grimm were the rocks on which Joe Gibbs built the Redskins offense of the 1980s.
L.C. Greenwood - Steel Curtain. Yeppers.
Chuck Howley - not so much. I remember him as being certainly a better-than-average player, but I don’t believe opposing players stayed up nights worrying about how Chuck Howley was going to beat them.
That’s about all the players on that list I feel qualified to comment on.
I would add Steve Garvey to the list of MLB players. I still haven’t figured that one out. In fact, over the years I’ve seen him identified as an HOFer – many think he’s already in.
But I’m not sure that he meets the OP’s criteria of best athlete.
Garvey’s not in the HOF because his productivity ended suddenly and relatively early when compared with other HOF first-basemen (see also Keith Hernandez). There’s also that scandal involving his fathering of multiple kids after he presented himself during his career as a righteous All-American hero.
I’ve actually never been able to figure Garvey out from the other direction. Good player, but a .294 hitter who didn’t hit home runs doesn’t usually get people so excited.
Jim Plunkett is the ONLY multiple Lombardi winning QB eligible who isn’t in. I’d add Stabler and Brodie.
More baseball players who deserve consideration
Mike Mussina
Bill Dahlen
Curt Schilling
Larry Walker
Edgar Martinez
Jack Morris
Tommy John
Jim Kaat
Dwight Evans
Tony Mullane
Dave Parker
Fred McGriff
Bobby Grich
Lee Smith
Wes Ferrell
Jim McCormick
Tony Olivia
Luis Tiant
Dale Murphy
Will Clark
Jeff Kent
Stan Hack
Albert Belle
Ken Boyer
Keith Hernandez
Don Mattingly
Paul Hines
Darrell Evans
David Cone
Carlos Delgado
Craig Nettles
Heinie Groh
Thurman Munson
Dan Quisenberry
Norm Cash
I would say all these guys are better than at least 20-25 players already in.
Yeah. How can people be mentioning Rose & Garvey(!) when Bonds and Clemens aren’t in?
In hockey, Dave Andreychuk is 14th overall in goals scored but not in the Hockey Hall of Fame.
In stock car racing Lloyd Seay was described by NASCAR founder Bill France Sr as the best pure driver ever. He was murdered at age 21 by his cousin over a moonshine dispute
Since the Hockey Hall of Fame is in Canada, you’re technically correct, but Vladislaw Tretiak (who I assume you mean) and Kharlamov are both in it.
I forgot to mention- I nearly said Terrell Owens. After all, as big a jerk as he was, I believe he was a great enough receiver to make it into the Hall of Fame.
Except, I was wrong. He’s not eligible for the Hall because, even now, he’s not officially retired. He’s still trying to get a roster spot n the NFL, at age 40.
Until he actually retires, he’s not eligible t be elected.