John Smoltz, first ballot Hall of Fame.

by **DWags** Tue 6 Jan 2015 - 14:19

Congrats to a hell of an athlete and pitcher. I believe a pretty big Spartan fan too. Old Waverly product. Well deserved. I still say the trade was good at the time, and it should have got us a World Championship. Maybe two.

Smoltz in on first ballot

by **InTenSity** Tue 6 Jan 2015 - 14:21

I thought no one got in on 1st ballots for baseball.

by **Watch Out Pylon!** Tue 6 Jan 2015 - 14:23

Never heard of John Soltz.

by **steveschneider** Tue 6 Jan 2015 - 14:37

Time to put a member from the 84 Tigers in.

by **Dr. Strangelove** Tue 6 Jan 2015 - 14:46

steveschneider wrote:Time to put a member from the 84 Tigers in.

John Smoltz, first ballot Hall of Fame. Sparky10

Morris will get in one day and that will be it from that squad. It's not the Hall of Very Good

by gomersbro Tue 6 Jan 2015 - 15:01

Dr. Strangelove wrote:

Morris will get in one day and that will be it from that squad. It's not the Hall of Very Good

Trammell should get in if Larkin is in. Unfortunately with Nomar on the ballot that will take votes from him. Still pissed that Sweet Lou never even got to a second ballot. That was a disgrace. And I doubt that Morris gets in given the new rules.

by Guest Tue 6 Jan 2015 - 15:05

Dr. Strangelove wrote:Morris will get in one day and that will be it from that squad. It's not the Hall of Very Good

Trammell should be in, and it's not even close. He deserves it over Morris.

Compare these stats - in both career stats and 162 game averages they're very similar players.

John Smoltz, first ballot Hall of Fame. JbvELTt

John Smoltz, first ballot Hall of Fame. JbvELTt

Player #1 is Joe Morgan - a 1st ballot Hall of Famer.

Player #2 is Lou Whitaker - off the ballot 1st year with less than 5% of the vote.

Top second basemen by WAR
1. Rogers Hornsby, 126.9
2. Eddie Collins, 123.9
3. Joe Morgan, 100.3
4. Nap Lajoie, 89.6
5. Charlie Gehringer, 80.8
6. Lou Whitaker, 74.8
7. Bobby Grich, 71.0
8. Frankie Frisch, 70.1
9. Ryne Sandberg, 67.7
10. Robbie Alomar, 66.7

by **DWags** Tue 6 Jan 2015 - 15:09

Watch Out Pylon! wrote:Never heard of John Soltz.

So you get on my dick about missing the "M" and you didn't notice that I said,
"great athlete and picture"

For Grammar Nazi you're not very exact.

by **Watch Out Pylon!** Tue 6 Jan 2015 - 15:14

DWags wrote:

So you get on my dick about missing the "M" and you didn't notice that I said,
"great athlete and picture"

For Grammar Nazi you're not very exact.

Lol, I guess in my zeal to call the title out, I completely skipped over that gem. My commandant will have a word with me.

by **InTenSity** Tue 6 Jan 2015 - 15:24

Watch Out Pylon! wrote:

Lol, I guess in my zeal to call the title out, I completely skipped over that gem. My commandant will have a word with me.

The committee of 9 would like to have a word with you.

by **Robert J Sakimano** Tue 6 Jan 2015 - 15:32

it's about time!

by **DWags** Tue 6 Jan 2015 - 16:00

InTenSity wrote:
The committee of 9 would like to have a word with you.

Might there be some culling of the heard of Grammar Nazi's?

by **steveschneider** Tue 6 Jan 2015 - 16:01

What about Bonds, McGwire, Sosa, Clemens and Piazza?

How about Mattingly?

by **DWags** Tue 6 Jan 2015 - 16:08

steveschneider wrote:What about Bonds, McGwire, Sosa, Clemens and Piazza?

How about Mattingly?

Really, why aren't Morris and Trammel in? Probably Lou too. It's all about media market. Pisses me off.

by **steveschneider** Tue 6 Jan 2015 - 16:14

DWags wrote:

Really, why aren't Morris and Trammel in? Probably Lou too. It's all about media market. Pisses me off.

I actually don't give a flying f about the HOF. Too many politics involved. I felt like this year they did a pretty good job, but when I think of all those players that got screwed over by the process it ruins it for me.

Pete Fuckin Rose isn't in the HOF. WTF?

by **Frank Ricard** Tue 6 Jan 2015 - 21:29

Great for John. Everything I've heard about the guy is that he's a first class guy. Good to see the nice guys get theirs.

by Guest Tue 6 Jan 2015 - 22:27

Dr. Strangelove wrote:Morris will get in one day and that will be it from that squad. It's not the Hall of Very Good

John Smoltz, first ballot Hall of Fame. 010615-LarkinVs-IA.vadapt.955.high.0

by **Dr. Strangelove** Wed 7 Jan 2015 - 8:58

LooseGoose wrote:Larkin vs. Trammell

Baseball HoF is a ****ed thing anyway....they were letting anybody in for a long time.

I don't really care who's in the HoF and frankly the fact that the Hit King, HR King and most dominant pitcher of the last quarter century aren't in is pretty funny if you ask me.

I'll buy your argument that Larkin doesn't deserve to be in it but frankly looking at the Tigers rosters of the last 40 years there aren't a lot of worthy HoF candidates. IMHO it's Morris and that's about it - he'll probably get in the veteran's committee route.

I mean who else do you look at? Trammell and Whittaker, right?

Here's a fun fact - 84 Tigers and 81 Dodgers are only pre-1995 World Series winners without a Hall of Famer on their rosters.

by Guest Wed 7 Jan 2015 - 10:53

Dr. Strangelove wrote:

Baseball HoF is a ****ed thing anyway....they were letting anybody in for a long time.

I don't really care who's in the HoF and frankly the fact that the Hit King, HR King and most dominant pitcher of the last quarter century aren't in is pretty funny if you ask me.

I'll buy your argument that Larkin doesn't deserve to be in it but frankly looking at the Tigers rosters of the last 40 years there aren't a lot of worthy HoF candidates. IMHO it's Morris and that's about it - he'll probably get in the veteran's committee route.

I mean who else do you look at? Trammell and Whittaker, right?

Here's a fun fact - 84 Tigers and 81 Dodgers are only pre-1995 World Series winners without a Hall of Famer on their rosters.

Trammell and Whitaker are it. You can make a case for Morris under a "Big Hall" argument but honestly Mussina and Schilling have better cases and they were both under 40% this election.

If you want to talk snubbed Tigers Lolich had a better career than Morris and Bill Freehan was criminally overlooked.

by **steveschneider** Wed 7 Jan 2015 - 15:04

IMO I've always believed if you are in the top 5 of your position for around a decade you should get in. Trammel was a top 5 SS for a decade.

His defense was amazing and he did a lot of things the stats just don't measure. I'd put in Jack, Lou and Alan.

by **Wally Fairway** Wed 7 Jan 2015 - 21:14

http://wlns.com/2015/01/07/6-sports-at-11-january-6/

link to a Fred Heumann story about Smoltz making the HOF, it shows one of Smoltzies biggest sports moments (according to an interview with John - no link, but I'm looking) when he hit a walk-off homer to win the Diamond Classic HS baseball tournament for Waverly

(note: not sure how to embed a non-youtube video) - the Homer starts at about 1:10 in the video

by **steveschneider** Thu 8 Jan 2015 - 14:49

Keith has done two rants ripping the HOF and its dumb ass selection process.

http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=12129596

by Guest Mon 12 Jan 2015 - 15:14

Good article -

http://espn.go.com/blog/sweetspot/post/_/id/54548/the-all-time-all-underrated-team

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