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 |