It’s just luck of the draw. Other than Morris, who can you name of the top pitchers that debuted between 1970 and 1984 that are even close to Hall-worthy? Ron Guidry may be the closest, and he sure didn’t stick on the ballot long.
The fact is that the pitchers who debuted prior to that period were durable enough to outshine all of those who debuted within that time period. Year of debut is not a particularly great way to demarcate an “era” in which the best of that bunch gets elevated to Hall-worthiness.
Of the decade, yes he’s in the conversation. But in the first half of the 80s, Steve Carlton had “best pitcher in baseball” all locked up, and in the second half he had to compete with Clemens, Saberhagen, Gooden, Hershiser, as well as the Compiling King Nolan Ryan.
I looked up the answer. Spoilered below in case anyone wanted to continue to guess.
Rick Reuschel
Pretty darn surprising. He was on a lot of crap teams, didn’t rack up nearly enough wins to be seriously considered for the HOF or anything, although his ERA+ is not drastically different from the likes of Blyleven and certainly better than Morris.
I loved it. I’ve seen so many pundits and message board/blog commentators who seem to think that the HoF standard really is defined by the most inner of the Inner Circle-they’ll then turn around and use this bogus standard as a crude bludgeon to attempt to demolish the candidacy of someone they don’t like, such as Blyleven or Palmiero. The Hall has never been just about the Inner Circle (and indeed the Hall itself makes no such distinction)-players much worse than Blyleven or Palmiero. I’d easily put Bert above these starting HoF pitchers:
Chief Bender
3 Finger Brown
Jim Bunning
Jack Chesbro
Stan Covelski
Dizzy Dean
Don Drysdale
Red Faber
Lefty Gomez
Burleigh Grimes
Jesse Haines
Waite Hoyt
Catfish Hunter
Addie Joss
Bob Lemon
Ted Lyons
Rube Marquard
Herb Pennock
Eppa Rixey
Red Ruffing
Don Sutton
Rube Waddell
Vic Willis
Early Wynn
I threw out 19th century guys like John Clarkson Pud Galvin from consideration: they routinely threw 400+ innings/season-impossible to compare. Anybody who had an argument to stick with Bert, on either peak or career, I tossed too (like Whitey Ford or Jim Palmer, tho I still think Bert was better).
And Raffy above these 1B, same criteria:
Jake Beckley
Jim Bottomley
Orlando Cepeda
Frank Chance
George Kelly
Tony Perez
George Sisler
Bill Terry
And a lot of these guys were elected in the 1st 20 years of the Hall, long before the Frankie Frisch Committee to Honor Old Cronies came along. Some have been elected in the past 20 years. I don’t see (without bringing up Dat Old Devil Steroids) how either Blyleven’s or Palmiero’s accomplishments fail to fit in comfortably in with the Hall’s established standards-they easily surpass the bare minimums. Electing players of that caliber helps to strengthen the Hall, not weaken it.