Logoless caps are bullshit.

“In discussing my career with the Hall of Fame,” McGriff said in a statement, “we decided that with no logo on my plaque, I can equally represent these cities and the incredible fans in Toronto, where I got my start, Atlanta, where we won the World Series, and my hometown of Tampa Bay, as well as my time in San Diego.”

As a Chicagoan, I am pleased that his contributions to the 67-95 2002 Cubs will be recognized in this fashion.

we decided that with no logo on my plaque, I can equally represent these cities and the incredible fans...

Slap in the face to the back-to-back-to-back AAU champs.

Shoulda worn a Tom Emanski Defensive Drills video cap.

#3 and #4 are excellent.

Well played, folks.

Blank cap or no cap make sense for the Crime Dog. Rolen could have done that too. Glad he didn't.

Now waitaminute...first I read that it was the player's choice, then it was the HOF's decision...which is it?

Now waitaminute...first I read that it was the player's choice, then it was the HOF's decision...which is it?

The Hall will defer to the player's wishes, if it's reasonable. So Rolen can choose the Cards, but McGriff couldn't choose the Dodgers.

Why the Hall allows the trucker cap nonsense is beyond me.

As a Jays fan I'm good with McGriff's choice. As he said, 3 different cities had him for 5 years each and there was something special about each. One was his home town, one he won a WS at, and one he reached the majors with.

Far easier to accept than Halladay's wife deciding he should not have a cap when he seemed to make it clear he was a Jay. I figure she was bitter still over the way the Jays handled his last few years here (the GM then was terrible) but the Jays after Halladay retired were trying to make it up to him with that one day contract to end his career where it began, and other little things. Instead we have Alomar as the only guy with a Jays cap on in the HOF ...sigh... great player, lousy person.

Logoless caps are bullshit.

I cannot agree with this, I was hoping for Rolen to go logoless to be honest, he had most of his value as a Philly, they developed his talent, he spent 9 years as a Phillie(organization) compared to 6 for the Cardinals, I was going to be perfectly fine with him taking a logoless cap because of how his tenure there ended, I didn't think he should take the Cardinals cap. I'm happy he chose the Cardinals cap, but I think that is a disservice to the city of Philly in a way.

And as mentioned, McGriff really has no cap that belongs to him, if you squint you can say he should wear a Toronto cap, but that is still a tough call. In other cases of logoless caps, which team do you pick, Maddux was developed by the Cubs, spent 10 Ml seasons along with 4 in the minors... his war is greater with the Braves, but the Cubs made him the pitcher that they had.

I have no problem with logoless caps, it makes sense in the era of free agency, you can't ignore the 2-5 years a player spends in the organization before they reach the majors when talking about a hof player.

I think that is a disservice to the city of Philly in a way.

nah; #### him.

“I believe this decision accurately represents a pivotal portion of my career based on our teams’ successes in St. Louis,” Rolen said in a statement issued by the Hall of Friday.

That’s more diplomatic than saying he left the Phillies somewhat unpleasantly, which has been suggested in some prior threads.

I have no problem with logoless caps, it makes sense in the era of free agency, you can't ignore the 2-5 years a player spends in the organization before they reach the majors when talking about a hof player.

It doesn't make any sense. Players don't wear trucker hats on the diamond. Picking a logo doesn't exclude the other teams he played for from their part of his history.

It just an accurate representation of him as a major league ballplayer; it's not a knockoff baseball card set that wouldn't fork over the dollars for rights.

I've never seen a logoless trucker hat in my life, pretty much all trucker hats have a logo of some sort, so I'm not getting the argument. Should he be wearing a bass pro-shop logo hat?

Heck many of the logos on the mlb cap changed during the career of the player, should they be forced to choose one logo to represent a particular year? I'm just not really understanding the argument, it's a cap on a person on a plaque.

For most of MLB history, it was easy to identify a player with a team or at most 2 and any such choices were pretty easy. Less so in the FA era and now the salary dump era. Gary Shefffield has nearly 11,000 PA, the most being 2358 with Florida, less than 25%. Next most is the Dodgers -- who thinks of Sheff as a Dodger (though it is where he had the most WAR). There's no reason to associate him with a team.

Heck many of the logos on the mlb cap changed during the career of the player, should they be forced to choose one logo to represent a particular year? I'm just not really understanding the argument, it's a cap on a person on a plaque.

What I know you've never seen is Greg Maddux wearing a baseball cap without a logo until his Hall of Fame plaque. Baseball players do not wear them on MLB diamonds.

The Hall plaque is designed to picture the player as fans best remember him. Yes, Scott Rolen can be best remembered as a Phil just as much as he can a Cardinal. But that's a reason to choose between the two, not this none of the above option which captures neither. And "going in as a Cardinal" does not in any way vacate his years with the Phils, Jays or Reds. It's just an honest representation of his career.

BBRef doesn't show Scott Rolen hatless or logoless on his career photo (the default is the Phils, in his case).

The Hall has the power to tell Wade Boggs he can't be sporting a Devil Rays cap on his plaque. It should have told Jimmy Hunter and Maddux and McGriff that this brandless option was not available, and I'm stunned you and others support this atrocity.

What they should do is, right after the players induction speech, they should bring a big wheel onto the stage with the player's teams on it, apportioned based on the number of games (i.e. if he played 50% of his games with the Dodgers, the wheel should be half-Dodgers, etc.) "OK, Scott, now spin the wheel to determine which cap you'll have on your plaque...!"

I like that idea of a wheel.

That said, I can see a no-logo cap for McGriff, but why in the hell wouldn't Maddux have been depicted as a Brave? Twice as many WAR, 61 more wins, 24 fewer losses, 5 more top 5 CYA finishes, and 27 more postseason games with Atlanta than with the Cubs.

#18 - As others have pointed out before, Maddux came up with the Cubs. Fans have no reason to care about a players minor league service, but I can understand why the players themselves might consider it significant.

That said, I don't like logo-less caps on HOF plaques either. Feels like a cop out. Especially in a case like Halladay's when the correct choice was obvious.

The reason that no particular team sticks out for McGriff is that he's not really a Hall-caliber player in the first place, and splitting up his career into smaller team-specific chunks makes him look even more underwhelming. Of course none of his contributions to any individual teams seems remarkable enough to be on his plaque, because he never had a Hall-worthy prime in the first place, and regularly switching teams like he did just emphasizes that.

But if he has to be in, I have to agree with SoSH - logoless caps are nonsense. McGriff should have an ATL cap; he may have been a better player in TOR and SD, but he was undoubtedly at his most famous as a Brave ... 3 of his 5 AS teams and a prominent contributor to a World Series championship.

If he or the Hall decided TOR instead, fair enough, no argument; he wasn't actually a great player in ATL for the most part. But he has sentimental ties to Tampa? Who freaking cares? He was an utterly unremarkable player by the time he got to Tampa, it's ridiculous that his time there would be a factor, even indirectly.

No cap, they should give him McGruff's trenchcoat.

That said, I don't like logo-less caps on HOF plaques either. Feels like a cop out. Especially in a case like Halladay's when the correct choice was obvious.

I'm fine when the correct choice is obvious and the hof letting them know that the player has little to no say in that situation. I just don't see any reason to force a logo for a player who isn't readily identified with a particular team. If Rolen would have said no logo, that would have been just as good of a choice in my opinion. Saying that Heck in the case of Rolen, the correct choice is the Phillies, not the Cardinals, but because of how things happened in Philly, I get there is a bit of left over tension and the player has a different preference, but I would get a logoless cap, it just makes sense.

17 & 21 thank you; laughter is indeed the best medicine

ah, pass

#18 - As others have pointed out before, Maddux came up with the Cubs. Fans have no reason to care about a players minor league service, but I can understand why the players themselves might consider it significant.

I agree that Maddux's case for a Braves' cap isn't quite the slam dunk that Boggs' was, since he did have a very good start to his career with the Cubs. But as you can see by the numbers I cited above, if it's not a slam dunk then it's an easy layup.

The reason that no particular team sticks out for McGriff is that he's not really a Hall-caliber player in the first place, and splitting up his career into smaller team-specific chunks makes him look even more underwhelming.

This, right here. McGriff's career WAR is itself an underwhelming 56.2 (I use 62 as my informal cutoff line) and the most he ever got for one team is the 19.4 he logged in 578 games as a Blue Jay. (That's probably not a record, but, geez.)

By "record" I mean, roughly, "Fewest WAR by a HOFer for one team, in which this was the most WAR they ever had for a single team." (That's awkward as hell, and should never be seen in public...kinda like me.)

"Fewest WAR by a HOFer for one team, in which this was the most WAR they ever had for a single team."

Other notably low totals in FWBAHFOTIWTWTMWTEHFAST (not an exhaustive check, just going through people with comparatively low career WAR):

Rick Ferrell (11.9, BOS)
Deacon White (10.7, BUF) - schedule length caveats apply (would probably go to the Boston NA team if adjusted)
Jim O'Rourke (18.5, NYG)

Pitchers:
Bruce Sutter (18.5, CHC)
Rollie Fingers (12.1, OAK)
Lee Smith (19.0, CHC)
Rube Marquard (17.0, NYG)
Rich Gossage (18.8, NYY)
Hoyt Wilhelm (16.2, CHW)

The itinerant closers make a lot of sense here, given the difficulty of putting up big single-season WAR numbers in the role.

One player who gets a lot of support around here would be even lower than McGriff - Sheffield at 17 WAR with the Dodgers.