Why is Dave Bancroft in the Hall of Fame?

Factual Questions
1

He’s the only Hall of Famer who shares my birthday, so kudos to him for that. But he has absolutely no apparent reason for being in the Hall of Fame.

He led the Boston Braves to 4 seasons more worthy of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. He had a lifetime career BA under .300 in an age where people still hit .400 routinely. He has just barely over 2000 hits for his career. He never won an MVP or led the league in any meaningful category. He never had better than 67 RBI in a season (Hornsby led the league that year with 126.)

What possible reason was there for putting this guy with such a mediocre baseball career into the hall above all the other guys with mediocre careers from that era?

2

Here is a good bio on Mr. Bancroft. Briefly, he was considered to be the best shortstop of his era.

Plus, his nickname was Beauty.

Haj

3

Bancroft is generally considered to be one of the weaker choices for the Hall of Fame, but here are some reasons why he was chosen:

  1. he was a shortstop in an era in an era when the position was not expected to produce a lot of offense.
  2. he was a shortstop on four pennant winning teams
  3. he played a substantial portion of his career in New York

The late teens and early 1920s are overrepresented in the Hall of Fame.
Some have blamed this on a stretch when the Veterans Committee was headed by Frankie Frisch, a star of that era, but author/historian Rob Neyer downplays Frisch’s influence in this era. Bill James though still holds Frisch responsible for many poor selections.

4

I think he can be included in the Friends of Frankie Frisch club. Frisch managed to get a bunch of less than worthy teammates elected into the Hall while he served on the Veterans Committee. Other even more obivous examples in the club: George Kelly, Jesse Haines, Chick Hafey.

At the least you can say Bancroft was a good shortstop at a time when there weren’t a lot of good shortstops around (Honus Wagner had retired and wouldn’t be approached for years) and apparently was something of a team leader on the dominating Giants clubs of the early '20s.

5

Well, I guess as Cardinals fan who grew up a big Ozzie Smith fan, I will respect the fielding abilites as at least something of a credential for admittance to the Hall. I had no idea the Vet’s committee had been hijacked like that, sounds like that’s something I might want to examine one of these days.

Thanks for the explanation, fellas.