Baseball Hall of Fame Ballot Released

Roberto Alomar was a tremendously versatile hitter who was the jack of all trades but master of none. That doesn't make him any less valuable -- if anything, it makes him more valuable.

And his defense was phenomenal. Easily one of the top 5 second basemen ever.

 

Rogers Hornsby, Nap Lajoie, Jackie Robinson, Eddie Collins, Charlie Gehringer, Tony Lazzeri and Joe Morgan. Rod Carew, too, if you want to count him as a second baseman.

 

Let's square it then: Robbie and Ryno are HOFers in my book. Robbie does have an edge over Ryno, but Ryno is in Cooperstown and you can't reverse that. Alomar will get in.

 

Wait a minute, Biggio is a "fringe" guy with 2,930 hits?

 

If the NuttyBuddy was around when Ryno played then maybe he wouldn't have been afraid to dive

 

after their playing careers were over, pee wee reese once referred to jackie robinson as an average fielder with a suspect arm. he played 748 games at second base and 616 at other positions.

he also hit more than 100 rbi once and stole more than 30 bases, once.

and, robinson hit .234 in 38 postseason games.

i appreciate what jackie robinson did for the game, but to suggest he's one of the best second basemen the game's ever seen is ludicrous ... nice call on lazzeri, though.

 

Yeah, interesting take on Lazzeri. As a hitter, he was a monster. As a fielder, he's about average (at least according to the "bogus" numbers.) But he's up there in the discussion. Good call.

I agree with Reese and T. Petty above about Jackie, as far as how good he actually was -- but his impact on the Dodgers was immeasurable, and a big reason why they went to six World Series in his 10 years. His impact on the game, of course, is well known, as it should be, and he can never, never be underestimated there ... but no, he's not on the list of all-time 2Bs, although he was a better fielder than Pee Wee gave him credit for in that quote.

And I was wrong to place Alomar so high among all-time second basemen (I said top 3 to 5). He's definitely not in Collins' or Lajoie's class, either, and he'd have a hard time displacing Gehringer in the top five (with Hornsby and Morgan.) ...

But Alomar's up there with Lazzeri (I think Robbie was better than Poosh 'Em Up Tony) ... whereas Sandberg (and to a much lesser extent, Jeff Kent, who some think should be in the Hall -- I don't) is certainly not in that class of second basemen, among all-timers.

***

Carew counts as a 2B as much as Ernie Banks counts as a SS -- which is to say, they only get half-credit at those positions. Carew's not eligible in this debate, I think. ... In fact, they *both* ended up with more games at 1B than they did at 2B/SS, respectively. ... Musial ended up with 800 more games as an OF than he did at 1B, but he gets similar half-credit for playing there.

 

buck - you fail to give the great tommy lasorda credit for the 1955 dodger team finally winning that first title.

lasorda AND robinson, campy, reese, snider, podres, furillo and hodges.

 

Why is everybody here talking about the past?

 

Especially since lafrauda pitched exactly 4 innings for the Dodgers in 1955.

 

you forgot about the 13.50 ERA.

 

Sirs, Madames,

I'd never vote for Morris. Saw him leave thirty bucks on a bill that came to $28.40. That is not HoF material. And when you think about it--you can see him doing that. Tony G would go in the back and sign the cook's apron. Cal would keep going up to the all-you-can-eat salad bar until closing time.

YHS, etc