Today I was at the Yankees game for Cal Ripken’s final game at the Stadium. Seeing Ripken face Roger Clemens, I realized that I was watching a show-down between two players that unquestionably will be elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame as soon as they are eligible.
Besides breaking Lou Gehrig’s consecutive game streak, Cal Ripken redefined the role of the shortstop and is among the all-time career leaders in just about every offensive category. Roger Clemens has won a record five Cy Young awards, and is a leading candidate to get his sixth this year.
Other active players in this category are Mark McGuire and Barry Bonds, who are currently numbers 5 and 7 on the career homers list and will end this season (one way or the other) as 1 and 2 in the single-season home-run record books. Rickey Henderson is far and away the all-time career stolen base leader, and is currently 2 runs short of leading the career runs scored list.
What other active players, based on the statistics they currently have (if they hung up their cleats tomorrow), do you think are guaranteed first-ballot Hall of Famers, and why?