The Hall of Fame’s Most Under-Appreciated Players: Part 1
Is it possible that a player in the Baseball Hall of Fame could be considered under-appreciated? Isn’t membership in those hallowed halls evidence enough that a particular player’s legacy has been abundantly lauded?
Yet it is true in baseball, as in other walks of life, that even those honored can be quickly overshadowed by subsequent (or even prior) honorees.
For example, the actor Robert Duvall has won an Oscar, two Emmy’s, and four Golden Globe Awards. Yet his name seldom seems to roll easily off the tongues of people discussing the best actors of the past forty years. On the other hand, Duvall’s contemporary, Robert DeNiro, is ubiquitous on the vast majority of Best Actor lists. Duvall has received critical acclaim, but still seems to be generally under-appreciated.
But enough prologue. Let’s get down to business.
It needs to be stated upfront, of course, that choosing a list of under-appreciated players is in large part an exercise in the subjective. After all, your list will probably look quite different from mine. We all have our biases, and we all choose the statistics most useful to suit our needs.
Having said that, today’s post (the first of six planned posts on this topic) will focus on the first two players in this series who comprise the right side of my infield. Here, then, is the initial installment of my All-Time Hall of Fame Most Under-Appreciated Team:
First Base – Roger Connor: Born in Waterbury, CT in 1857, Connor played his entire 18-year career (but for one season in the ill-fated Player’s League) in the National League. He retired in 1897 at age 39, having amassed an incredible 233 triples (fifth most in history).
Playing primarily for the Trojans, the Giants and the Browns, Connor had more seasons of 100+ runs scored (8), than Lou Brock. He had as many 100 RBI seasons as Mickey Mantle, and his career WAR (80.6) is a bit higher than Ken Griffey, Jr.’s 79.2
Connor’s OPS+ (153) was better than Honus Wagner’s mark of 151. Connor is credited with being the first player to ever hit an out-of-the-park Grand Slam, and the first to hit a home run completely out of the Polo Grounds.
A big man, listed at 6’3″, 220 pounds, Connor both threw and hit left-handed. He could hit for average (.316 career), he could hit for power (led N.L. in home runs in 1890), he could steal a base (7 times he topped 20 steals), and he could play some defense (a solid 6.2 dWAR.)
Perhaps most impressively, Connor’s 138 career home runs remained the M.L.B. record for 23 years after his retirement, until Babe Ruth shattered the mark in 1921.
Roger Connor died in his hometown of Waterbury, CT in January 1931. A victim of the Florida real estate crash of the early 1920’s, Connor and his wife are buried side-by-side in unmarked graves in Waterbury’s St. Josephs’s Cemetery.
Second Base – Joe Gordon: Although there are at least a couple of Yankees who probably don’t deserve to be in the Hall of Fame (Herb Pennock and Phil Rizzuto come to mind), Joe Gordon has long been an under-appreciated player.
Other Yankee second basemen have been more widely known over the decades, players like Tony Lazzeri, Billy Martin, Bobby Richardson, Willie Randolph, and now, Robinson Cano. But, with the possible exception of Cano, no second baseman in Yankee history was better than Joe Gordon.
Gordon was born in Los Angeles in 1915, but his family later moved north to Oregon. Drafted by the Yankees as an amateur free agent, he immediately made an impact in New York, swatting 25 homers and driving in 96 runs for the 1938 Yankees. This incredible team also featured Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio and Bill Dickey.
In 1942, at the age of 27, Gordon won the A.L. MVP award.
Up through 1943, when Joe Gordon was still in his prime (28-years old), he’d already enjoyed six highly productive years with the Yanks. He had averaged 24 homers and 95 RBI per year, and had accumulated 33.3 WAR (about what Cano has generated in his first eight years.)
Then came WWII, or rather, Gordon’s call to duty in a war that was already half over. The War cost Gordon two full years (1944-’45.) In 1946, he got injured in spring training and had a terrible year. He was traded to Cleveland the next season for pitcher Allie Reynolds.
The trade worked out well for both teams. Gordon went on to lead the Tribe to a World Series victory over the Boston Braves in the ’48 World Series. His 32 homers that year remained the A.L. record for a second baseman for 53 years, until 2001.
During Gordon’s tenure with the Yankees, he played in exactly 1,000 games, and he garnered exactly 1,000 hits.
Joe Gordon’s 253 home runs remains the career record by an A.L. second baseman. That is a remarkable total, considering both of his home ball parks did not favor right-handed power hitters, also recalling that he missed a couple of his prime years to war.
Finally, Gordon’s resume is further buttressed by a stellar defensive reputation. His career 22.4 dWAR is better than that of any second baseman in history not named Bill Mazeroski. Gordon’s overall career WAR of 54.0 is better than that of Chase Utley, Jeff Kent, Nellie Fox, Tony Lazzeri and Bobby Doerr, to name but a few other highly productive second basemen.
Joe Gordon died of a heart attack in 1978, age 63. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame 30 years later, in 2009. It shouldn’t have taken that long.
In the next installment of this series, I will take a look at the left side of the infield of my All-Time Under-Appreciated team.
Related articles
- Baseball’s Surprising Stats: Craig Biggio (ondeckcircle.wordpress.com)
- Nine current Yankees have shot at Hall of Fame (nypost.com)
- Baseball’s Surprising Stats: Joe DiMaggio (ondeckcircle.wordpress.com)
Ten Reasons Why Yasiel Puig Deserves To Be An All-Star
There’s been a lot of talk over the past week regarding whether or not the Dodgers phenom outfielder should be allowed to make the N.L. All-Star Team, given that he’s only been in the Majors for little more than one month. Yesterday, Phillies relief pitcher Jonathon Papelbon, who has never pitched more than 75 innings over the course of an entire season, and who’s been named to five All Star squads, made the following statement:
“The guy’s got a month, I don’t even think he’s got a month in the big leagues,” Papelbon said during the interview. “Just comparing him to this and that, and saying he’s going to make the All-Star team, that’s a joke to me.
Papelbon added that it would, in his opinion, be disrespectful to veteran ballplayers who’ve been around for years to have Puig named to the All Star team.
Dear Jon, Allow me to retort:
1) According to ESPN’s Buster Olney, no player since Joe DiMaggio back in the 1930’s has started his career with as much early success as has Puig. We are not talking about a normal player on a short hot streak, we are witnessing baseball history every time Puig comes to the plate.
2) Through last night’s game, Puig is now batting .440 through his first 109 MLB at bats. Not enough at bats to impress you? Well, even if Puig went hitless in his next 50 at bats (about half the number he already has), he’d still be batting over .300. Does anyone believe he’ll go zero for his next 50? If he bats just .250 over his next 200 at bats, he’ll still be batting around .317. Would you say a .317 batting average, with power, is enough to justify an All Star nod? I would.
3) Puig already has the highest WAR of any Dodgers position player, at 2.6. Shouldn’t the best position player on a team garner serious All Star consideration?
4) Papelbon’s argument that a Puig All Star nomination would be disrespectful to MLB veterans is patently absurd. There have been other rookies who have made All Star teams in the past. Just because most of them began the season in April, garnering three full months (!) instead of Puig’s one month, is hardly enough of a difference to single Puig out as somehow being not worthy of this honor.
5) The rule that has been in place for many years that requires each team, regardless of the caliber of its players, to have at least one representative for the All Star game has resulted in many questionable “All Stars” over the years. The idea that seems to be floating out there that the All Star Game is and always has been for only the best of the best hasn’t been true for decades, if it ever was the case at all. Meanwhile, Puig might very well be one of the top ten, if not the top five, players in the game right now.
6) Attendance is down throughout the Majors. Translation: The product is not selling as well has it has in the past. The players, meanwhile, are the product. They are not the marketers, nor are they the gate-keepers of what the fans “should” be allowed to spend their hard-earned money on. Next time Papelbon cashes a paycheck, he should keep that in mind.
7) The All-Star Game is an exhibition. It’s primary purpose is to promote The Game. (The charade of home-field advantage being decided for the World Series is and always has been an afterthought.) Question: Are the fans less likely or more likely to watch this exhibition on T.V. if Puig gets to play? How about fans in the greater L.A. area, the second biggest market in America?
8) Baseball is also about winning, correct? When the Puig joined the Dodgers in early June, they were at or near the bottom of the standings in the N.L. West. Now, they are just 2 1/2 games out of first place, and have won ten of their last eleven games. Certainly, this dramatic turnaround has not all been attributable to Puig. Yet, if Puig was still languishing down in the minors, do you really think the Dodgers would now be this close to the top of the standings? I don’t.
9) No one remembers entire All-Star games, but they do remember individual, specific moments. People remember Bo Jackson in ’89, or Dave Parker’s throw to the plate in ’79, or Ted Williams walk-off homer in ’41. Isn’t it as likely as not that Puig will do something in this year’s All Star Game that fans will remember for years to come? There’s no way to know, unless he gets to play.
10) Finally, if Papelbon’s point of view that Puig has not yet proven himself worthy of playing in an All-Star Game is widely shared by other veteran ballplayers (and one has to wonder what Puig’s Dodger teammates think of all this), then why not let the veterans show us in the All-Star Game itself how inferior Puig truly is? Let Justin Verlander or Yu Darvish or Matt Moore or someone else face him down and attempt to strike him out. After all, isn’t that the whole point of sports in general, and baseball in particular? Let it be settled it between the chalk lines, not the airwaves, Jonathon.