2024 Baseball Hall of Fame thread

Is he nominated as a contributor in this instance? Have they started to do that with the various VCs? Because, yeah, on the merits of his playing career alone, he has no case. But collectively with his stint as a player, broadcaster, and NL president, he has a very compelling case.

 

This ballot seems designed to elect Piniella and Leyland. I don't have a problem with Johnson either. I agree that Gaston didn't do it long enough. If you could prove he got blackballed or something that's one thing, but the fact that no one wanted him to manage their team after back-to-back titles, or he didn't want to manage, is just a weird point on his resume.

West is here because he's the all-time leader in games for an umpire and his achievements are in line with previous inductees. Based on that, I think he has a chance. I think under the current qualifications for umps Montague does as well.

If you want to take the totality of White's career, I'd hear the argument but I think he's the seventh-best candidate of the eight.

No offense to Hank Peters, I don't get his inclusion. I assume there are a couple of execs that could be better for this ballot.

 

He's on this ballot as an executive, which is the worst part of his resume. I think the committee got somewhat stuck when it came to that category -- a lot of the older candidates are in and the recent guys that are going to get in are still working around the game -- and they wanted to have the balance of 4 managers, 2 umps and 2 execs.

Steinbrenner would be a much better choice, I think he was last on a ballot in 2019

 

Needs to be a collage with that and him wrestling with Rob Dibble.

 

I think all of these guys scream Hall Of Great. It's down to Piniella, Johnson and Leyland.

Leyland strikes me as the best of the lot, but as pointed out, his regular season winning percentage isn't great. However, that's down to being loyal (or whatever it was) to the Pirates for so long after they decided to go cheap and one year with the Marlins, post-fire sale. The one time he had some stability was in Detroit ... where he was never below .500.

Piniella won almost everywhere he managed, but he was erratic to a point. Two good seasons, one bad or two bad seasons, one good. That seems to be the hallmark of his career.

BYH makes a good case for Johnson, who has kinda been forgotten about. He has the best winning percentage of the lot, but was sorta the anti-Leyland by managing almost exclusively at larger market clubs. Then again, he got those larger-market clubs pointed in the right direction.

Don't see a case for anyone else on the list. Bill White himself worried he was a figurehead when he was president of the NL. I don't think the league presidents have had any real power in my lifetime.

 

Leyland also had the misfortune of managing not one, but two Pirates rebuilds, the first of which was shortly after the 1985 Pittsburgh drug trials and the second of which occurred after they let Bonds, Bonilla and Drabek walk out the door for better contracts. He also was the manager of the Marlins when Huizenga sold off all parts of the team worth a damn months after winning the World Series.

 

I got Jim Leyland's autograph ... when he was managing the Florida State League Lakeland Tigers in 1978. Between us, we've smoked tens of thousands of cigarettes during games. I don't smoke but his managing nearly caused me to pick up the habit multiple times.

 

It's weird to say a guy who managed a team to consecutive rings isn't a Hall of Famer.

 

He was still smoking in his office when he was finishing up w/the Tigers. I hate smoke, and I loved being there. Such a don't give a fuck throwback. He'd have a flimsy burger on a styrofoam plate and inevitably flick the cigarette ashes on the empty plate. The guy is 78 and looks better than he did when he was 48 so maybe we should all be smoking six packs a day.

 

It is.

Does Gaston get enough credit for the Blue Jays' dominance? Does he get too much credit for their post-'93 downfall?

Though better versed in all things Blue Jays would have to enlighten.

 

When they were winning, Gaston, rightly or wrongly, was seen as the calm, not overly aggressive (tactically or psychologically) presence a loaded veteran club needed as a manager. Of course, that's backhanded praise.