Overlooked players get second chance

By David Mullen

Baseball is a game of numbers and memories. Fans can remember what Carl Yastrzemski hit (.326) when he won the Triple Crown in 1967 but can’t remember where they put their phone or car keys. 

Committee representatives chosen by The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum will meet on Sunday, Dec. 5 to determine Early Baseball Era and Golden Days Era players to be inducted into Baseball Hall of Fame’s Class of 2022. Every five years, a 16-member committee votes on 10 candidates from the Golden Days Era whose contribution to the game came from 1950-69. 

For various reasons ranging from competition to acknowledgment to likability, these players missed out on the Hall when they were first eligible. Now they get a second chance.  

The Early Baseball Era, contributors primarily before 1950, are made up of mostly Negro League players that had been previously overlooked, like Grant “Home Run” Johnson, George “Tubby” Scales, Dick “Cannonball” Redding and John “Buck” O’Neill. Francis “Lefty” O’Doul and Allie Reynolds are also eligible.

In these days of expanded rosters, live baseballs, hitter friendly parks, bulging biceps and inferior pitching, statistics alone cannot be used as the main criteria for comparing the careers of Golden Days Era players. Memories matter.

In an example of statistical relevance — or irrelevance — between eras, Boston Red Sox Tony Conigliaro led the American League in homers in 1965 with 32. In 2021, 30 MLB players hit 32 homers including Kyle Schwarber, who accomplished the feat in just 113 games. Although his career was cut short by a brutal beaning in 1967, Conigliaro was a far better player than Schwarber.

In 2021, eight pitchers had an ERA of 3.00 or less. In 1968, 13 teams had an ERA of 3.00 or less. St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Famer Bob Gibson was 22-9 with a 1.12 ERA and 28 complete games. It is shocking that he lost nine times. 

During the Golden Days Era, there were 20 MLB teams. Today, there are 30. “It was difficult to get into the majors back then,” said Steve Pate, a retired sportswriter and columnist known for his work in The Dallas Morning News, The Fort Worth Star-Telegram, The Detroit News, The New York Post and The National and as an author of numerous books. “There were better players in Triple-A then than playing today.”

The Golden Days Era candidates this year are infielders Dick Allen, Ken Boyer, Gil Hodges and Maury Wills, outfielders Roger Maris, Minnie Miñoso and Tony Oliva, pitchers Jim Kaat and Billy Pierce and infielder/manager Danny Murtaugh.

In 2014, Allen and Oliva missed enshrinement by one vote. The subsequent vote was delayed two years because of COVID-19. Allen, like Boyer, came up as a third baseman. Allen later switched between first base and outfield.

Allen played 15 seasons and hit 351 home runs, 1,119 RBI and had a .292 career average. He was named 1964 NL Rookie of the Year, 1972 AL MVP and was a seven-time All-Star. Boyer played 15 seasons, earned 11 All-Star Game selections and won the 1964 NL MVP. “When you start naming the third baseman of that era — Brooks Robinson, Eddie Mathews, Dick Allen — there were a lot of great players,” Pate said. “I like Ken Boyer, but I don’t look at him as a Hall of Famer.”

Oliva was a feared hitter but played with the Minnesota Twins in the shadows of Hall of Famers Rod Carew and Harmon Killebrew. Oliva won three batting titles and led the American League in hits five times. He was named to eight All-Star Games and won the 1964 AL Rookie of the Year Award. “I won’t quibble if he got in,” Pate said. 

Oliva may have been underestimated because he played at the same time as Hall of Famers outfielders Willie Mays, Henry Aaron, Roberto Clemente, Lou Brock, Al Kaline, Reggie Jackson, Frank Robinson and Yastrzemski among others. But those that saw him play regularly, like me, wouldn’t quibble either. He should be in. 

Wills played 14 seasons from 1959-72, hit .281 lifetime and finished with 586 career stolen bases. He won the NL MVP in 1962, when he stole more bases (104) than any AL team. The Washington Senators, now the Texas Rangers, led the league with 99 steals. 

“He [Wills] played on those Dodgers teams where it was [pitchers] Sandy Koufax, Don Drysdale, Johnny Podres, Ron Perranoski and not much else,” Pate said. “Every game was 2-1. Wills was the one that got them the ‘2,’ and he was the first player to steal 100 bases.” 

Kaat pitched in four decades with six teams and won a staggering 16 Gold Gloves. Kaat had a career similar to former teammate and Hall of Famer Burt Blyleven. Kaat was 283-237 in his career and Blyleven was 287-250. Pate doesn’t think Blyleven should be in the Hall of Fame, but I do. Sometimes when I run into Pate, I will say, “60 shutouts” (Blyleven’s career total) before I say, “Hello.”   

Miñoso, a Cuban who broke ground for Latin players in professional baseball, played 17 seasons earning nine All-Star Game selections. Miñoso, an accomplished pinch hitter late in his career, played in five decades, including a ceremonial stint with the Chicago White Sox in 1980 when Miñoso was 54 years old. 

Maris, famous for hitting 61 home runs in 1961 to break Babe Ruth’s single season home run record, won back-to-back AL MVP Awards in 1960 and 1961. He was a part of three World Series title teams.

“What Maris did for baseball has to count for something,” Pate said. “That was Babe Ruth that he beat.”

Certainly, all 10 Golden Days Era players made noteworthy contributions to baseball, but Allen, Oliva and Kaat should be in the Hall of Fame. Pate make a case for Wills. “Maury Wills dominated games,” Pate said.

Around 20,000 men have played Major League Baseball. Only 263 players have been enshrined into Baseball’s Hall of Fame. “It should be tough to get in,” Pate said. It is tough, but here’s hoping that Cooperstown has room for three more in Allen, Oliva and Kaat. And, out of respect to lifelong sports scribe Pate, let Wills slide into baseball’s shrine as well. As long as his plaque is next to Blyleven’s.