Hall of Merit: 1904 Ballot

This should be the most interesting election yet, the first one that is truly wide-open.

Hall of Merit: 1904 Ballot Discussion

Forgot to start this last night . . .

Hall of Merit: 1903 Results - Roger Connor and Cap Anson elected

The only real suspense this week was whether or not enough people would boycott Anson in his first year for him to have to wait. Six people boycotted, and that allowed Roger Connor to win the election with 984 points. Connor won despite the fact that he only received 12 first place votes to Anson’s 31. Even with the boycott, Anson was able to defeat Jack Glasscock for the second spot, by 195 points. It was the 3rd consecutive year Glasscock finished 3rd in the voting.

Charles Radbourn finished fourth for the 3rd consecutive year, the gap between Radbourn and Glasscock widened slightly, from 46 to 64 points.

The pack after that continues to tighten and shuffle, as the difference between 5th and 8th was just 29 points this time around. Hardy Richardson remained fifth (for the 3rd straight year), while Joe Start jumped over Ezra Sutton for sixth place. Pud Galvin moved from 10th to 7th, as his ranking continues to climb. Sutton dipped to 8th, finishing 2 points behind Galvin, 12 behind Start.

Sam Thompson remained 9th and Al Spalding dipped from 8th to 10th.

RK   LY  Player       Pts Ballots  1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9 10 11 12 13 14 15
1   n/a  R.Connor     984  44.0   12 25  4  2     1
2   n/a  C.Anson      900  38.0   31  6  1
3     3  J.Glasscock  705  44.0         14 11  6  6  2  1     2  1        1
4     4  C.Radbourn   641  44.0       4  5  6  6  2  3  6  2  1  3  2  2     2
5     5  H.Richardson 562  43.0       1     2  3 12  5  2  4  7  1  2  1  2  1
6     7  J.Start      545  40.0       1  7  3  3  4  5  2  2  4  1  3  3     2
7    10  P.Galvin     535  40.0          3  4  5  5  4  7  3     2  3  2     2
8     6  E.Sutton     533  40.0       1  1  8  6  2  3  4  5     1  2  1  4  2
9     9  S.Thompson   489  43.0       1  1  2  3  3  3  2  1  3  9  5  5  3  2
10    8  A.Spalding   484  36.5    1  2  4  2  5  2  2  1  1  4  1  4  3  4  0.5
11   11  H.Stovey     445  38.5          3  2     1  1  6  6  5  5  3  3  1  2.5
12   12  C.Bennett    410  37.0                2  1  7  4  2  6  3  2  6  3  1
13   14  C.McVey      331  30.0             1  1  4  1  3  5  3  1  3  3  1  4
14   13  B.Caruthers  299  23.0       3     1  3     2  3  3  2        1  2  3
15   15  P.Browning   255  26.0                1     3     2  3  5  5     3  4
16   16  E.Williamson 138  17.0                            2     1  4  2  4  4
17   17  L.Pike       136  15.5                         1  2  1  2  1  1  6  1.5
18   18  M.Welch      132  16.0                            1     3  4  1  4  3
19   19  D.Pearce      91   9.0          1           1        1  2     2     2
20   20  J.McCormick   74   8.0                         1  1  1  1     1  2  1
21   21  F.Dunlap      55   7.0                            1           3  1  2
22   22  T.Mullane*    44   5.0                      1              1  1  1  1
23   23  T.O'Neill     44   4.0                   1  1                 1  1
24   25  J.Whitney     25   2.0                         1  1
25  n/a  S.King        22   3.0                                        2     1
26   27  D.Foutz       11   1.0                               1
27T  28T L.Meyerle     10   1.0                                  1
27T  28T B.Hutchison   10   1.0                                  1
29   26  C.Jones        7   1.0                                           1
30T  30T B.Mathews      6   1.0                                              1
30T n/a  D.Lyons        6   1.0                                              1
32   24  G.Stovey       3   0.5                                              0.5
*Won tiebreaker, named higher on more ballots (4-3).
Dropped out: Tom York (30T), Tommy McCarthy (32)

Hall of Merit: Let’s get to know each other . . .

From Andrew Siegel:

“The talk of new daughters leads me to renew my suggestion that we set up a thread where we list age, family, occupation, hometown, favorite team, etc., so that we can get to know something about the people we are spending so much time with.”

As requested . . .

Hall of Merit: 1903 Ballot

Balloting for 1903 is open, a little early since a few voters are going on vacation this week . . .

I know the rules allow a Cap Anson no-vote this week. But I don’t encourage that at all. He was a product of his time.

And looking at some other things he did off the field, I found this in the NHBA:

Bill James basically gives him most of the credit for saving the game in the late 1870s. Anson organized the practice of raiding other leagues, not other teams in the league. This forced other teams in the league to follow suit, and the National League rose to the top, becoming the true major league. Also:

“. . . Anson made baseball immensely popular in Chicago, which was the league’s largest and most important city. In the NL’s first years, the schedule was getting shorter, the league was getting smaller, and the cities in the league were growing more remote. The game was dying. Cap Anson is the man who really changed that - not all by himself, but more than anyone else.”

I’m not saying he deserves any ‘extra credit’ for this on a ballot, but it should help to offset any moral issues one might have with him. Paraphrasing what someone said on the 1903 discussion thread, think long and hard before penalizing a Jim Crow from a Jim Crow time.

Hall of Merit: 1902 Results - Dan Brouthers and Buck Ewing elected

Dan Brouthers and Buck Ewing have been elected to the Hall of Merit. Brouthers was the most overwhelming selection to date, garnering 39 of 42 first place votes, and is the first unanimous selection, in that he was named first or second on all ballots.

Ewing (752.5) edged Jack Glasscock (704) and Charles Radbourn (658) in the balloting. It was the 2nd consecutive near miss for Glasscock who lost to George Wright by 21 points in the 1901 voting. With Cap Anson and Roger Connor coming on the ballot in 1903, it’s likely Glasscock will have to wait until 1904 for enshrinement.

Hardy Richardson and Ezra Sutton were #5 and #6 for the second straight year. Joe Start made a run, jumping from 9th to 7th. He was tied for 7th with Al Spalding and won the tie-breaker 21-20 (higher placement on individual ballots). Start also jumped over Harry Stovey, who slipped to 11th, dropping from 50% of the possible points to 43%. Sam Thompson finished 9th in his first year of eligibility, and Pud Galvin jumped over Stovey and Bob Caruthers (who slipped to 13th), rounding out the top 10.

RK  LY  Player       Pts   Ballots  1  2  3   4   5  6  7  8  9 10 11 12 13 14 15
1  n/e  D.Brouthers 1005    42.0   39  3
2  n/e  B.Ewing      752.5  42.0      12  9 6.5 7.5  2  2  1                 1  1
3    3  J.Glasscock  704    42.0       7 11   7   4  2  3  2  1  4        1
4    4  C.Radbourn   658    41.0    3  4  7   5   4  3  5  3  1	2     2     1  1
5    5  H.Richardson 525    40.0       1  1       7  6  5  4  4  5  1  2  1  3
6    6  E.Sutton     510.5  37.0       2  2 7.5 3.5  3  4  2  3  1  1  2  2  3  1
7    9  J.Start*     495    36.0       5  2   3   1  4  2  3  4  2  2  2  2  2  2
8    7  A.Spalding   495    36.0       4  4   3   2  4  4  1  1  2  1  2  3  3  2
9  n/e  S.Thompson   457    39.5       1      3   2  4     5  2  5  6  1  6  3  1.5
10  11  P.Galvin     440    35.0          2   5   3  2  1  4  2  3  7  2  2  2
11   8  H.Stovey     433    36.0       1  3          4  4  4  2  7  3  2     3  3
12  12  C.Bennett    374    34.0              1   1  2  4  4  3  5  3  1  6  1  3
13  10  B.Caruthers  313    25.0       2  1       4     1  4  4     2  2  1  1  3
14  14  C.McVey      302    27.5                  2  3  3  1  4  1  4  3  2  1  3.5
15  13  P.Browning   244    25.0              1      1  1     3  2  2  8  2  2  3
16  15  E.Williamson 151    18.0                           1  1  1     4  4  5  2
17  16  L.Pike       133    15.0                           1  2     3  3     3  3
18  17  M.Welch      127    14.0                           1  1     3  4  2  2  1
19  20  D.Pearce      72     8.0                        1     1     1  1  1  1  2
20  18  J.McCormick   71     7.0                        1  1     1  1  1  1     1
21  19  F.Dunlap      59     8.0                              1           2  1  4
22  21  T.Mullane     42     4.0                     1           1        2
23  22  T.O'Neill     39     3.0                  1  1                    1
24 n/e  G.Stovey      33     5.0                                          1  1  3
25  26  J.Whitney     26     2.0                        1     1
26  24  C.Jones       13     2.0                                             1  1
27  25  D.Foutz       12     1.0                              1
28T 28  B.Hutchison   10     1.0                                    1
29T 29  L.Meyerle     10     1.0                                    1
30T 27  B.Mathews      7     1.0                                             1
30T 31T	T.York         7     1.0                                             1
32  --  T.McCarthy     6     1.0                                                1
Dropped out: Arlie Latham (23); Harry Wright (30); Dave Orr (31T); Oyster Burns (33).
*won tie-breaker, 21-20.

Hall of Merit: 1903 Ballot Discussion

I’ve sent an email to the list explaining why I’m late, if someone can post the newly eligible list in the discussion here, that’d be great too. I figure there’s no point waiting to get this going though . . .

I should have the 1902 final result up in the next few hours.

Hall of Merit: 1902 Ballot

After our most active week of discussion yet . . . let the games begin!

Hall of Merit: 1902 Ballot Discussion

Here you go fellas, this list is from Howie Menkel, I don’t have time for links, double-checking it, etc. right now, but I wanted to get the thread started without further delay . . . Here are the new eligibles, quite a class.

DAN BROUTHERS,1896,1904 -> 2
BUCK EWING,1896,1897 -> 1
SHORTY FULLER,1896
CONNIE MACK,1896
TOMMY MCCARTHY,1896
CHIPPY MCGARR,1896
DOGGIE MILLER,1896
SAM THOMPSON,1896,1897 -> 3,1898 -> 14,1906 -> 8
AD GUMBERT,1896
ADONIS TERRY,1896,1897 -> 1
GEORGE STOVEY,Negro Leagues

Hall of Merit: 1901 Results - Tim Keefe & George Wright elected

In the narrowest voting to date, Tim Keefe and George Wright have been election to the Hall of Merit for 1901, narrowly edging first time eligible Jack Glasscock. Keefe finished with 657 points 17 more than Wright, despite the fact that Wright was named first on 10 ballots and Keefe just five. The 2.5 voters that left Wright off helped to keep the election close, as Wright only edged Glasscock (4 firsts, 6 seconds) by 21 points.

The previous order held for the 4th through 9th place finishers (Radbourn, Richardson, Sutton, Spalding, Stovey, Start each moved up one place). Bob Caruthers and Pud Galvin both jumped over Charlie Bennett, who dropped from 11th to 12th. Pete Browning finished 13th, after him there’s a big dropoff down to Cal McVey in 14th place. Tony Mullane was the only player who dropped significantly, from 18th to 21st place, and from 9 ballots to 5.5.

We had 35 voters for the 2nd election in a row, no new voters this time, one established voter skipped out for the 2nd straight week, although it was a different voter this time.

RK   LY Player       Pts Ballots  1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9 10 11 12 13 14 15
 1    3 T.Keefe      657  35.0    5 10  6  2  2  4  1  1  3     1
 2    4 G.Wright     640  32.5   10  6  6  4  3        1     2              0.5
 3  n/a J.Glasscock  619  35.0    4  6  4  5  4  4  4  1  2  1
 4    5 C.Radbourn   555  34.0    4  3  4  7  3  2  2     3  3  1     1     1
 5    6 H.Richardson 485  34.0       2  2  3  3  4  6  4  5  2  1  1     1
 6    7 E.Sutton     469  32.0    2  1  4  5  4  4     2  2  1     3  2  1  1
 7    8 A.Spalding   450  30.0    5  2  2  1  2  1  2  2  4  1  4  1  2     1
 8    9 H.Stovey     420  32.5    3        1  2  2  6  4  2  3  2  2  2  1  2.5
 9   10 J.Start      414  29.0       4  3  1  4     3  5  1  1  2  1  1  2  1
10   12 B.Caruthers  355  30.0    2        3  2  2  1  2  2  3  1  3  2  2  5
11   13 P.Galvin     347  28.5       1  2  1  2  3  1  4     3  3  3  2  1  2.5
12   11 C.Bennett    303  28.0          1  1  1  1  3  2  2  3  3  2  3  4  2
13   14 P.Browning   295  28.0             1     3  1  2  2  3  5  5  1  3  2
14   15 C.McVey      237  21.0                3  2  2  1  3  1  1  2  2  3  1
15   16 E.Williamson 173  18.0                      2  1     1  3  5  4  2
16   17 L.Pike       120  13.0                            1  4  2  1  1  3  1
17   19 M.Welch      102  12.0                            1  2  1  1  2  3  2
18   21 J.McCormick   65   7.0                      1     1     1  1  1     2
19   20 F.Dunlap      63   8.0                               1     1  3  1  2
20   22 D.Pearce      55   6.0                   1              1  1  1  1  1
21   18 T.Mullane     54   5.5                         2           2     1  0.5
22   23 T.O'Neill     37   3.0          1              1                    1
23  n/a A.Latham      36   5.0                                  1        2  2
24   24 C.Jones       32   4.0                                  1     2     1
25  n/a D.Foutz       28   3.0                   1                       1  1
26   25 J.Whitney     27   2.0                   1        1
27   28 B.Mathews     16   2.0                                        2
28  n/a B.Hutchison   13   2.0                                           1  1
29  29T L.Meyerle     10   1.0                                  1
30  26T H.Wright       8   1.0                                        1
31T 26T T.York         7   1.0                                           1
31T 29T D.Orr          7   1.0                                           1
33  n/a O.Burns        6   1.0                                              1
Dropped out: Jim Creighton (29T), Curt Welch (32)