The Veterans Committee sent Joe Gordon to the Hall today. Gil Hodges, Ron Santo and Joe Torre were denied. Would you put Gordon in? I don’t recall the consensus in RickJay’s 2nd Basemen HOF thread.
Joe Gordon made the Hall? Jesus, who was voting, every ex-Yankee in history?
Wow, he won a single MVP Award, incidentally beating Ted Williams in his first Triple Crown year, thus making it the most unjustifiable MVP award in history.
To me, this is the modern-day equivalent of voting Rabbit Maranville in, unjustifiable then and unjustifiable now.
He was involved in a trade of managers. He was traded for Jimmy Dykes to the Tigers. That may be unique but not HOF. i do not see his numbers getting in but I dated his niece for a while. That should count for something.
For, or against? 
Wasn’t Lou Pinella traded to the Devil Rays for Randy Winn? I wouldn’t put Randy Winn in the HOF, either.
I don’t get it either. Quite frankly, 15 years of denial by the BBWAA should be enough of a final word.
Agreed, especially considering the fact that not only did the writer reject Gordon for 15 years (although there weren’t elections every year he was eligible) but they did so resoundingly. You need to be on 75% of the ballots to get in. Gordon’s best was 28.5%.
Considering that 25.001% of the voters can block someone from entering the Hall, I find it highly irregular that someone who’s best year on the ballot was only 28.5% should be enshrined.
Of course, however, this is what the Hall wanted. They were tired of the VC not electing anyone, so they split the ballot in the hopes that someone would make it in.
Zev Steinhardt
In theory, I think it’s a decent idea not to be limited to a single community’s knowledge and notion of what a Hall of Famer ought to be, and there are guys (Santo, Torre) who’s candidacies should be revisited as we acquire a better understanding of concepts such as positional scarcity and the importance of walks.
Of course, in practice the VC has been a total disaster, right up until today. How you vote in Gordon but not Santo is beyond me.
Gordon is probably better than the guy he replaced, Tony Lazzeri. He (Gordon) did miss two prime seasons due to the war, but even with those he would barely clear 7,000 ABs. Of the top slugging 2B-men both Sandberg and Kent (won’t even bring up Hornsby) beat him out. He’s not a horrid choice but definitely in the bottom half of the Hall. Very unusual for a .268 hitter to get in; Brooks Robinson and Harmon Killebrew are the only ones I can think of who hit less.
The real story here is how Ron Santo got jobbed, again, despite a format which should have been favorable for his chances.
Lazzeri had a much better OBP than Gordon, and an almost identical slugging percentage. Unless Gordon was a MUCH, much better fielder, Lazzeri looks more deserving.
In a much more offensively-minded era. And Gordon was probably the better fielder.
Defense in retrospect is a thing of myth and legend. You can not put a value on a defensive player 40 years later.