Re: Palmeiro-Hall of fame? or Not
First of all, Palmeiro is a hall of fame baseball player. Whoever pointed out that had he been a Yankee their would be no debate, was right.
500 HR's should NOT be a guarantee that you make the hall, but Palmeiro has been about alot more than HR's. He has been on of the most clutch hitters in baseball in the last 10 years. He ranks in the top of every important offensive category during his career. Sure, he never led the league in HR's, but you never doubted he would hit 30 and bat .300 either. Any player at any position that can average 30+ HR's bat over .300 and average 100+ RBI's is a great player.
Rob Neyer's argument that their are too many 1B's in the HOF is just dumb. The HOF is not a fantasy team, positional scarcity does not apply. I agree that there have been better 1B's during his career and that in no one year would you have called him the best 1B in baseball. But if you want to know who would start on my 90's All Decade team at 1B it would have to be Raffy. You could argue for Bagwell, but he was not nearly as consistent and lost alot more time to injury. Sure Frank Thomas put up phenominal numbers during the 90's, but what happened to him in the last 3 or 4 years? You could say he is aging but he is at least 5 years younger that Raffy. If you are the best player at your postion over the course of a decade, you belong in the HOF.
Anyway, I could throw out a thousand numbers that prove that Raffy belongs in the hall, but that's not the point. The point is that we all see it differently and we are all right about the hall and its mystique. About a year ago, ESPN.com's "The Sports Guy" wrote an article about the Baseball Hall of Fame Pyramid. Basically the top and smallest section of the pyramid is for the Babe Ruth's and Cy Young's who are in the Pantheon of greatest players ever. The bottom would be there for the Ryne Sandberg's of the world who capture the passion of many fans, but whose hall merits are debatable. Anyway,here is the article, perhaps we can start a new thread dedicated to who should be on each level. What the hell, I'll start the new thread.
First of all, Palmeiro is a hall of fame baseball player. Whoever pointed out that had he been a Yankee their would be no debate, was right.
500 HR's should NOT be a guarantee that you make the hall, but Palmeiro has been about alot more than HR's. He has been on of the most clutch hitters in baseball in the last 10 years. He ranks in the top of every important offensive category during his career. Sure, he never led the league in HR's, but you never doubted he would hit 30 and bat .300 either. Any player at any position that can average 30+ HR's bat over .300 and average 100+ RBI's is a great player.
Rob Neyer's argument that their are too many 1B's in the HOF is just dumb. The HOF is not a fantasy team, positional scarcity does not apply. I agree that there have been better 1B's during his career and that in no one year would you have called him the best 1B in baseball. But if you want to know who would start on my 90's All Decade team at 1B it would have to be Raffy. You could argue for Bagwell, but he was not nearly as consistent and lost alot more time to injury. Sure Frank Thomas put up phenominal numbers during the 90's, but what happened to him in the last 3 or 4 years? You could say he is aging but he is at least 5 years younger that Raffy. If you are the best player at your postion over the course of a decade, you belong in the HOF.
Anyway, I could throw out a thousand numbers that prove that Raffy belongs in the hall, but that's not the point. The point is that we all see it differently and we are all right about the hall and its mystique. About a year ago, ESPN.com's "The Sports Guy" wrote an article about the Baseball Hall of Fame Pyramid. Basically the top and smallest section of the pyramid is for the Babe Ruth's and Cy Young's who are in the Pantheon of greatest players ever. The bottom would be there for the Ryne Sandberg's of the world who capture the passion of many fans, but whose hall merits are debatable. Anyway,here is the article, perhaps we can start a new thread dedicated to who should be on each level. What the hell, I'll start the new thread.
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