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Hall of Merit
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Sunday, November 30, 2003

1914 Results - Cal McVey elected

Cal McVey has been elected to the Hall of Merit. As will read on his plaque (courtesy of John Murphy), “The toughest and most consistent of Boston?s ?Big Four, he played on three championship teams for that city (1872, 1874-75), plus one more with Chicago during the inaugural NL season of 1876.”

Harry Stovey maintained his position among the returnees and outpolled newcomer Joe Kelley to finish 2nd. Kelley edged Charlie Bennett for 3rd. Jimmy Collins finished 5th in his first year of eligibility.

Sam Thompson moved ahead of Hugh Duffy to finish 6th. Joe McGinnity finished third among the newcomers and 8th overall. Frank Grant and Jimmy Ryan rounded out the top 10.

Thanks to John Murphy, Patrick W and Eric C for adding everything up and getting it to me. Sorry for the delayed posting.

RK  LY  Player             Pts Bal  1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9 10 11 12 13 14 15
 1   2  Cal McVey          723  37 17  7  2  3  1  1  2        1  1  1        1
 2   3  Harry Stovey       627  40  5  7  4  2  5  1  3  3  1  2  2  1  1  3
 3 n/a  Joe Kelley         562  37  1  5  4  3  6  1  5  4  4  1  1  2  
 4   4  Charlie Bennett    557  33  5  9  4  3  1  2  2  1  1  1     2  1  1
 5 n/a  Jimmy Collins      483  33  2  1  1  5  6  2  3  8        2     1  1  1
 6   6  Sam Thompson       457  32  4     3  5     2  4  2  3  3     1  1     4
 7   5  Hugh Duffy         440  35        3  2  3  5  3  1  3  6  1  2  2  4
 8 n/a  Joe McGinnity      377  25  4  4  2  2  1  2  1              5  3     1
 9   7  Frank Grant        357  28     1  2  1  6  3  2        2  4  1  4  1  1
10   8  Jimmy Ryan         342  26     1  1  2  1  5  4  4     4        2     2
11  10  Lip Pike           306  21  1  2  3  2  3     1  1  2  2  2     1  1
12   9  Jake Beckley       290  24        2  1  1  2     2  6  1  4  3  1  1
13  11  George Van Haltren 282  24  1        1  2  2  2  1  1  3  4  2  2  1  2
14  12  Hughie Jennings    258  22  1  2  1  1           3  1  3  1  2  2  3  2
15  13  Dickey Pearce      238  19     1     3     3  1  1  1  3  2  1  2     1
16  19  Bob Caruthers      193  13     1  4  1  1  1        3     1     1
17  14  Clark Griffith     181  18           1        2  1  2  1  2  4     2  3
18  15  Cupid Childs       169  18        1        1  1     3  1     1     6  4
19  16  Pete Browning*     166  14        1        3     2  2     2  2  1  1
20  18  Jim McCormick      166  13        1        4  2  1  2        1  1     1
21  17  Mike Tiernan       123  12                 1     2     1  5     1  1  1
22  23  Mickey Welch        95   9        1  1           1     1  1     1     3
23  22  Charley Jones       89   9              1     1        1  1     3  2
24  20  Lave Cross          87  10                       1  1        3  2  1  2
25 n/a  Fielder Jones       83  10                          1  1  2  1     1  4
26  27  Ed Williamson       75  10                                1  1  2  4  2
27  24  John McGraw         73   7           1  1                 1     2  2
28  21  Mike Griffin        64   6                    1  1  2              1  1
29  28  Herman Long         53   7                                   2  2  1  2
30  25  Tony Mullane        49   5                          1  2        1  1
31  30  Jim Whitney         40   3        1     1                             1
32  26  Harry Wright        37   3              1              1  1
33  31  Tip O'Neill         35   3           1              1                 1
34  29  Deacon McGuire      22   3                                   1     1  1
35  33  Tommy Bond          20   2                       1                 1
36  32  Fred Dunlap         14   1                    1
37T 35T Bill Hutchison       9   1                                   1
37T 37  Levi Meyerle         9   1                                   1
39  35T Bobby Mathews        8   1                                      1
*won tie-breaker 12-11 on individual ballots.                      
Dropped Out:  Tom York (34), Noodles Hahn (38), Billy Nash (39T), Kid Gleason
(39T), Kip Selbach (41).

JoeD has the Imperial March Stuck in His Head Posted: November 30, 2003 at 05:27 PM | 10 comment(s) Login to Bookmark
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1. John (You Can Call Me Grandma) Murphy Posted: December 01, 2003 at 01:54 AM (#519474)

The toughest and most consistent of Boston?s ?Big Four, he played on three championship teams for that city (1872, 1874-75), plus one more with Chicago during the inaugural NL season of 1876.

Joe, I noticed that I left a quotation mark off from this sentence. This line should read:

The toughest and most consistent of Boston?s ?Big Four," he played on three championship teams for that city (1872, 1874-75), plus one more with Chicago during the inaugural NL season of 1876.

2. John (You Can Call Me Grandma) Murphy Posted: December 01, 2003 at 05:07 PM (#519477)

Welcome Marketmaven!

Same here! To be honest, I wasn't sure if you were a new voter or a computer glitch because of your split (and abbreviated) ballot. :-)

3. MattB Posted: December 01, 2003 at 05:31 PM (#519478)

How many ballots were cast? Was Stovey the only name on all of them, or did people omit him, too.

4. RobC Posted: December 01, 2003 at 05:36 PM (#519480)

41 ballots i think.

5. John (You Can Call Me Grandma) Murphy Posted: December 01, 2003 at 06:02 PM (#519481)

Was Stovey the only name on all of them, or did people omit him, too.

Stovey was left off one ballot.

6. MattB Posted: December 01, 2003 at 06:14 PM (#519482)

I'm especially surprised that Kelley was left off of four ballots. I'm about as "anti-outfield glut" as they come, and I had Kelley 7th.

7. John (You Can Call Me Grandma) Murphy Posted: December 01, 2003 at 11:34 PM (#519484)

I'm especially surprised that Kelley was left off of four ballots. I'm about as "anti-outfield glut" as they come, and I had Kelley 7th.

I had nine outfielders on my last ballot, but Kelley doesn't do anything for me. Not really anything spectacular peak-wise as a leftfielder, he had very good, but not outstanding, career numbers.

I'm just hoping that a few more candidates in the coming "years" create some distance between Kelley and the top slot. He would be my pick as the worst position player elected by a comfortable margin.

8. Marc Posted: December 01, 2003 at 11:58 PM (#519485)

I guess I see Kelley closer to the top of the OF glut but certainly not separating himself from it in the way that Delahanty and Burkett do. I think the real test for the OF glut will be Willie Keeler, whom I consider to be a glutmeister, but I suspect many will have him at the top. Given my druthers, I would have Kelley in his prime on my team and you can have Keeler. For that matter, I would take Elmer Flick, too.

9. Marc Posted: December 03, 2003 at 09:12 PM (#519487)

I thought this was interesting. A different look.

1. McVey 19.5
2. Bennett 16.9
3. Stovey 15.7
4. Kelley 15.2
5. McGinnity 15.1
6. Caruthers 14.8
7. Collins 14.64
8. Pike 14.57
9. Thompson 14.3
10. Dunlap 14
11. Whitney 13.3
12. Ryan 13.2
13. McCormick 12.8
14. Grant 12.75
15. Duffy 12.6

This of course is the number of points per ballot cast for the player in question--a measure of intensity (as opposed to breadth) of support, you might say. Dunlap, of course, received just 1 ballot for 7th place. The top 15ers in total points not on the top 15 per ballot are Pearce and Beckley next (>12 per ballot) and Van Haltren and Jennings (12 is Harry Wright at 12.3.

This is apropos of nothing, of course, because my sense is that a better predictor of who might get elected eventually would be, well, first, the total points but then, secondly, the number of ballots. The intensity would only be the third indicator, I would think. This is because in a down year the player in question will move up most of those ballots he's already on while he may not necessarily suddenly appear on a ballot he is not already on (he might be #25 instead of #16). In number of ballots it was:

1. Stovey 40
2. McVey and Kelley 37
4. Duffy 35
5. Bennett and Collins 33
7. Thompson 32
8. Grant 28
9. Ryan 26
10. McGinnity 25
11. Beckley and Van Haltren 24
13. Jennings 22
14. Pike 21
15. Pearce 19

My theory is buttressed by the fact that all 15 who appeared on the most ballots are also in the top overall ranking. Stovey is next on both points and ballots, then Kelley. My theory will be tested by whether Bennett (4th with 557 points) or Duffy (7th with 440 points, but 4th in number of ballots with 35) might get elected after Stovey and Kelley. (Of course, it is entirely possible that Kelley might experience the same sophomore slump that many players do--after being overrated in their initial year in the voting. Stovey and Bennett and Duffy have already passed through that particular crucible, so maybe Bennett vs. Duffy is not a good test of my theory. That at least will be my claim if Bennett in fact preceeds Duffy.)

10. John (You Can Call Me Grandma) Murphy Posted: November 07, 2004 at 11:50 PM (#957108)

This thread is fully restored.

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Sunday, November 30, 2003

1914 Results - Cal McVey elected

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