1921

This election will end Tuesday. There is a long list of newcomers, but none that “I just gotta have” in my GOR – a lot of E Grade players, good complimentary players.

6 Ginger Beaumont
1 Beals Becker
1 Bill Bradley
1 Roger Bresnahan
1 Al Bridwell
1 Howie Camnitz
7 Jack Chesbro 7th
15 Cupid Childs 10th
1 Fred Clarke
1 Ray Collins
1 Birdie Cree
9 Lave Cross 8th
1 Jim Delahanty
2 Mike Donlin
1 Eddie Grant
2 Frank Grant 3rd
2 Clark Griffith 4th
5 Topsy Hartsel
14 Dummy Hoy
1 Davy Jones
8 Fielder Jones
3 Johnny Kling
1 Frank LaPorte
6 Sam Leever
12 Herman Long 8th
1 Bris Lord
10 John McGraw 6th
4 Deacon McGuire
1 Larry McLean
2 Bill Monroe
1 George Mullin
1 Danny Murphy
4 Jack Powell
3 Cy Seymour
15 Elmer Smith
1 Frank Smith
1 George Stovall
2 George Stovey
5 Jesse Tannehill
5 Fred Tenney
5 Roy Thomas 5th
1 Hooks Wiltse
13 Chief Zimmer

Bob’s ballot:

1. Clarke
2. Griffith
3. Childs
4. Thomas
5. Bresnahan
6. Tenney
7. Cross
8. Jones
9. Grant
10. Stovey

A rather unenthusiastic ballot on my part, mainly because the choices are uninspiring. Other than Clarke, no one strikes me as an overwhelming candidate. No one (other than Clarke) has 300 Win Shares or 50 WAR. The HOFers Chesbro and Bresnahan are marginal; Griffith and McGraw are in more for their off the playing field attributes. And I haven’t a clue what to do with Grant, Monroe and Stovey. Fred Clarke and about 15 guys who are are in Mickey Tettleton, Charlie Hough, Phil Garner, Chet Lemon range. Good players all, contributors to a lot of pennants, but not the stuff of legends.

Terry’s ballot:

1: Fred Clarke– Not a category B, but a solid C who played for a very long time. We’ve been electing guys like him fairly easily, so he is obviously a lock. I see little difference between him and O’Rourke, or what we all wish Willie Davis had become.
2: Frank Grant
3: Roger Bresnahan– 125 ops+ for the eleven years after he became basically a full time catcher at 26 years old, after going 4-0 as an 18 year old pitcher and hitting .350 as a 24 year old outfielder. As far as I know only Piazza had a significantly higher ops+ among catchers. He didn’t catch as many games as most GOR catcher candidates will as we go along, but it seems unfair to dun him for it when he was part of the reason catchers were able to catch more games later. I’m not all that sold on his defense being special, but he was certainly as famous as anyone and his hitting numbers are outstanding for a catcher. I won’t scream bloody murder if he doesn’t get any love, but I hope everyone takes a hard look at him before they dismiss him.
4- Jack Chesbro
5- George Stovey
6- Cy Seymour
7- Johnny Kling
8- John McGraw
9- Cupid Childs
10- Herman Long

Honorable Mention
Roy Thomas
Chief Zimmer

Other stuff:

Bill Bradley– Apparently he couldn’t hit a spitball. He was a legitimate superstar for a couple of years (led the league in WAR once, second once, third once) before the ball got really dirty.
Al Bridwell– If he had one more rbi I would consider him.
Ray Collins- Readers’ Digest condensed career; .575 wlpct and 116 era+, but only about a third of the bulk numbers he would need to be considered. 1.88 era in 1912 series, but no decisions in 2 games.
Birdie Cree– Tough lookin’ little bastard…. Sixth in the MVP race in 1912, and he had a few good years for a few bad Yankee teams. He would have been in Goodfellas had he not been dead for nearly 50 years.
Jim Delahanty- bbr pics kill me… he looks like he was about to get hit in the face with a bridgeman’s lantern.
Mike Donlin– Poor man’s Dick Allen, rich man’s Bo Belinsky.
Eddie Grant– He looked like Troy Tulowitzki had a kid with Little Orpan Annie .
Clark Griffith– I don’t get the love for Griffith. He wasn’t one of the 15 best pitchers of his period; maybe not one of the top 20. I’m not sure who I’d compare him to. Maybe Kevin Appier?
Bris Lord– All I truly need to know before I die is this: How in the heck did this guy get the nickname “The Human Eyeball”? He didn’t walk, so that ain’t it. He didn’t look all that creepy (he kinda looked like Stacy Keach) so that’s probably not it. Dammit, I’m not sure I’ll sleep tonight. Anyone? Oh, and Connie Mack traded Joe Jackson for him in 1910, right before Shoeless Joe came to the majors. Talk about getting your foreskin ripped off… (sorry for the visual)
Larry McLean– I’m a bartender, so should I feel residual guilt about how he died? What’s so weird is that the cat was 6-5 back when first basemen were 5-9, but for some reason they made him a catcher. A hundred years later, he’s still the tallest regular catcher ever. He was way bigger than everyone else, but he hit only 6 career homers. No wonder he was in a bad mood.
George Mullin– The Steve Stone of the aughts? His 1909 season, when he went 29-8, is a dammed good comp for Stone’s 1980.
Danny Murphy– Everything about his record says that he couldn’t run much, and he certainly didn’t walk or hit homers, but he ended up with a career ops+ of 125. I don’t know a thing about him, but he must have been one hell of a line drive hitter.
Frank Smith– The Aught Sox’ Stan Bahnsen to Ed Walsh’s Wilbur Wood?
Hooks Wiltse– As long as I’m going there, he’s the Freddie Norman of the aughts. He looks sort of like a cross between Walter Johnson and Marty Feldman.

Results:

7 ballots and the results:

88 Fred Clarke
45 Clark Griffith
***************
44 Frank Grant
33 Roger Bresnahan
25 Roy Thomas
22 John McGraw
21 Cupid Childs
18 Jack Chesbro
16 Herman Long
15 Lave Cross
14 Johnny Kling
12 Deacon McGuire
10 George Stovey
10 Fred Tenney
8 Bill Monroe
7 Fielder Jones
7 Cy Seymour
7 Elmer Smith
6 Mike Donlin
6 Jack Powell
6 Chief Zimmer
5 Sam Leever
1 Bill Bradley
1 Topsy Hartsel

Sorry, guys. I think I may have pooched this election. Basically, it was Fred Clarke and about 20 candidates for the #2 spot. If I had done better “due diligence”, I might have ranked Grant a couple of notches higher, and he’d be going in instead of Griffith. There are two reasons I ranked Grant as low as I did. First, I can’t find any stats for the “white” leagues he played in. I know there are books out there that traces (but I don’t own them – I’ll have to look into buying them) the histories of the high minors. I should have gone to the library and checked them out. I really don’t know if the International League in the 1880s was a quality league or more like the Union Association, which I dismiss. Without knowing if the IL was “legit”, I can’t know if Grant was. I didn’t do my research. Second, Grant was often called the “black Fred Dunlap”. Hardly a ringing endorsement for GOR enshrinement. But I forgot in my rankings, that during the ’80s Dunlap was considered, rightly or wrongly, the premier second basemen. I didn’t include the hype.

Taking a cue from my daughter, I’ll shift the blame to someone else, just haven’t decided who as yet. Perhaps ChiTownRon for not voting or TaosJohn for leaving Grant off his ballot entirely. Or Bearbyz. How dare he take a vacation!!!! I feel better now: it wasn’t my fault.