Benny Ballgame - Special to Cobbfather Post Gazette
With so many terrific nominees for the Hall of Fame I decided to create a completely objective, highly scientific system to decide who should get your vote for the Hall of Fame. Both single season and career achievements could earn the potential nominee points. Here is the outcome of that process.
All Time Greats
- Chick Munson, 38 points. There is no debate needed and if you left him off your ballot that is a you problem With 334 wins, 10-time all-star 3 Cy Young, 2 no-hit, and 4 World Series rings he is a true legend of the game. He probably could have reached 350 wins if he wanted to.
Clear Hall of Famers
- Heywood Swann, 25 points. Surprising bad counting numbers for a guy with this much hardware. It is what keeps him out of the first tier. Still, there are not multiple levels to the Hall of Fame and Swann is an EASY choice. He was the best player at his position for nearly a decade and the MVP for 2 seasons. A 7-time all-star with 5 silver sluggers to boot.
- Dizzy Leonard, 23 points. When the book is written about Cobbfather one of the chapters will be on Ole’ Dizzy. The 3-time all-star is often called the Jack Morris of Cobbfather with 17 consecutive seasons of at least 200 innings. That is not a misprint. 17 seasons! That is 5 seasons more then Swann even played. Throw in having the record for most records, the best publicist in the business, 264 wins, over 3400 strikeouts, and 5 20-win seasons and it is an open and shut case.
Worthy, but you can’t include them all
- Al Balentien, 22 points. I’m not always a guy who wants to put RP’ers in the HOF, but Balentien is elite. Since it’s a non-voting award, it can be hard enough to win one Fire of the Year and he won 5. Throw 8 all-star games and World Series ring and sign me up!
- Armondo Merced, 21 points. I struggled between Merced and Palmerio, but in the end Merced’s 270 wins was the most impressive thing either of them did so I allowed the 270 wins to be worth 1 point in my system to make the difference. Plus, with 7 all-star games and 3 WS rings he is a truly worthy Hall of Famer
- Alving Palmerio, 20 points. Alving is probably the best player you have never heard of as guys who spend their entire career with 1 team can sometimes be famous only in their own city (16 with Colorado Springs). Palmerio was a elite defender at the 2nd toughest position (5 gold gloves at 3B). He could hit too with 2 silver sluggers, 5 all-star games, well over 300 steals, and hit for the cycle.
- Ahmed Ratliff, 19 points. I was shocked my system rated him so low especially with the bonus points an MVP and 700 HR’s gave, but at the end of the day he only had 8 lines of awards and his on-base was basically Palmerios, except he was only a corner OF’er.
- Midre Taverez, 18 points. I expect Midre to get in some day, any one with at least 263 wins really should. He is almost Merced, but in every area not quite. Still, I wouldn’t fault any for voting for someone with 6 all-star games, a no-hitter, 273 wins and 2 World Series wins.
Not Hall of Famers, but let’s put respect on their name
- Edison Hernandez, 12 points Anyone with 6 all-star and an MVP has to be at least considered, and I wouldn’t be upset if someone voted for Edison, but it will be hard for him to get 17 votes. Still, he also won Rookie of the Year and a World Series Ring
- Ernie McEnerney, 5 points. Any second baseman to accumulate 500 home runs. He was also a 2-time all-star and won a gold glove. I’ll be honest, he probably gets in if he had made it if he got 3000 hits.
- Dorssys Tatis, 4 points. Sure, he only won Silver slugger and a Rookie of the Year. But has ANY other 44th pick ever accumulated 565 HR’s and over 2500 hits. You read that right, a sandwich pick had a good enough career that he was auto AI nomination. 44th PICK! Third guy on the list to spend his entire ML career with the Colorado Springs From My Loins.