2025 Baseball Hall of Fame Class

I think Parker getting in should definitely help Murphy's case. I guess what Parker has in his favor is that he did everything he did on bad knees and played through pain his entire career (including 1979 when he broke his jaw in a collision with John Stearns and wore the hockey mask to keep playing) -- and which led to his drug problems -- and that he had a renaissance in the mid-80s, finishing runner-up in the 1985 MVP race (he had a monster year and arguably deserved the award more than Willie McGee) and that he was the key cog on one World Series winner and a key role player on another late in his career.

They (along with Willie Stargell) were my two favorite non-Tigers -- Parker because he was a Pirate and, my mom being from Pittsburgh, they were my NL team, and Murphy because he gave me his autograph at a game at the Launching Pad in 1979 just before he became a big star. I've always thought both were deserving. You can't tell the story of the 70s or 80s without them.

 

That's a sadly great point. Schilling is such a bad guy that I was only thinking of his in-career asshole exploits turning off his peers. He's been much worse since then, "peaking" of course w/the cruelty towards the Wakefields. That should finish him off. Hell it accomplished the previously impossible and has shut him up for the last year-plus.

 

Tom Boswell wins the BBWAA Career Excellence Award

 

Schilling showed what he was in the 1993 World Series when he pulled his bullshit antics in the dugout with Mitch Williams on the mound. If I was Williams I would have beat his ass for that. Can't imagine that kind of thing would help him with the guys on the veterans committee even if they are hardcore MAGAs like Chipper and Glavine (and -- sadly possibly-- Trammell, if he's on again. I saw an advertisement last year where he was one of a number of baseball celebrities making an appearance at a Kari Lake event, which crushed my soul. I keep trying to tell myself that he's not political at all but his old buddy Darrell Evans -- a MAGA lunatic -- roped him into it).

 

Apropos of nothing, I bet Dwight Gooden would win the 1985 MVP balloting if it was held w/todays electorate & statistical focus. Of course, he would never get the chance to rack up 12.5 in WAR by going 24-4 over 268 innings at age 20--or ever--so...

 

Parker was the "Cobra", man he was a sight at the plate, a hulking man waiving the bat from the left side, truly coiled like a Cobra. Hit for power and average and what an arm in RF. Someone who truly helped define the game when he was playing, plus a studly DH at the end when he couldn't play RF as he did before.

I've got a framed photo of "Dewey" Evans on my wall and I'd love to root for him as a HOF'er but frankly he never struck me as a HOF'er. Made himself into a nice hitter towards the end, but at that time Butch Hobson was getting 100 RBIs in the 9 hole so there was some batting inflation. Probably THE smoothest RF in the 80's though. Even so, not enough IMHO. I mean if he gets in for his D, what about Garry Maddox or Paul Blair in CF? Those guys were right there in terms of D.

 

I know the HOF doesn't work like this, but how can Jim Rice be in the HOF when Dwight Evans isn't even though he was just as good offensively and infinitely better defensively while playing on the same teams?

Evans: .272-385 HRs-1,384 RBIs-1,470 Rs-.370 OBP-.470 SLG-.840 OPS-2 Silver Sluggers-8 Gold Gloves-67.1 WAR
Rice: .298-382 HRs-1,451 RBIs-1,249 Rs-..352 OBP-.502 SLG-.854 OPS-2 Silver Sluggers-0 Gold Gloves-47.7 WAR

 

I've posted this before but back in the early '80s at the Boston Phoenix, when were drinking at the old Eliot Lounge, one of our pet arguments was who'd be elected to the Hall by the (then) Veterans Committee. And choice number one was always Dwight Evans.

 

Pete Rose was a lock HOFer if he'd retired the day before he bet on his first baseball game. He should be in too.

 

Dewey’s peak offense when there was an offensive explosion whereas Rice’s was in the late 70’s.

 

There's also this:

Rice has an MVP and was top five in voting five other times for a total of six in an 11-season span.

Evans was top five twice