Abstract
Selection into the MLB hall of fame is a special honor reserved for the all-time great players and managers. And, over time, the selection or nonselection of players has provided controversies for discussion. Many fans believe that Pete Rose belongs in the HOF based solely on his playing career; other fans are less forgiving about his admitted gambling on baseball games as a manager. Similar arguments are made about Shoeless Joe Jackson. On the other side, arguments arise over some players who have been inducted into the hall. Notably, did Phil Rizzuto deserve the honor when he was voted in by the Veteran’s Committee in 1994?. Bill James (1995) argued that Rizzuto’s career statistics did not warrant his selection.
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Notes
- 1.
As a Yankee fan in my childhood, I enjoyed Rizzuto on the WPIX broadcasts. But I have never been swayed that Rizzuto deserved selection. Likewise, perhaps due to fan bias, I did not support the induction of Pete Rose. In this chapter, however, I focus only on the nonparametric performance measure and draw conclusions from this analysis.
- 2.
James’ Whatever Happened to the Hall of Fame is an interesting read rich in analysis. Many of the examples in this chapter were studied by James.
- 3.
- 4.
Prior to 2001, the Veterans Committee did not restrict members to HOF inductees. Controversies arose over the selection of a few for partisan reasons. Examples are detailed in James (1995).
- 5.
The team listed for the Hall of Famer is the team associated with the player’s induction. In many cases, the player contributed to more than one team. For this table, we consider only those who played a majority of years in the modern era. Five players with a majority of years before 1900 would have been included: Roger Connor (0.943), Dan Brouthers (0.937), Jesse Burkett (0.922), Sam Thompson (0.915), and Billy Hamilton (0.907).
- 6.
The list of players and the number of votes received are available at http://static.espn.go.com/mlb/news/1999/1023/129008.html.
- 7.
Musial lost a year serving in noncombat duty in the U.S. Navy.
- 8.
In Table 8.2, we consider only Hall of Famers who played the majority of time after the modern era began in 1900.
- 9.
James (2001) ranks Berra as the top catcher, followed by Bench, Campanella, and Cochrane.
- 10.
In James (2001), Joe Morgan was chosen as the best second baseman while Collins and Hornsby were ranked second and third, respectively.
- 11.
James (2001) ranking has Schmidt first, followed by Kansas City Royal George Brett, Milwaukee Braves Eddie Mathews, Boston Red Sox Wade Boggs, and Frank Baker.
- 12.
No attempt was made to discount for longer careers and outlier seasons.
- 13.
Ruggiero and Bretschneider (1998) introduced the weighted Russell measure to allow weighting of individual variables.
- 14.
Beginning in 1967, the Cy Young Award was given to the best pitcher from each league.
- 15.
James (2001) rescales the earned run average by the league average and discounts for parks. After adjustment, Joss still ranks in the top 10 all time.
- 16.
Only players who played a majority of the time after 1900 were considered.
- 17.
Ratings of current players are expected to go down. Most players realize a decline in their seasonal ratings as they play beyond their age of peak performance.
- 18.
Suzuki does not appear in Table 8.5 because he only had 9 years of service at the end of 2009.
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© 2011 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC
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Ruggiero, J. (2011). The Hall of Fame. In: Frontiers in Major League Baseball. Sports Economics, Management and Policy, vol 1. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-0831-5_8
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