A new Hall

I've never cared much for the Hall of Fame. Apart from its home in Cooperstown being based solely on a total sham, the Abner Doubleday myth, it makes no attempt to stratify its members. Travis Jackson is as much a Hall of Famer as Babe Ruth, Robin Roberts as much as Walter Johnson.

For the past few years I've been mulling over ways to build a better mousetrap, to acknowledge levels of greatness among the greats as well also to honor significant achievements and to give modern fans an idea of who their predecessors were talking about back in the day. Johnny Vander Meer would never make the Cooperstown hall, but for having the best week any pitcher has ever had, he'd have a place in mine. He wouldn't rank with Bob Feller, but he'd be there.

The most critical aspect would be to recognize players among their peers, and the best way I've found to do that is to sort them by decade of birth. The greats shine brighter when compared with the pretty-darned-goods of their time. You get a better feel for the impact of Babe Ruth’s 714 home runs when you see Ken Williams in third place among players born in the 1890s with 196. Stan Musial stands in front of Duke Snider and Gil Hodges instead of standing behind Hank Aaron and Willie Mays. There’s a spot for Cy Williams for going top-three in his league in home runs 11 times and being a dead-ball hitter who carried over, while he never topped six percent of the voting for Cooperstown. Where’s the love in Cooperstown for George Foster putting up the only 50+ HR season in a span of a quarter century? If you grew up in the 1990s, it's not that big a deal. If you grew up in the '70s and '80s, though, Foster's accomplishment was a pretty big deal.

In that sense, my Hall would be a walking history. You start with the old timers, the ones born before the Civil War. Cap Anson, Bid McPhee, Dan Brouthers, Tim Keefe, Harry Stovey, veterans of the National Association and the opening seasons of the National League. Move on to the 1860s; Ed Delahanty, Jesse Burkett, Hugh Duffy, Sliding Billy Hamilton; with stars of the American Association and Temple Cup players. Then the 1870s; Nap Lajoie and Hans Wagner, Rube Waddell and Amos Rusie, the first group that was making an impact in the 20th century. And so on.

The main obstacle is determining qualifications that would produce approximately equal numbers of players from each era, but some accomplishments are locks. Current and former career and single-season record holders. Landmark achievements. Top 10s of the era in the stats you find on baseball cards. Leaders over any ten-year span in selected statistics. Those are the "easy" ones, but even so, my hall has hit king Pete Rose (no disqualifications for any reason, including active players) and Mark Grace (most hits and doubles in the 1990s) in it. You'll never find them in Cooperstown. 

A few more would be triple crown winners (hitters and pitchers), multiple MVP winners and Cy Young winners, five-time leaders in selected statistics, guys with .400 seasons, 5+ gold gloves, 5+ 200-hit seasons, 10+ All-Star Games, 5+ World Series wins, 10+ years in the postseason, 20+ major league seasons played, 20+ seasons managed, and the first and last full-time roster members from each decade. A lifetime achievement for 50+ years in professional ball as a player, manager, coach, team executive and/or broadcaster. Or 30 years as an umpire or coach on the major league level.

And I'd throw in single-season achievements, like award winners, 50 homers, 150 RBI, 30 wins, 10 shutouts, or 75 stolen bases. And even single-game achievements, like no-hitters, four-homer games, unassisted triple plays, 18+ strikeout games, and postseason walkoff home runs. 

But the real difference-maker is that each of those accomplishments counts for one point. So if you look among the players born in the 1910s, you see Eddie Lopat recognized for playing on 5+ world champs, and that the careers of Van Lingle Mungo and Diomedes Olivo spanned 33 seasons. Fun little trivia, but then there's a whole wall of accomplishments for Ted Williams.

While there's more work to be done and more qualifications to add, particularly for pitchers, the greats among position players are starting to rise above the pretty-darned-goods. Leaders so far are Cap Anson, Ed Delahanty, Nap Lajoie and Hans Wagner, Ty Cobb, Rogers Hornsby and Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Ted Williams, Stan Musial, Willie Mays, Mike Schmidt, Dave Winfield, Barry Bonds, and Alex Rodriguez. The 1980s are a work in progress. I'd challenge anyone to find more than one or two position players that would top anyone from the same era mentioned in the above paragraph.

In any case, as generations pass, numbers can change their meaning. Leaderboards will always be in a continual state of flux and playing styles and conditions will always continue to change. Sooner or later, we will owe it to history to build that better mousetrap.

Just a thought.