Jump to content

1983: The Hall of Fame Series


now

Recommended Posts

Watching the underrated 1983 WS (from YouTube). A lot of Hall of Famers in play! Palmer, Ripken, Murray, Schmidt, Morgan, Carlton, Perez (plus Pete Rose). I was going to ask, Does anyone know which WS has the most HoF-ers? Quora sez: 

Quote

The 1932 World Series holds the record, with 13; The largest of the post-Divisional series era was the 1983 World Series, which had 7.

Not only was that series underrated, hard-fought till the Game 5 clincher; that Oriole team also featured a deep rotation, an ironclad bullpen, and a lineup and bench full of role players, greater than the sum of its parts. Not to mention, 15 holdovers from the 1979 WS losers--five years later, still hungry for reDEMPtion. ;) (Here's lookin at you too, Eddie Murray, breaking out with 2 HRs in the finale).

  • Upvote 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, OsFanSinceThe80s said:

It was the first year I can remember watching baseball and as a kid you think, ok it's like this every year. What a tease that turned out to be almost 40 years later. 😬

Wow, bad luck! I started following in earnest around 1960: the beginning of an unbelievable 25-year run of success (ending basically in 1983). Oh well, at least there have been a few highlights along the way, in those next 40 years!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 1/13/2022 at 12:14 AM, now said:

 I was going to ask, Does anyone know which WS has the most HoF-ers? Quora sez: The 1932 World Series holds the record, with 13; The largest of the post-Divisional series era was the 1983 World Series, which had 7.

My guess would have been sometime in the late 20s or early 30s.  There are years in that era where something like 25% of NL plate appearances are from Hall of Famers.  When Frankie Frisch was head of the Veteran's Committee he made sure a lot of his former teammates and opponents found their way to Cooperstown.  Scanning through the Cardinals and Giants of that era many years they had 6-7 HOFers.

Looking through the NL rosters of 1929 every team had at least one HOFer and the median was probably about four.

  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

10 hours ago, DrungoHazewood said:

My guess would have been sometime in the late 20s or early 30s.  There are years in that era where something like 25% of NL plate appearances are from Hall of Famers.  When Frankie Frisch was head of the Veteran's Committee he made sure a lot of his former teammates and opponents found their way to Cooperstown.  Scanning through the Cardinals and Giants of that era many years they had 6-7 HOFers.

Looking through the NL rosters of 1929 every team had at least one HOFer and the median was probably about four.

Sounds about right. In our era a guy like Tony Perez probably just squeaked in; back then he would have been a shoe-in. Ken Singleton I suppose came close?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

22 hours ago, now said:

Sounds about right. In our era a guy like Tony Perez probably just squeaked in; back then he would have been a shoe-in. Ken Singleton I suppose came close?

Singleton was on the ballot just one year, 1990, didn't get a single vote and was dropped off.  I loved Singleton as a player, but he's not really a reasonable HOFer by any definition.  Old-school he was a RF/DH who hit .282 with 246 homers and the only major thing he ever led the league in was OBP in '73.  By modern metrics his 42 rWAR is about 10 shy of the grey area, unless you have friends among writers (Jim Rice) or Vet's Committee members (Harold Baines).

Perez got fairly good support from the writers, starting off at 50%.  That almost guarantees eventual selection.

But, yea, in general it's gotten far more difficult to get in.  With expansion there are many more good players, but if anything the standards have gone up.  Examples abound, but Harry Hooper was a guy from the teens and 20s with 53 WAR, he's in.  So is Kiki Cuyler, Sam Rice, both about as good.  Dwight Evans, Reggie Smith, Bobby Abreu, Bobby Bonds, Gary Sheffield all have better resumes and are out.  And that's before you start talking about presumed PED guys with dramatically better cases then the Frisch Vet's Committee crowd.

  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, DrungoHazewood said:

Singleton was on the ballot just one year, 1990, didn't get a single vote and was dropped off.  I loved Singleton as a player, but he's not really a reasonable HOFer by any definition.  Old-school he was a RF/DH who hit .282 with 246 homers and the only major thing he ever led the league in was OBP in '73.  By modern metrics his 42 rWAR is about 10 shy of the grey area, unless you have friends among writers (Jim Rice) or Vet's Committee members (Harold Baines).

Perez got fairly good support from the writers, starting off at 50%.  That almost guarantees eventual selection.

But, yea, in general it's gotten far more difficult to get in.  With expansion there are many more good players, but if anything the standards have gone up.  Examples abound, but Harry Hooper was a guy from the teens and 20s with 53 WAR, he's in.  So is Kiki Cuyler, Sam Rice, both about as good.  Dwight Evans, Reggie Smith, Bobby Abreu, Bobby Bonds, Gary Sheffield all have better resumes and are out.  And that's before you start talking about presumed PED guys with dramatically better cases then the Frisch Vet's Committee crowd.

And then you have Lou Whitaker with a higher career (75.1) WAR than many HOF players and he's still on the outside looking in. I like Harold Baines one of my favorite Orioles ever, but how does the Vet's committee choose Baines (and Lee Smith) over Whitaker. 

  • Upvote 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 1/19/2022 at 9:48 PM, OsFanSinceThe80s said:

And then you have Lou Whitaker with a higher career (75.1) WAR than many HOF players and he's still on the outside looking in. I like Harold Baines one of my favorite Orioles ever, but how does the Vet's committee choose Baines (and Lee Smith) over Whitaker. 

The writers path needs 75% concurrence of 600+ people.  It's a fairly high bar, especially when the voting was so poorly designed (pick from zero to 10 players out of a whole page of guys whose only eligibility criteria is they played in some part of 10 seasons).

The Vet's Committees are typically a dozen or so old dudes, some of whom have been buddies since 1974.  The group that put Baines in was: Roberto Alomar, Bert Blyleven, Pat Gillick, Tony La Russa, Greg Maddux, Joe Morgan, John Schuerholz, Ozzie Smith, and Joe Torre; major league executives Al Avila, Paul Beeston, Andy MacPhail, and Jerry Reinsdorf; and media members/baseball historians Steve Hirdt, Tim Kurkjian, and Claire Smith.  

Of those people Alomar played with Baines, LaRussa managed him, Reinsdorf and Gillick were his GMs.  Personal tie to committee members, none of whom were obviously well-versed in modern analytics.

Whitaker will eventually go in. If the path follows typical HOF methods it'll be in 2044, a year after he passes, and after they've inducted Jeff Kent, Ian Kinsler, Dustin Pedroia and Gil McDougald.

  • Haha 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...