Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Mike Piazza and Craig Biggio have been elected to the Hall of Merit!

The timing for our first year electing 4 candidates could not have worked out better, since class of 2013 is the strongest in terms of electees that we’ve ever had. The top of the 1934 ballot included Ty Cobb, Tris Speaker, Eddie Collins, Pop Lloyd, Smokey Joe Williams and Cristobal Torriente, but only 2 were elected.

Bonds and Clemens were each unanimous at 1 and 2. I believe that’s the first ...

Slugging first baseman Rafael Palmeiro, in his second year of eligibility, was the top vote-getter this election by grabbing 70% of all possible points.

NL hurler Rick Reuschel was number two this year with 49% after 17 years on a ballot, while Met and Yankee pitcher David Cone became the last inductee of 2012 with 44% in his sixth year of eligibility.

Rounding out the top-ten were: Phil Rizzuto, Luis Tiant, Cannonball Dick Redding, Hugh Duffy, Gavvy Cravath (back in the top-ten!), Vic Willis ...

What is the Baseball Hall of Merit? A pantheon conceived of by our founder and commissioner Joe Dimino as an alternative to the Baseball Hall of Fame located in Cooperstown. Our purpose is to identify the best players in baseball history and thereby identify the omissions and errors that can be found in the other venerable institution.

Established in 2003, the HoM welcomes any new voters who are serious about inducting the most worthy candidates from all eras and positions.

Annual elections ...

IMPORTANT: If a link is inoperable, please use this link to locate the thread in question: Hall of Merit Archives
This eventually will be the only place to locate old and new threads once we set up the categorization process.

Finally, a consolidated home page, with all of our important links.

The Hall of Merit Plaque Room - Where we honor the greatest players of all-time.

Our Constitution - The rules we’ve set up. Something Better - the article that introduced all of this.

Positional ...

Shades of Hairspray!...“It was a time of tradition, a time of values, and a time…to shake things up.”

For a journalist, chance encounters at a restaurant or a hair salon can become a major opportunity for advancing a story and in some instances the journalist is in the right place at the right time because he was with his wife. I had a very chance encounter with Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor on Saturday afternoon in lower Manhattan because my wife happened to have an appointment at a ...

New Green book looks to be a diamond Dallas page turner.

It is a good, lively book and it mirrors Green’s good, lively 6 decades in the game. He rips only three people, Bobby Valentine, Art Mahaffey and Gene Mauch.

“Valentine is a phony and that’s what I call him in the book,” Green grumbles, choosing to skip details of the possible backstabbing while Dallas managed the Mets.

He reveals that in the minors Mahaffey cared only about his numbers. “He didn’t root for other guys to win, because ...

Bah! No mention of Em Lindbeck...he was an on-base machine (.000/.500/.000)!

However, and I know this will irk the legion of Kaline fans out there, Cabrera is a better hitter than #6. He has more power, he pulls the ball better, he goes to the opposite field better, and he is a better RBI man than Al was. It’s not a knock on Kaline, because Cabrera is one of the best hitters to ever play the game. He has a career .320 batting average and his slugging marks are among the best of the last 25 ...

Eeeww, grotle. Now I’m touch and go on pulling out the Blüd Sausage EP.

Ever since Powell entered the major leagues in 1961, Orioles fans have known him as an affable giant, whose Popeye-esque muscles and robust 6-foot-4 frame stood in stark contrast with his easy smile and kind-hearted demeanor. For 14 years, Powell readily accommodated the Baltimore aficionados, signing autographs by day, swatting homers by night. So beloved was Powell that even after he went to Cleveland in 1975, toward ...

Could always ask…Rich Nye the Quantum Chronophysics Guy.

Indeed, scanning the 2013 roster, only an optimist of Ernie Banksian dimensions would find four future Hall-of-Famers. I only count two position players who have even made the All-Star team as Cubs: Starlin Castro (2011, 2012), Alfonso Soriano (2007, 2008). Castro is still a work in progress and The Fonz can only hope for lasting recognition if his outfield hop turns into a Gangnam style YouTube sensation.

Getting more granular, ...

Toledo News-Bee, May 17, 1913:

One of the weirdest triple plays ever seen in the American league was staged in the seventh inning of the Nap-Athletic contest Friday at Cleveland. Johnson [sic] opened with a single and took third on Chapman’s double. Olson then drew a single off Barry’s chest. Johnson was sent home by his coacher, Steen, who saw Chapman racing for third. Johnson was run down. Chappie started back to second and found Olson there. Barry tagged Olson and Chapman. Olson was retired, ...

“In The Simpsons, why in the world is Comic Book Guy’s store called “The Android’s Dungeon and Baseball Card Shop”? This is a travesty that needs to be called out!”

Meanwhile, back at the shop, does CBG even sell baseball cards? There was that one time Milhouse tried to buy a copy of the 1973 Carl Yastrzemski card, when he had the big sideburns. To his credit, Comic Book Guy knew exactly which card he wanted and exactly its price. However, in the 20-plus years since then, there hasn’t been a ...

Pittsburgh Gazette Times, May 16, 1913:

[Clarence Irwin], who was signed by Manager Connie Mack of the Philadelphia American League club, and who was to report for duty on May 26, was instantly killed today by tripping and falling in front of a Philadelphia and Reading Railroad locomotive near Cresson, Pa. He was employed as a brakeman and was in the act of turning a switch.

Man. The guy was so close to fulfilling a lifelong dream.

DGAFism spreading across the land…

There are many factors. More teams and more overall games mean more strikeouts. There also are more power arms, more starters who can touch 94 mph, more relievers who finish games throwing 98.

Some are more subtle. Without question, the influence of Sabermetrics has played a role, much to Harold Reynolds’ chagrin. The new math – analyzing baseball using the game’s statistics – has produced a new crop of hitters who are conditioned to take pitches, ...

Here’s a tentative schedule of the move:

• 8-10 p.m.: Moving Al Lopez house toward Nuccio Parkway, where it will wait for the 909 E 12th Ave. house to meet it at 13th Street and Nuccio Parkwaykwy.

• 10-midnight: Moving 909 toward Al Lopez house.

• Midnight-4 a.m.: Moving both houses down Nuccio Parkway, toward 21st Street, then Palm Avenue to 19th Street.

• 4 a.m.: Placing the houses into position at 2003 and 2005 N 19th St.

• 11 a.m: Celebratory toast at Ybor City Museum State ...

Pontoon points out ~ “Dennis Martinez ERA+106/4000 IP ~ Jack Morris ERA+105/3800 IP”.

On his legacy: “I think maybe I am [underappreciated]. I don’t feel I got the credit I deserved, maybe because of where I came from. I was a Spanish-speaking kid from Nicaragua who didn‘t understand the language real well, and I got a reputation in the Orioles organization as a hot-headed pitcher who didn’t want to go along with the system. The reason was that I fought for my rights. I fought for what ...

Washington Times, May 15, 1913:

Walter Smokeball Johnson is today holder of a new world’s record for holding the foe scoreless in successive innings…When Derrill Pratt pounded a single to right, scoring Gus Williams, who had already doubled to left, the onward march of the fireball flinger was at an end. He had traveled down fifty-six complete innings without allowing the enemy a run, and it will be some time before this record is bettered.

Don Drysdale’s record-breaking streak started 55 years ...

The Repko is gone
but he’s not forgotten
This is the story
of a 71 OPS+ (rotten)

Jason Repko lost something in the offseason. He knew it. He felt it.

An outfielder for 14 seasons in professional baseball, including seven seasons spent in the majors, he lost the desire to be on the field every single day.

But he still wanted to feel that way. That’s the thing. He wanted to feel that fire again. So even when no organization offered him an invitation to spring training, he felt like he needed ...

Damn pinkos everywhere!

By the way, it was Mother’s Day. I have to mention, it was Mother’s Day of course yesterday and it was Mother’s Day at the ballpark, and the players were all wearing pink something or other, pink shoes or pink sleeves. There was one guy with a pink bat.

I’m talking about this and George (Brett) said, “Have you seen the official ball for today?”

I said, “No.”

So he went and grabbed one.

The official Rawlings game ball yesterday was printed with pink ink.

So, anyway, ...

Congratulations to our unanimous MMP Mike Schmidt! I don’t have a template set up for putting results in a tabular format but figured we needed results posted.

Player  		pts	ballots	1sts	   
Mike Schmidt		165	11	11	   
Dwight Evans		146	11	0	   
Rickey Henderson	131	11	0	   
Andre Dawson		128	11	0	   
Bobby Grich		112	11	0	   
Fernando Valenzuela	84	9	0	   
Robin Yount		72	8	0	   
Buddy Bell 		56	6	0	   
George Foster		49	9	0	   
Steve McCatty		48	7	0	   
Nolan Ryan	        47	7	0	   
Steve ...

Toledo News-Bee, May 14, 1913:

ST. LOUIS, May 14.—(Special.)—During a ball game here a fly ball dropped within a few feet of a cow. Bossie beat the fielder to the sphere and gulped it down. The runner romped home.

I’ve (fairly hurriedly) scanned the current rulebook and don’t see any applicable rule that would make the ball dead if a cow eats it. Everything I’ve seen either refers to people or inanimate objects coming into contact with the ball. I think that makes this the right call.

Is there ...

As we used to say…“Do not go Gentile into that good night.”

Then there’s 1961, perhaps the most iconic year in baseball history, when two of the best players on the most recognized sports team in the country chased down the most sought after record held by the most popular man ever to play the game. Surely, this would be the number one season to steer clear of.

How can you compete with Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris while they’re in a dog fight for Babe Ruth’s all-time home run record in ...

Notes about two youngsters who eventually made their way to Cooperstown:

Pittsburgh Press, May 13, 1913:

Bostonians now are calling little Maranville “the Rabbit.” Also they are rising to proclaim that he is one of the very few men in the game who really can “place” a hit, which overcomes his inability to smash the ball quite as hard as some of his larger contemporaries.

Milwaukee Sentinel, May 13, 1913, Page 6:

In Pitcher George Sisler Ann Arbor college claims to have a Ty Cobb and a ...

7. OK, where does Cabrera rank among all-time right-handed batters?

Right now he’s playing his age-30 season. He has 327 home runs, which ranks 11th—more than Willie Mays had through age 30 but fewer than Andruw Jones or Juan Gonzalez. He’s fifth in RBIs, behind only Jimmie Foxx, Alex Rodriguez, Albert Pujols and Hank Aaron, and is a good bet to pass Aaron and maybe Pujols (70 behind).

8. Those are old-school stats. What about some of your fancy sabermetric stuff?

OK, let’s look at OPS+ ...

I thought this was sorta common knowledge…

Brilliant Reader Wendell has wandered through some baseball numbers and comes up with what seems a fascinating question, at least if you’re kind of a crazy baseball history buff.

From 1954-1957, Warren Spahn started 136 games—fourth-most in baseball. He pitched 1,081 innings—second only to Robin Roberts. He won 79 games, more than any pitcher over that time. Well, that was Warren Spahn, right? Hall of Famer. A workhorse. A constant force. He was a ...

Not to dump water on this…but he’s tied with Tim McCarver.

Jeter has long been known for his ability to rack up 200-hit seasons, the hallmark of any 3,000-hit campaign. Cano, with only two 200-hit seasons, and perhaps because of his status as an elite power hitter, has often been left out of the discussion of players who could reach 3,000.

But Cano isn’t far off Jeter’s pace. Jeter notched his 1,500th hit at age 29, in his ninth season. Cano hit the mark at age 30, also in his ninth year. It ...