Hall of Merit: Heavy Johnson

He ain’t heavy, he’s my…oh wait, he was Heavy! :-)

Hall of Merit: Nip Winters

Here’s one guy that a vigorous discussion of his credentials is needed.

Hall of Merit: Red Faber, Eppa Rixey and Jack Quinn

One of the Clean Sox, Eppa Jeptha and that other guy with the long career!

Hall of Merit: 1938 Ballot

Eddie Rommel is the only newbie this election cycle who is a viable candidate. Can he or any returnee stop the Heinie Groh/Stan Coveleski Express?

Other returnees are Max Carey, Lip Pike, Jake Beckley, Hughie Jennings, Rube Waddell and George Sisler.

Vote early and vote often!

Hall of Merit: 1937 Election Results: Heilmann and Torriente Become the Hall of Merit’s Newest Members!

Tiger slugging star Harry Heilmann earned the most points this election to become inducted into the Hall of Merit in only his second year of eligibility.

In his fourth year of eligibility, Negro League talent Cristóbal Torriente comfortably snatched the second spot for HoM induction. He has the honor of being the seventh Negro Leaguer to gain immortality so far. 

Heinie Groh and Stan Coveleski should follow in Heilmann’s and Torriente’s footsteps next “year.” Nobody else were close to them during the election and they will face a weak group in ‘38.

Rounding out the top ten were returnees Max Carey, Lip Pike, Jake Beckley, Hughie Jennings, Rube Waddell and George Sisler (he switched spots with the faltering George Van Haltren this “year”).

Hall of Merit: 1938 Ballot Discussion

As I see it, Eddie Rommel is the only new candidate with a snowball’s chance in hell of making someone’s ballot this “year.” IOW, not a very strong batch of candidates.

1938 (November 7)—elect 2
WS W3 Rookie Name-Pos (Died)
209 66.5 1920 Eddie Rommel-P (1970)
198 49.7 1921 Lu Blue-1B (1958)
193 47.3 1916 George Kelly-1B (1984)
183 43.8 1916 Charlie Jamieson-LF (1969)
149 36.8 1914 Rube Bressler-LF/P (1966)
133 32.0 1916 Clarence Mitchell-P (1963)
109 30.7 1918 Cliff Heathcote-RF (1939)
092 25.2 1923 Freddy Leach-LF (1981)
107 25.5 1920 Hod Ford-SS/2B (1977)
070 15.0 1922 Joe Hauser-1B (1997)

1938 (November 7)—elect 2
HF% Career Name-pos (born) BJ – MVP - All-Star
4% 15-32 Frank Warfield-2B(1895)#8 2b - 0 - 4*
0% 20-32 Reuben Curry-P (1899) 0.5 - 1*


Players Passing Away in 1937

HoMers
Age Elected
90 1901 George Wright-SS
80 1916 Harry Stovey-LF/1B
69 1926 Frank Grant-2B

Candidates
Age Eligible
81 1895 Hick Carpenter-3B
79 1898 Ned Hanlon-CF/Mgr
78 1897 John Reilly-1B
78 1898 Welday Walker-LF
74 1896 Ed Morris-P
68 1913 Jack O’Connor-C
64 1911 Duff Cooley-LF
62 1915 Tully Sparks-P
50 1931 Rube Benton-P
49 1929 Eddie Foster-3b

Once again, thanks to Dan and Chris for the lists!

Hall of Merit: Eddie Rommel

A very good pitcher who I personally don’t feel is HoM worthy, but you can prove me wrong if you want to. :-)

Hall of Merit: 1937 Ballot

The newly eligible with a decent chance to make some ballots this “year” are Wally Schang, Edd Roush, Cannonball Dick Redding and Chino Smith. However, I’ll put my money on returnees Harry Heilmann and Cristóbal Torriente leading the pack this “year.”

Other returnees include Heinie Groh, Stan Coveleski, Lip Pike, Jake Beckley, Max Carey and George Van Haltren.

Is this the end of…Rico?

Hall of Merit: 1936 Election Results: Alex the Great and Smokey Joe Strike Out Their Hall of Merit Competition!

With an almost unanimous 99.4% of the votes, star hurler Pete Alexander was elected to the Hall of Merit in his first year of eligibility.

In his third year of eligibility, Negro League pitching great Smokey Joe Williams finally broke through by being selected for the second “elect me” spot. Williams broke Pop Lloyd’s one-year record for achieving the highest percentage of votes without being the top vote getter (94.8%).

Newbie Harry Heilmann had an extremely strong third place showing and should be elected with Negro League slugger (and fourth place finisher) Cristóbal Torriente in 1937.

The remaining top-ten returnees were Heinie Groh, Stan Coveleski, Jake Beckley, Max Carey, Lip Pike and George Van Haltren.

RK   LY  Player               PTS  Bal   1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9 10 11 12 13 14 15
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 1  n/e  Pete Alexander      1193   50  43  7                                       
 2    3  Smokey Joe Williams 1138   50   7 41     1                    1            
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 3  n/e  Harry Heilmann       835   50      1 17 21  2  1  5     1  1     1         
 4    4  Cristóbal Torriente  826   49        25 11  5  4  2        1  1            
 5    5  Heinie Groh          486   41            1  5  5  7  2  5  2  2  2  2  6  2
 6    6  Stan Coveleski       485   40            2  3  4  7  7  2  2  2  5  2  3  1
 7    7  Jake Beckley         360   28         1  3  2  5  5  1  1     2  6  1  1   
 8    9  Max Carey            338   30            3  4  3  1     2     4  4  3  4  2
 9    8  Lip Pike             334   26         2     7  1  2  2  3  3  2  1     1  2
10   13  George Van Haltren   279   25               3  3  2  3     2  3  3  2     4
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
11   10  Rube Waddell         271   25               2  1  1  2  4  5  1  3  3  2  1
12   11  Hughie Jennings      271   23         2  1  1  3  1  2  2  2  1  1  3  4   
13   12  Clark Griffith       266   23               2  3  4  1  2  3  1  2  2  1  2
14  n/e  George Sisler        259   23      1        2  2     2  4  1  4  1  1  2  3
15   14  Mickey Welch         259   20         1  4  2  1  2  3     1  1     4     1
16   15  Pete Browning        235   18            1  4  4  2     1  1  2  1  1     1
17   16  Cupid Childs         219   21         1     1  1  2  2  1     2  3  2  5  1
18   17  Hugh Duffy           204   19            1     2  2  2  1  2     1  5  2  1
19   18  Roger Bresnahan      187   20                  2     2  1  1  4     3  2  5
20   19  Jimmy Ryan           186   17                  1  1  2  4  3  2  1     3   
21   21  Tommy Leach          164   16                        2  2  4  4     2  2   
22   20  José Méndez          136   13               1  1        2  3  1  2  1     2
23   22  Charley Jones        110    9            1  1  1        2  2  1           1
24   24  Bill Monroe           98   10                  1     3     1        1  1  3
25   23  Larry Doyle           91    8               1     1  2  1     1        1  1
26   25  Harry Hooper          87    9                     1  2     1     1  1  1  2
27   27  Ben Taylor            73    7                        2  1  1  1        2   
28   32  John McGraw           60    5         1                 1  2        1      
29T  31  Addie Joss            54    6                           1  1  1     1  1  1
29T  26  Carl Mays             54    6                              1  1  2  1  1   
31   29  Bobby Veach           49    5                           1  1     2  1      
32   28  Spotswood Poles       48    4               1        2                    1
33   33  Urban Shocker         45    6                                    1  3     2
34   37  Vic Willis            43    5                              1     2  1     1
35   30  Gavy Cravath          39    3                     1  1  1                  
36   35  Fielder Jones         38    4                           1  1        1  1   
37   34  Frank Chance          38    3               1           1     1            
38   38  George J. Burns       34    4                        1              1  1  1
39   39  Ed Williamson         33    4                                 1  1  1     1
40   36  Ed Cicotte            33    3                        1     1     1         
41   40  Lave Cross            27    2                  1        1                  
42   42T Wilbur Cooper         21    3                                    1        2
43  n/e  Dave Bancroft         19    3                                          1  2
44T  42T Fred Dunlap           19    2                           1              1   
44T  44T Ray Schalk            19    2                                 1  1         
46   47T Tommy Bond            14    1                     1                        
47   46  Donie Bush            13    1                        1                     
48   56T Mike Griffin          12    2                                             2
49T  47T Sam Leever            10    1                                 1            
49T  49T Tom York              10    1                                 1            
51   56T Jim McCormick          9    1                                    1         
52   53T Tony Mullane           7    1                                          1   
53T n/e  Dobie Moore            6    1                                             1
53T n/e  Roy Thomas             6    1                                             1
Dropped Out: Bingo DeMoss(44T), Duke Farrell(51T), Silver King(53T), Ed Konetchy(41), 
Bruce Petway(53T), Mike Tiernan(56T), Ross Youngs(49T), Jules Thomas (51T).

Hall of Merit: Edd Roush

Ed and Eddie think he was pretty good, too.