Hall of Fame, Jr.

[BaltimoreTerp]

http://joeposnanski.com/JoeBlog/2009/02/04/hall-of-fame-jr/

So, I’ve been thinking about opening up my own Baseball Hall of Fame. This isn’t in any way a knock on the current Hall of Fame — I think everyone here knows that I LOVE the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown — but lately things have been getting so confusing that it seems to me that we need a second Hall of Fame just to keep up and give people a second view of baseball. My idea is to call it The Hall of Fame Jr.

My rules are simple:

1. These are only people who are NOT in the Baseball Hall of Fame. If they ever get inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame, they will be proudly escorted out of my Hall of Fame in a touching graduation type ceremony.

2. The Hall of Fame Jr. will be in Hoboken, because that’s where the first semi-official baseball game was played, on Elysian Fields, between the New York Knickerbocker Club and the New York Nine on June 19, 1846. This was almost certainly not anything close to the first baseball game played — baseball, in some form, probably goes back dozens, and maybe even hundreds of years — but this game was probably the first played under the Alexander Cartwright rules, which makes it probably the first semi-modern game played. Baseball, it is fair to assume, was not invented by any one person. It evolved over time. But this is probably as close as we will get to a starting point, and anyway Hoboken has a MUCH stronger claim to baseball’s beginning than Cooperstown.

3. The Hall of Fame Jr.’s only role is to fill the gaps. We make few character judgments and no one is ineligible.

So far he listed:

Pete Rose

Joe Jackson

Fred Goldsmith (inventor of curveball)

Buck O'Neil

Marvin Miller

Tom Greenwade (scout)

Gil Hodges

Bert Blylevan

Joe Torre (temporarily...)

Mark McGwire

Bill James

Sy Berger (created Topps baseball cards)

Hal Richman (inventor of Strat-O-Matic Baseball)

Jack Norworth (writer, "Take Me Out To The Ball Game"

Kevin Costner

Billy Martin

Jim Bouton

Sadaharu Oh

Dan Quisenberry

Tommy John/Dr. Frank Jobe (combined entry)

Interesting concept, though he's definitely not the first with the idea.

Any ideas as to who else could go in there, as well? Especially outside the normal group of deserving players (Santo, Raines, etc.)

Some I can think of, either on my own or listed in the comments that I particularly like:

Johnny Sain/Leo Mazzone

Janet Marie Smith

Ernie Tyler

Roger Maris

Charles Schultz

Lots more in the comments, too.

[BRobinsonfan]

http://joeposnanski.com/JoeBlog/2009/02/04/hall-of-fame-jr/

Hal Richman (inventor of Strat-O-Matic Baseball)

I loved that game... I played countless full seasons of strat-o-matic baseball when I was in high school.

Hal should be in the Hall of Fame!

[OrangeJerseys]

Clemens?

Characters.

[JamesI]

Clemens?

Characters.

He's not even on the ballot yet.

[Moose Milligan]

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