MLB Hall of Fame (OOTP Historical)

[dubb93]

The Major League Baseball Hall of Fame was founded in 1882 in Chicago, Illinois and is still in its infancy. Currently three immortal legends are enshrined in its not quite yet hallowed halls. This is not a dynasty, per say, it is more a hall of immortals to my OOTP game. I won't bore you with my struggles to win the World Series each year. In this reality, Major League Baseball play started in 1871 with eight teams and a thirty game schedule. The Chicago White Stockings defeated the St. Louis Brown Stocking in the very firest Major League Championship game that year. Twelve years later with the retirement of some of the greatest stars in the history of the game, the league took the chance to set up this Hall of Fame. It is currently 1886 and three such legends have been enshrined. The league no longer plays a 30 game schedule with eight teams. Today there are 16 teams, and this year will see the season expand from 112 to 126 games.

Inclusion into the Hall will be done by me rather than OOTP. I don’t really have any hard set rules for inclusion. I’m simply going to compare the players to their peers. Maybe we will all learn about some lost players over the years. This will be pretty slow moving as I tend to play solo very slowly. I think once I get far enough in to have players consistently retiring I’d like to induct atleast a player ever season, but that is probably another decade or two off at this point.

[dubb93]

The Major League Baseball Hall of Fame would like to welcome its first class. The class of 1882 consists of two players. One was one of the most dominant pitchers of the 1870’s. The other man is a legendary hitter who left the game all too soon. Welcome Asa Brainard and George Hall to these, the most hallowed of halls.

Asa Brainard

“King Tres”



Accomplishments

American League Pitcher of the Year Awards: 2 (1871 and 1874)

All Star Selections: 7

1871 American League Rookie of the Year

World Series Championships: 1 (1874)

American League Championships: 2 (1871 and 1874)

Position: Starting Pitcher

Inducting Team: St. Louis Brown Stockings


All-Time Wins Rankings as of April 1886

A cool five seasons after his retirement, “King Tres” remains in the top five in career wins. Considering pitchers routinely start fifty to sixty games a season in the 1880’s, that alone should tell you exactly how great of a pitcher Brainard truly was. Brainard earned the nickname “King Tres” in 1874 when he powered St. Louis to its only World Series Championship in history. That season Brainard led the American League in Wins, ERA, and Strikeouts to earn the first Triple Crown in the history of Major League Baseball. Brainard’s Brown Stockings’ were almost completely reliant on his arm, often ranking at or near the bottom of the American League in offensive numbers. That was how good Brainard was, one of the deadliest arms of his era, he put the Brown Stockings on his back every night leading an offensive challenged team to two pennants and a World Series Championship.

George Hall



Accomplishments

American League Most Valuable Player Awards: 3 (1872, 1877, and 1878)

All Star Selections: 10

Gold Gloves: 2 (1872 and 1878)

World Series Championships: 1 (1880)

American League Championships: 4 (1872, 1876, 1880, and 1882)

Position: Center Field

Inducting Team: Cleveland Blues


All-Time Hits by Center Fielders as of April 1886

Four years have passed since a thirty-three year old George Hall shocked the country and made the abrupt decision to retire from Major League Baseball. Hall had decided that family was more important than baseball and announced that he was retreating to the quiet life in the country to dedicate his entire life to his family. “Baseball has been great to me, but it has come at a cost. I am no longer willing to pay that price. My family needs me and that is where I will be from now under the day I am no longer on this earth,” Hall was quoted as saying that day.

While he was no longer still in the prime of his career at 32, he was still the starting CF on the American League Champions and his contact rating was still rated 16 relative to the MLB, meaning he was still considerably above average as a hitter. Had Hall played until he was no longer capable of playing, it is possible that he could have gone down as the greatest player who ever played. Had he stayed healthy, he likely would have retired as the all-time leader in hits.

Hall became the first great player to retire from a Cleveland team that dominated the American League offensively. Those teams put up offensive numbers over multiple seasons that were completely out of whack with what the rest of the league was doing. In an era known for pitching, they dominated with offense. He was their best player.

Instead of focusing on what might have been, I would like to look at what places George Hall in the Hall of Fame. He played twelve seasons as a professional baseball player. In exactly 25% of those seasons he was named the Most Valuable Player in the American League. His Cleveland baseball team won the American League pennant four times during his twelve year career despite never having much more than journeyman pitching. Four years after his stunning retirement from baseball he is still the All-Time hit leader for Center Fielders by a considerable margin, despite teams playing considerably more games today than they did at the start of his career. He was truly a great player and without a doubt the most destructive Center Fielder to ever play the game. During his induction ceremony he vowed to return to Chicago to personally induct his long time teammate and good friend Cap Anson, who he ensured the crowd would be joining him here one day.

George Hall, the greatest Center Fielder in the history of baseball.

[dubb93]

The Major League Baseball Hall of Fame is proud to introduce to you its class of 1884. Two years ago, two men from the American League were added to the Hall of Fame. Now we add a legend from the National League to our hallowed halls. This year we enshrine one man. We enshrine a man who many feel was under appreciated as a player. Over the course of a fourteen season career this man defined what it meant to be a middle of the lineup hitter, a Left Fielder, and a Cincinnati Red Stocking. He was an extra base hit master, leading the National League in extra base hits six times and slugging percentage four times.

Lip Pike



Accomplishments

All Star Selections: 8

World Series Championships: 1 (1881)

National League Championships: 1 (1881)

Position: Left Field

Inducting Team: Cincinnati Red Stockings


All-Time Doubles for Left Fielders as of April 1886

Lip Pike played fourteen seasons in the Major Leagues. He spent eleven seasons in Cincinnati, occupying the middle spot in the order for ten of those seasons. Some men strike people out. Some men slap singles. Lip Pike’s claim to fame was his ability to knock extra base hits. He was feared by pitchers for his ability to not just get on base, but to empty them with a double or a triple. Or even a home run. He was a power house of a hitter who led the league in home runs three times during his career.

Pike is being inducted for his accomplishments on the field, but during his time as a player he was often under the radar since his Cincinnati team just wasn’t very good. His Red Stockings finished in the bottom half of the National League nine of the eleven seasons he played for them. According to Pike, all of the struggles made their 1881 World Series victory over Philadelphia all the more sweet. Pike still smiles to this day when talking about that special season. Like his Hall of Fame induction, it is something you will never be able to take away from him.

[dubb93]

1886 came and went without any inductions. I struggled with keeping the every two year model, and even had two guys who could have conceivably been inducted, but the Hall held firm and abandoned the every other year concept.

The first near miss was 1880 AL MVP George Betchel of the Cleveland Blues. Betchel played for 13 MLB seasons and won six Gold Glove awards. His major issue against being inducted into the Hall was consistency; besides his mammoth 1880 MVP season, he was a considerably below average hitter for the rest of his career. Despite not being inducted, he still has a place in the Hall of Fame as a footnote to George Hall. It was his monster 1880 MVP season that allowed Hall to win his only World Series ring. The door is closed on Betchel.

The second man who came up short for induction in 1886 is Hugh Campbell. Campbell played ten MLB seasons for the Brooklyn Athletics. Campbell won the National League Pitcher of the Year award in 1879 and was a six time All Star. He won the World Series with Brooklyn in 1879 as their ace and again in 1883 as their primary reliever. Campbell is third on the all time wins list for MLB pitchers. Campbell has a good resume, but he is a victim of his era. With three other starting pitchers from the early days already inducted or set for induction upon their nearing retirement, Campbell's stats will have to stand the test of time in order to earn an induction. The door is not closed on Campbell. If his numbers hold up and compare favorably to the second generation of MLB starting pitchers, he will earn an induction. If he isn't in by the early 1890's, I would say it probably isn't going to happen. Campbell just wasn't a first ballot type of player.

[dubb93]

1887 sees another man enter the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame. The class of 1887 is another one man class. The man being inducted played 14 seasons for three different clubs. He felt like a journeyman, bouncing from place to place, but his career numbers are completely out of whack with any other second baseman in the history of baseball.

Wes Fisler



Accomplishments

All Star Selections: 7

Gold Gloves: 2 (1873 and 1874)

World Series Championships: 2 (1881 with Cincinnati and 1886 with St. Louis)

Position: Second Base

Current Individual Records Held at Second Base: 17 (Out of a possible 35 Categories)

Inducting Team: Philadelphia Athletics


Records Page for 2B as of March, 1887

Fisler started his path to the Hall of Fame with seven and half seasons in Philadelphia. During his tenure in Philly he was a six time All Star and was really at the peak of his ability. It was unfortunate that during this time, Fisler's Athletics were not one of the premier teams in the American League. Fisler was a bright spot on a losing team. It was doubly unfortunate that Fisler was traded away before the Athletics had the emergence of Bobby Mitchell and Monte Ward in 1879, because I think if they had kept Fisler, they probably would have been able to convert some of their American League Championships. Instead, the Athletics without the best second baseman in baseball, were not able to capture a World Series Championship.

In 1878, Philly traded Fisler to Cincinnati in a laughably lopsided deal for a couple of prospects who never ended up cracking the major league roster in Philadelphia. Wes would help turn around what had been a terrible team. He helped them win the World Series in 1881 against his former team the Athletics. Ironically, Fisler would have been a much better fit on the defensively minded Athletics than he was the Red Stockings who had traded for him three years prior. Still, the Red Stockings appreciated his glove up the middle as they raised the banner that year.

The following season he would find himself in St. Louis, playing for the Browns, after they selected him in the MLB expansion draft. He was no longer in his prime, but he spent five seasons in St. Louis as an everyday starter and helped lead them to their first World Series championship in 1886. He retired a champion.

Fisler never had that dominant season that you expect out of first ballot Hall of Fame players. Instead, what he did have was 14 seasons in the majors as one of, if not the best second baseman in baseball each season. He was able to play competitively, as a starter on the best team in baseball, at the age of 41. He absolutely owns the MLB record books for second basemen, topping the historical archives in nearly half of the recorded statistical categories.

Wes Fisler played great baseball at a position where most of the other teams in the league were getting poor play. He had a great glove in a time where his peers were not capable of helping their team defensively. He is a Hall of Fame player.