How did he get in?
Ed Kranepool.
Paid his admission ticket just like everyone else.
Not counting managers and stuff, I believe it’s George Kelly. I’m probably not the thousandth person to suggest it’s Kelly.
Kelly was a good player but he was not one of the fifty best first basemen in the history of the major leagues. He wasn’t nearly as good a player as Wally Joyner.
Kelly, and in fact a lot of the worst players in the Hall of Fame, got in because his former teammate, Frankie Frisch, was chairman of the Veterans Committee for awhile and convinced them to induct a lot of his old buddies.
I’d nominate Rabbit Marranville, another underwhelming player.
I’ll nominate Tommy McCarthy. In the New Historical Abstract, Bill James rated him the 88th best rightfielder of all time.
Ozzie Smith 260 hitter with no power who got in because he -played shortstop on carpet with true bounces all day long. But he could do a backflip.
Get out of town. He was a fantastic fielder before St Louis and he would have been great had he played on the moon.
He also had good patience at the plate and was an above average hitter for a shortstop, when offense from the position was nearly impossible to come by.
Maybe the balls bounced true, gonzo, but fielding on turf is fast and hard on the body. Nothing to sneer at.
And the idea that Ozzie Smith is the worst player in Cooperstown, out of 240, is ridiculous. :rolleyes: He was a phenomenal defender on any surface, and better offensively than he is sometimes given credit for. I recall some good numbers in walks and steals for example.
I don’t know if Tommy McCarthy is the answer or not, but I bet it is somebody from those days when the Old Timers Committee was picking all their own old teammates, or guys they looked up to as kids.
Tinker to Evers to Chance… all three in the Hall, and all three undeserving in retrospect. Were it not for the poem they’d be all but unknown.
I thought Chance was deserving and the other two rode in on his coattails thanks to the poem.
Explain why he was such a brilliant fielder in San Diego.
Ozzie was an easy Hall of Famer. He contributed on offense and he was the greatest defensive player in the history of the sport, in my humble opinion.
The worst pitcher, leaving aside relief pitchers because that’s a tough thing to consider, is probably Rube Marquard, another Frisch choice. Marquard wasn’t any better than, say, Dave Steib or Luis Tiant or lots and lots of other guys.
If we are including relief pitchers, the induction of Bruce Sutter baffles me. What does Sutter have than Tom Henke doesn’t? Billy Wagner? Dan Quisenberry?
Chance’s credentials as a player are thin - he was an excellent player but in a very short career - but it has to be borne in mind he was player-manager of the great Cubs teams he played on, winning four pennants and two World Series, and so it is not precisely true to say he is in the Hall of Fame solely as a player.
Evers and Tinker were not great choices, but they were better players than their dead ball era hitting stats would suggest. I don’t think I’d vote them in but I don’t think they’re as bad as the Frisch selections.
I nominate Jesse Haines, another underwhelming teammate of Frisch.
A more interesting question might be: Who is the worst HoF player outside of Frankie Frisch’s influence?
Ozzie Smith!
Please, for the love of god, don’t reward gonzomax with another Ozzie Smith debate wherein he refuses to even acknowledge the entire half of his career he played on grass.
Ozzie also played on the road sometimes. He was pretty skillful fielding on grass.
At SOME positions, being a brilliant glove man is not enough to merit Hall of Fame consideration. To use one example, Wes Parker is absolutely NOT a Hall of Famer, even though he was widely regarded as the best defensive 1st baseman ever. The difference between a so-so defensive 1st baseman and a stellar defensive 1st baseman just isn’t great enough.
Shortstop is different. if you’re the best defensive shortstop of all time, you’d merit some serious consideration for the Hall of Fame even if you batted .245 with little or no power.
I wouldn’t strongly object to Mark Belanger (a very weak hitter) being inducted for his glove alone. So, I REALLY can’t argue with Ozzie Smith, who was a MUCH better hitter than Belanger and a significantly better defensive player too!
Indeed, McCarthy is the lowest ranked, at 803, non-manager HOFer on the list of career WAR for position players.
Next lowest ranked postion player is Monte Irvin, but I don’t think his Negro League stats are included.
Third lowest is one I’m surprised hasn’t been mentioned, Bill Mazeroski. He’s ranked 525th, tied with fellow 2nd baseman Frank White. If he’s in for his one big home run, where’s Roger Maris for his 1961 season? Maz did win several gold gloves.
He did a little more than that. I think Bill James ranked Maz as the most dominating defensive player ever.
Barkis:
I considered mentioning Maz, but you have to admit he was considered probably the best fielding 2B of all time, and if Ozzie Smith deserves to be in for his glove, I don’t see why he wouldn’t too.
Of course, the sense that Maz is in only due to the homer is pretty overwhelming. But no one’s arguing that Don Larsen should be inducted. If the homer is a factor, it’s only partially so.