Mazeroski

[Birds08]

I was just looking at Bill Mazeroski's career stats, and I have no idea how he made the HOF considering his stats. He retired before I was born, but any insight would be appreciated.

[BaltimoreTerp]

You know the argument going on about Luis Hernandez and the value of defense?

Well, Bill Mazeroski was probably the best defensive second baseman, if not infielder, ever.

Plus, that home run helped a little, I'm sure :p

[Moose Milligan]

He made it on the veterans committee.

From what I know, he was like the 2nd base version of Ozzie Smith in the 50's and 60's. His defense got him into the Hall.

[Migrant Redbird]

There are 5 2nd basemen in the HOF with a career OPS below league average. I was surprised to observe that all of them were inducted many years after they played -- presumably by the veterans committee -- and that none of them were inducted prior to 1954.


Player From To Inducted G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO BA OBP SLG SB CS OPS+
Rabbit Maranville* 1912-1935 1954 2670 10078 1255 2605 380 177 28 884 839 756 .258 .318 .340 291 93 82
John Ward* 1878-1894 1964 1825 7647 1408 2104 231 96 26 867 420 326 .275 .314 .341 540 - 93
Red Schoendienst* 1945-1963 1989 2216 8479 1223 2449 427 78 84 773 606 346 .289 .337 .387 89 27 93
Nellie Fox* 1947-1965 1997 2367 9232 1279 2663 355 112 35 790 719 216 .288 .348 .363 76 80 94
Bill Mazeroski* 1956-1972 2001 2163 7755 769 2016 294 62 138 853 447 706 .260 .299 .367 27 23 84

I don't know when the veterans committee was established, although I assume that Jon Wilts probably has the answer. :) I would hypothesize that players assigned greater importance to defensive skills than the BBWA voters did.

Which doesn't explain how John Ward got elected, since he played before the turn of the century and no one who voted for him in 1964 would have seen him play, even in newsreels. I assume that he was selected based upon reputation, as documented by the reporters covering the games and in memoirs of his fellow players.

I was going to offer up a theory about the confluence of better gloves and improved groundskeeping might have created impressions of greatly improved defensive play, but I don't have any idea when the greatest advances were made in gloves and infield preparation. It might have occurred before or after Mazeroski's era.

[scOtt]

In Pittsburgh, the one original piece of the fence from Forbes Field, that they left standing (home plate is two stories up in a U. of Pitt hallway...) the piece of fence Maz hit THE hr over, is still standing. One wild and crazy night we relieved ourselves on it. :p

[Odenton O]

Which doesn't explain how John Ward got elected, since he played before the turn of the century and no one who voted for him in 1964 would have seen him play, even in newsreels. I assume that he was selected based upon reputation, as documented by the reporters covering the games and in memoirs of his fellow players.


Didn't John Montgomery Ward go in at least partly as a "pioneer"? I seem to vaguely recall that, although I can't rember what he pioneered in particular.

EDIT: OK, the wikipedia entry on him doesn't really back that up, but its pretty interesting reading. He was also a pretty decent pitcher (and threw the second perfect game ever), formed the first baseball players union with Ned Hanlon, helped form the Player's League, managed for several years and served as an executive. He is also apparently one of the credited inventors of the curveball.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Montgomery_Ward