Hall of Merit: Sol White

All things Sol White . . .

Hall of Merit: Rube Foster

Rube Foster commentary . . .

Hall of Merit: Bill Monroe

A thread for Bill Monroe info . . .

Hall of Merit: Pete Hill

Post your Pete Hill commentary here if you will - I’ll start doing this for Negro Leaguers so we have a repository to go to for info on them. These guys don’t have B-R pages, etc., so it’ll be nice to have somwhere to go. I’ll also post one for Rube Foster, Bill Monroe and Sol White, the only other Negro Leaguers that have garnered significant support to date.

Hall of Merit: 1926 Results - Grant and Magee elected

After 27 elections without electing a Negro League player, The Hall of Merit elects its second in as many years in 1926. Frank Grant topped the voting with 736 points, moving past Joe McGinnity and Sherry Magee. Magee was elected as well, with 722 points.

Bobby Wallace finished 3rd with 653 points, edging McGinnity (651). McGinnity was the top returning vote getter, but slipped to 4th this time around.

Jimmy Sheckard finished 5th. Sam Thompson moved into 6th place, passing Bob Caruthers who finished 7th.

Completing the top 10 were Dickey Pearce, Lip Pike and newcomer Joe Jackson. Jackson was boycotted on several ballots due to his actions during the 1919 World Series, and should move up significantly in 1927.

RK   LY  Player             PTS Bal    1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9 10 11 12 13 14 15
 1    5  Frank Grant        736  42.5  5 11  6  2  1  3  2  1  4  4  1     1     1.5
 2    4  Sherry Magee       722  46    8  1  3  2  6  6  5  7  1  1  1  1  2  2
 3    6  Bobby Wallace      653  41.5  5  5  4  5  4  3  3        3  3  1  2  1  2.5
 4    3  Joe McGinnity      651  43    2  5  6  4  5  3  3  2  4  1     2  2  2  2
 5    7  Jimmy Sheckard     581  39    1  5  3  5  3  3  4  3  3  2  1  3  1     2
 6    9  Sam Thompson       522  35    4  2  7  3  1  1  1  2  3  2  1  3  3  1  1
 7    8  Bob Caruthers      497  34    3  4  1  5  1  1  3  4  1  1  3  1  3  1  2
 8   10  Dickey Pearce      488  30    4  6  3     1  2  2  3  1  2  2  2  1  1
 9   11  Lip Pike           414  28    6     2  2  3  1  1  3  1        3  4  1  1
10  n/e  Joe Jackson        410  23    6  4  2  3  1  1  1  1              2  1  1
11   13  Jake Beckley       363  27    1     1  3  5  3  4  1  1  1     2  1  3  1
12   12  George Van Haltren 361  29       2  1  3  3  1  2  2  2  1  1  3  3  3  2
13   14  Jimmy Ryan         312  25          2  1  1  3  3  1  2  6  2  2  1  1
14   15  Rube Waddell       294  25          2  1  2  1  3     4  2  1  4  2  2  1
15   17  Roger Bresnahan    262  24          1  1  2  1  1  3  3     2  1  3  2  4
16   16  Hughie Jennings    231  20             3     1  1  1  3  3  4     1  3
17   19  Clark Griffith     223  22          1     1     1  2  2  1  4  3     5  2
18   18  Hugh Duffy         219  20                2  3        2  1  6  2  2  1  1
19   21  Bill Monroe        212  18    1  1  1     1  1     2  1  2     1  1  3  3
20   23  Rube Foster        195  17             2        2     4  3  3     1  2
21   22  Mickey Welch       175  14    2     1     1     1  1  1     1  1  2  1  2
22   25  Cupid Childs       172  17       1     1           2  1  1  1  2  1  5  2
23   20  Pete Browning      164  12       1  1     2  1  2  1        2  1        1
24   24  Tommy Leach        145  15                   2  1     1  2  1     4  1  3
25  n/e  Gavy Cravath*      134  12             1     2  1  2        2     1  1  2
26  n/e  Larry Doyle        134  12       1  1     1  1     1           1  1  2  3
27   26  Charley Jones      121   9             2     2  1     2     1  1
28   27  Ed Williamson^     112  12                      1  1     2  2  1  1  2  2
29   28  Addie Joss         112   9.5  1                 1     1  3  1  1     1  0.5
30  n/e  Eddie Cicotte       97   7       1           2        1  2  1
31   32  Vic Willis          56   6                   1        1        1     2  1
32   29  John McGraw         54   4    1                          2        1
33   31  Frank Chace         52   5                         2     1     1        1
34   30  Fielder Jones       46   5                         1        1  1  1     1
35   33  Harry Wright        39   3          1              1              1
36   36  Tommy Bond          32   2             1     1
37   35  Jim McCormick       31   4                                  1  1        2
38   34  Lave Cross          27   2                1              1
39   43  Mike Tiernan        25   2                1                    1
40   37  Herman Long         18   2                                     2
41   39T Tom York            16   1                1
42   38  Silver King         10   1                                  1
43   39T Tony Mullane         9   1                                     1
44  n/e  Ray Chapman          8   1                                        1
45T  42  Levi Meyerle         6   1                                              1
45T  --  Joe Tinker           6   1                                              1
47   --  Fred Dunlap          3   0.5                                            0.5
*Ahead on individual ballots 10-9. ^Ahead on individual ballots 11-10.
Dropped Out: Sol White 39T.

Hall of Merit: 1927 Ballot Discussion

The top new candidates (thanks DanG and Chris Cobb!):

WS W3 Rookie Name-Pos (Died)
287 73.1 1907 Ed Konetchy-1b (1947)
227 52.6 1908 Dode Paskert-CF (1959)
205 50.7 1910 Hippo Vaughn-P (1966)
189 48.4 1908 Slim Sallee-P (1950)
180 42.2 1910 Duffy Lewis-LF (1979)
161 44.9 1911 Ray Caldwell-P (1967)
155 38.0 1909 Dots Miller-1b/2b (1923)
143 37.9 1911 Lefty Tyler-P (1953)
106 28.8 1914 Braggo Roth-RF (1936)

Negro Leaguers
HF%—from expert voting in _Cool Papas and Double Duties_
BJ—Bill James positonal ranking in _NBJHBA_
MVP—Sum of Bill James’ best player and best pitcher awards and John Holway’s MVP and best pitcher awards
All-Star—number of times player designated as seasonal all-star by John Holway

HF% Career  Name-pos (born)          BJ    MVP All-Star
68% 1901-25 Pete Hill-CF/LF (1880)  #4 lf   2     5*
08% 1909-21 Frank Wickware-P (1888)         2     1*
00% 1914-21 Horace Jenkins-OF       (??)    1     2*

Players Passing Away in 1926

HoMers
Age Elected
75 1914 Cal McVey-C/1B
50 1924 Eddie Plank-P

Candidates
Age Eligible
66 1901 Bill Hutchison-P
64 1899 George Pinkney-3B
63 1900 Danny Richardson-2B
60 1903 Lou Bierbauer-2B

Hall of Merit: Extra Credit

Inspired by David Foss’s comment in the 1926 Ballot Discussion:

“There could be a whole thread on what circumstances deserve “extra credit”.

—Negro League players
—WWI/WWII/Korea service
—Unfairly blacklisted (C Jones?)
—Reasonable hold out (HR Baker? GDavis?)
—Pre-farm-system minors (Galvin, Cravath, Grove)
—Strike (1981/1994)
—Got sick and died (Joss, Youngs)
—Nasty non-baseball illness (Sisler, Puckett?)
—Nasty baseball-related illness (Chapman, Conigliaro)

I’m inclined to only give full credit for the first two and partial credit of subjective magnitude for the next three.

Illnesses are tragic, but the line between illness & injury is bound to get very gray… slipper slope there.

Not sure about strikes… its a ways off before we deal with those…”

I’ll take them one-by-one with my ideas on each, re-ordered in terms of my personal scale:

—Negro League players - full credit, benefit of the doubt best guess
—Military service - reasonable credit based on best guess (interpolating with similar value players for missing years)
—Unfairly blacklisted (C Jones?) - reasonable credit based on best guess (interpolating with similar value players for missing years)
—Pre-farm-system minors (Galvin, Cravath, Grove) - reasonable credit based on their minor league stats, if the player was obviously of Major League caliber
—Strike (1981/1994) - straight line interpolation of season projected to 162 games.
—Major League season shorter than 162 games - straight line interpolation of season projected to 162 games.
—Reasonable hold out (HR Baker? GDavis?) - murky I’d say no credit, could be convinced otherwise.
—Got sick and died (Joss, Youngs) - illness has to be considered a ‘skill’ IMO. Could see it as a tie-breaker in a close race.
—Nasty non-baseball illness (Sisler, Puckett?) - illness has to be considered a ‘skill’ IMO. Could see it as a tie-breaker in a close race.
—Nasty baseball-related injury (Chapman, Conigliaro) - injury has to be considered a ‘skill’ IMO. Could see it as a tie-breaker in a close race.

Discuss :-)

Hall of Merit: 1926 Ballot

The 1926 Ballot. Top Newbies:

***1926 (May 16)—elect 2
WS W3 Rookie Name-Pos (Died)
294 80.3 1910 Joe Jackson-LF/RF (1951)
247 73.1 1908 Eddie Cicotte-P (1969)
289 59.0 1907 Larry Doyle-2b (1974)
202 51.8 1908 Gavvy Cravath-RF (1963)
174 43.1 1911 Claude Hendrix-P (1944)
171 43.1 1908 Buck Herzog-2b/3b/SS (1953)
148 51.6 1912 Ray Chapman-SS (1920)
191 35.7 1908 Fred Merkle-1b (1956)
127 46.5 1905 George McBride-SS (1973)
175 36.6 1914 Benny Kauff-CF (1961)
160 34.4 1910 Fred Luderus-1b (1961)
152 33.4 1912 Buck Weaver-SS/3b (1956)
123 36.4 1915 Happy Felsch-CF (1964)
129 35.8 1913 Dick Rudolph-P (1949)
089 19.5 1910 Bill Rariden-C (1942)

Does anyone have the list of newly eligible Negro Leaguers?

Don’t forget you can impose a one-year protest based on character issues, by not including players you otherwise would have voted for.

Hall of Merit: 1925 Results - First Negro Leaguer Elected

The Hall of Merit has elected Grant Johnson and Mordecai Brown. Johnson is the first Negro Leaguer to honored.

Johnson edged Brown 780-766 in the voting. Joe McGinnity finished 3rd with 633 points. Bobby Wallace edged Frank Grant for 4th by one point (603-602) and newcomer Sherry Magee was right behind them in 6th with 587 points.

Jimmy Sheckard, Sam Thompson, Bob Caruthers and Dickey Pearce rounded out the top 10.

RK   LY  Player             PTS Bal     1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9 10 11 12 13 14 15
 1    4  Home Run Johnson   780  44     8  8  6  5  4  1  2  2  3  1     2     1  1
 2    3  Three Finger Brown 766  45     7  5  7  5  3  3  3  5  3  2        1     1
 3    5  Joe McGinnity      633  41     2  5  1  5  6  5  3  5  3  3           2  1
 4    7  Bobby Wallace      603  39     5  4  2  5  3  2  4     3  3  2  2  2  1  1
 5    6  Frank Grant        602  39     3  3  6  8  3     2  2  1  3  3  2  1  2
 6   n/e Sherry Magee       587  39     2  5  3  1  4  4  8  2  1  2  2  2     1  2
 7    8  Jimmy Sheckard     516  37        2  6  3  1  7  3  3  2     3  2  2  2  1
 8    9  Sam Thompson       467  31     5  2  2  4  1  3  2     1  3  1  1  3  2  1
 9   10  Bob Caruthers      459  34     3  3  1  3  2  1     3  2  3  4  3  1  1  4
10   11  Dickey Pearce      426  26     2  5  3  2  2  3     4  1     1  2        1
11   12  Lip Pike           374  25     5  1  2        2  3  5        2  2  1     2
12   18  George Van Haltren 294  27        1     2  1  2  2  1  1  1  3  3  3  4  3
13   13  Jake Beckley       288  22           1  1  3  4  2  4     2  2  1     2
14   16  Jimmy Ryan         278  26           1     1  2  1     5  2  2  7  1  3  1
15   14  Rube Waddell       268  23        1  1     2     2     6  3  1     4  2  1
16   15  Hughie Jennings    229  20     1     1  2        1  1  1  3  3  1  1  4  1
17   19  Roger Bresnahan    227  20     1     1     2  1  2     1  2  1  1  4  1  3
18   17  Hugh Duffy         213  20              1  2  2     1        5  5  1     3
19   20  Clark Griffith     196  19              1  1     1  1  3     3     7  2
20   21  Bill Monroe        167  13     1  1        1     1  2  1  1  1  1  1  2
21   22  Pete Browning      158  12           2        2  2  3        1  1        1
22   25  Mickey Welch       143  12     1  1           2        2        1     3  2
23   23  Rube Foster        134  12                 2     1  1  1  2     2  2  1
24   26  Tommy Leach        122  15                       1     1  1  1  1  2  2  6
25   24  Cupid Childs       122  13           1           1     2  1        3  1  4
26   27  Charley Jones      113   9              1  2        1  1  1  2     1
27   28  Ed Williamson      103  12                    1           1     4  2  1  3
28   29  Addie Joss          94   8     1                 1        3  1        1  1
29   34  Fielder Jones       55   6                             2        2     1  1
30   30  John McGraw         54   4     1                             3
31   31  Frank Chance        41   4                          1  1     1           1
32   33  Vic Willis          37   4                 1                          3
33   32  Lave Cross          38   2                 1              2
34   35  Harry Wright        36   2        1                 1
35   36  Jim McCormick       32   4                                1        1  1  1
36   39  Tommy Bond          22   2                    1                       1
37   37  Herman Long         19   2                                1        1
38   38  Silver King         11   1                                1
39T  --  Tom York             8   1                                         1
39T  41T Tony Mullane         8   1                                         1
39T  40  Sol White            8   1                                         1
42   --  Levi Meyerle         7   1                                            1
43   41T Mike Tiernan         6   1                                               1
Dropped Out: Fred Dunlap (41T), Johnny Evers (41T).

Hall of Merit: Status

Okay, looks like I’ve figured out how to get to the old threads. Now I’ll need to open them all, and redo the old homepage’s links. I’ve also been taught how to keep a thread at the top of the list.

ETA for all of this is early next week. 1925 results should be up tonight.