The Hall of Lame in Pooperstown, NY

And under that title, I will now attempt to offer legitimate baseball analysis.


If you aren't already aware, the Baseball Hall of Fame will induct two new members today--Tony Gwynn and Cal Ripken Jr. Both Gwynn and Ripken were inducted in near-unanimous votes, making this one of the rare years that will not feature debate over the inductees' merits.


As I see it, that gives us the perfect opportunity to have a different, more important discussion. Most years, we're all so hung up on who should've or shouldn't've been voted in that we overlook the issue at the core of Hall of Fame debates--that is, the perceived overcrowding of the Hall of Fame. Because so many fans and writers share this perception, deserving players get squeezed out every year, and those that make the cut are often discounted and scrutinized.


So what's the solution? Well, that's simple. It's time to boot out some of the players already in the Hall of Fame. Sure, that might seem unfair to those players, but not kicking them out is even more unfair to future Hall of Famers and Hall of Fame snubs.


I thought I would offer my suggestions for defrocking in the form of a nine-man "team." I figure nine players is a good number to start, and lists like this are always more fun to mold into an impossible-to-assemble lineup than to say, "Hey, here's a list of a dozen or so guys with this similarity."


So loyal readers, I give you my votes for the 2007 Hall of Lame Team.



C - Ray Shalk

I'll give this guy credit. He did spend 18 years as a catcher, most of those as a full-time starter. So the dude must've pretty tough. Nevertheless, he was a pretty awful hitter. Granted he played in the '10s and '20s, Schalk only managed 11 career homers. Even in his three best seasons, he was merely a league-average hitter, which isn't so bad for a catcher but pretty crappy for a Hall of Famer.



1B - Tony Perez

This is probably the toughest position to find anyone boot-worthy, but Perez is the best candidate. As much as I despise the use of counting stats as a measure of career success, his 379 homers are rather low for a guy who played a low-impact defensive position. Also, his .341 career OBP is unimpressive for a power hitter and a Hall of Famer. Voters likely voted for Perez based in large part on his 1,652 RBI, which of course were aided by the tremendous talent of his 1970s Reds teammates.



2B - Bill Mazeroski

Mazeroski might not be the single-worst 2B in the Hall of Fame, but he is the player I hate most in the history of baseball. People are concerned about steroid-users in the Hall? How about a modest-hitting middle infielder with a .299 career OBP who only got inducted because he had buddies on the Veterans Committee and hit one stupid lucky homer that happened to win Game 7 of a World Series against the Yankees? "But he was a great defensive player!" Yeah, yeah, yeah... I don't care if he had a thirty-foot vertical. There's no way he was that friggin' good.



3B - Freddie Lindstrom

As best I can tell, Lindstrom was like the Dave Hollins of his generation. Maybe Bobby Bonilla, but I think that's being generous. He didn't play very long; he wasn't effective for very long; and when you remember that a .379 BA wasn't such a big deal in 1930 (something the voters may not have comprehended in 1976), you realize that he never even had a standout season. Oh, but he did play in New York.

SS - Phil Rizzuto

The obvious pick, Rizzuto is the classic case of a player riding the coattails of his team's success. (His own popularity as a broadcaster helped too, I'm sure.) While his 1950 MVP season was admittedly impressive, none of his other season stats would indicate that he was a special player. And if you think big-market bias is just a modern day phenomenon, look at the 1949 AL MVP voting. That's messed up.

OF - Lloyd Waner

Like Lindstrom, Waner compiled a bunch of .300 seasons in the late '20s and '30s when that wasn't such a big deal. When Waner was inducted in 1967, baseball was going through its most pitching-dominated era in recent history, which likely distorted the value of those high BAs. His lifetime OPS+ of 99 would indicate that he's precisely average, which even if he were an incredible defensive player would not merit a Hall of Fame induction.

OF - Tommy McCarthy

It may seem unfair to pick on a 19th century player, but in this list, everyone is fair game. And remember--we're talking about subtracting him from the Hall. The deader he is, the less of a fight he'll put up. McCarthy, even for those days, was not very good. He did steal a lot of bases, but he only played nine full seasons, four of which were pretty blah by the norms of the era. He also spent four of those years playing in the American Association, which was, by best indication, run on improvisation. In fact, McCarthy's best season was 1890, a year in which his St. Louis Browns played 136 games, as opposed to the 36 played by sixth-place Baltimore and the 99 played by the last-place Brooklyn Gladiators, and the World Series ended in a tie.

OF - Richie Ashburn

Ashburn was a very good hitter, but I think it's fair to say he benefited from his inseparable link to the "Whiz Kids" team. He was the Platonic ideal of a leadoff hitter--high average, lots of walks, low strikeout totals, and speed--but he had zero power (29 career HR), and he was not a very efficient base stealer. He was undoubtedly one of the better outfielders of his era, but he looks pretty weak next to nearly every other Hall of Fame outfielder.

P - Early Wynn

If Cleveland hadn't brought back the 43 year-old Wynn in 1963 to get one win, he would've ended his career on 299 and might have never made the Hall. But because he did get that win and because sports writers think like children, Wynn's induction was much easier (fourth ballot) than it should've been. With those 300 wins, he also lost 244. And while I realize that W-L is a poor evaluation tool, that's a lot of losses. Wynn also finished his career with just a 106 ERA+ and a 1.3 K/BB ratio. Wynn's career also lacks that five-year string of dominance that most Hall of Famers have, and even his one Cy Young was undeserved (won 22 games for the '59 AL champ White Sox with just a 3.17 ERA, 118 ERA+ and 119 BB).

So now that we've thinned out the heard a little, there should be plenty of room not only for Ripken and Gwynn today, but for Santo, Rice, Bert, and at least a few more border-line guys. And aw what the hell--let's give Rob Deer a plaque too.