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Two O' Cats of the Gods: Peerless Gents, BBWAA Edition

Gregory Fisher-USA TODAY Sports

The Hall of Fame is, of course, very much one of those self-conscious, small-town private clubs, with an iron gate around its commodious lawn, edged with a lush growth of Safrano tea roses, rumored to have come from the Chateau de Beauregard itself, brought over on Mike Vanderbilt's 'Rainbow,' with the old Chevalier's blessings. Tents are erected for the frequent catered affairs, and you can hear, as you walk by, the clink of Waterford Crystal mixing with the satisfied chortles of confident country gentry. Gaps in the foliage reveal elegant, lanky men in their William Westmancotts, well-defined swaths of lustrous, silvery locks topping their patrician pates, and stunning women with, no matter their age, Herve Leger bandage dresses painted on their privately trained and perfectly toned bodies.

Really, move along now. They don't need you sticking your big schnozzola past the rosebushes.

They did discover, however, that they required the services of a certain class of ink-stained wretch. Once the Clark family got things moving with their baseball museum, it dawned on everyone that things needed to go inside it, to be put on display. Actual players, assuming they weren't all in jail, would have to be honored. Inducted, apparently, though they all thought that meant those so chosen would go off and deal a dirty blow to Cousin Willie, the Kaiser. No one had a clue, of course, but the newspaper fellows? They would know!

So that was the compact: Once a year they would go slumming, and bring up those colorful drunken scribblers with their (sometimes) amusing stories (and all the while hoping to God they wouldn't pee in the Dammaropsis), along with a few of those lurking bumpkins whose coordination, as well as any ability to put two intelligible sentences together, seemed to desert them as soon as they crossed to this side of the chalked baselines.

Let's tally up the 2 O' Cat totals for these immortals, shall we? Let's start with the year they were inducted, the number of years on the ballot, the total 2 O' Cat points amassed, the number of Starred Seasons, total Stars, and the Starred Seasons broken down by number of stars. For good measure, we'll note how many times each pitcher led in one of the categories. Finally, we'll note points for breaking into the top 100 Lifetime in the various categories (as of the end of the 2014 season), with 100 points for the leader, 99 for the runner-up, on down to 1 point for the 100th position. (Have I said how much I love BRef yet?)

The hacks have anointed 33 starting pitchers in the course of 70 years of ballot-casting. (The various Geezer Confabulations and their selections will be the subject of another entry). The first three ballots reeled in the obvious candidates.

Inductee Year Ballots Points Years Stars 5 Star 4 Star 3 Star 2 Star 1 Star #1 Career
Christy Mathewson 1936 1 1231 12 49 5 5 1 0 1 59 1057
Walter Johnson 1936 1 1651 17 64 9 2 1 3 2 92 1017
Cy Young 1937 2 1497 17 64 5 6 4 1 1 61 888
Pete Alexander 1938 3 1187 11 43 4 3 3 1 0 65 835


From 1947 to 1967, the Press Box populators anointed their favorites from the remaining pre-war candidates. (In 1960, six votes went to Lefty Grove, already a Hall of Fame inductee of 13 years' standing. I refuse to research the reasons for this, because I don't want to shake my preconceived image of a handful of long-comatose columnists suddenly jolted awake by the intervention of Oliver Sacks and the application of the miracle drug L-Dopa, all shouting "Grove! My vote is for Grove!" before collapsing back onto their spittle-smeared pillows.)

Inductee Year Ballots Points Years Stars 5 Star 4 Star 3 Star 2 Star 1 Star #1 Career
Carl Hubbell 1947 3 935 11 37 2 2 5 2 0 33 353
Lefty Grove 1947 3 1263 13 53 5 4 4 0 0 71 551
Herb Pennock 1948 8 461 4 13 0 2 1 1 0 8 120
Dizzy Dean 1953 9 589 6 24 2 2 2 0 0 20 79
Dazzy Vance 1955 16 785 9 32 2 3 2 2 0 51 120
Ted Lyons 1955 10 482 6 14 0 0 3 2 1 15 301
Bob Feller 1962 1 947 9 33 4 1 2 1 1 50 550
Red Ruffing 1967 15 572 6 16 0 1 3 1 1 5 330

The next quarter-century brought in all the familiars from your father's childhood to your own, before things ground to a curious halt. It was as if the Supreme Court had ruled that a trip to Cooperstown constituted cruel and unusual punishment.

Inductee Year Ballots Points Years Stars 5 Star 4 Star 3 Star 2 Star 1 Star #1 Career
Sandy Koufax 1972 1 916 6 28 4 2 0 0 0 58 746
Early Wynn 1972 4 823 9 25 0 3 2 3 1 23 470
Warren Spahn 1973 1 1362 15 46 2 4 5 1 3 43 720
Whitey Ford 1974 2 814 7 24 0 3 4 0 0 19 454
Robin Roberts 1976 4 1081 9 34 3 3 1 2 0 43 686
Bob Lemon 1976 12 622 8 21 0 3 2 0 3 20 152
Bob Gibson 1981 1 895 8 27 2 1 3 2 0 22 653
Juan Marichal 1983 3 776 7 25 1 3 2 1 0 21 622
Don Drysdale 1984 10 770 7 25 1 2 4 0 0 19 420
Catfish Hunter 1987 3 533 5 14 0 3 0 0 2 12 257
Jim Palmer 1990 1 941 10 34 1 4 3 2 0 26 690
Gaylord Perry 1991 3 950 9 28 1 2 4 1 1 18 722
Fergie Jenkins 1991 3 892 8 30 3 0 5 0 0 21 714
Tom Seaver 1992 1 1428 13 46 4 3 3 2 1 44 919
Steve Carlton 1994 1 1228 11 34 3 2 1 3 2 47 687
Phil Niekro 1997 5 692 8 17 0 2 0 3 3 20 601
Don Sutton 1998 5 886 8 23 0 2 3 3 0 12 766
Nolan Ryan 1999 1 1254 14 36 0 4 4 2 4 46 913

Apparently, the BBWAA was having trouble digesting Rik Aalbert Blyleven. It took them a while, but once the morsel was finally done with, and an appropriate amount of nap time followed, business was able to resume.

Inductee Year Ballots Points Years Stars 5 Star 4 Star 3 Star 2 Star 1 Star #1 Career
Bert Blyleven 2011 14 1124 12 36 1 2 6 2 1 14 718
Greg Maddux 2014 1 1698 15 51 5 3 2 3 2 66 1084
Tom Glavine 2014 1 785 9 24 1 0 4 3 1 16 636

So there you have it, as far as the wordsmiths go. Tom Glavine's first ballot induction makes me wonder whether the Inner Circle theory, a de facto practice of the BBWAA since forever, and one with many advocates (not least of them, I think, Bill James), is falling by the wayside. If so, I think I'll miss it, however silly it might have seemed. One final thing remains, for this entry: the BBWAA HOF Median. It's important, and will return. Study it closely.

Inductee Ballots Inductees Points Years Stars 5 Star 4 Star 3 Star 2 Star 1 Star #1 Career
Mr. Median 3 33 935 9 30 2 3 3 1 1 23 653

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