Harold Baines, Lee Smith elected to Baseball Hall of Fame

I never thought Baines would get in, but congratulations to both!

Thoughts?

They have opened Pandora's Box letting Baines in. Why not Dwight Evans, Tony Oliva, Dave Parker, Rusty Staub, Fred McGriff, Dale Murphy, Will Clark, Del Ennis, Bobby Grich, Dick Allen, Willie Randolph, Dwight EVANS, Sal Bando, Keith Hernandez, Thurman Munson, Steve Garvey, DWIGHT Evans, Don Mattingly, Kenny Lofton, Ted Simmons, Jim Edmonds, Ken Boyer, Vada Pinson, Gil Hodges, did I mention Dwight Evans, Minnie Minoso (if you want a White Sox player) and the list goes on. How does Baines get in and not Murphy??

I'm not saying the above guys should necessarily be in, but by adding Baines, they may as well all be added.

They have opened Pandora's Box letting Baines in.

Apparently if you own a team you get a freebie for the HOF:

Baines, a six-time All-Star who produced 2,866 hits, 384 homers and 1,628 RBI, was strongly backed by Chicago White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf, who was one of 16 voters on the committee. Reinsdorf long has said that Baines was his all-time favorite player.

Baines, in particular, was never given much merit on the Baseball Writers’ Association of America ballot. He fell off the ballot after just five years with his highest percentage at 5.9%.

It's a joke. But so is the Rock n Roll HOF. And the Oscars, the grammies, the fuzzies, the feel goodies and all the rest. Welcome to the 21st century.

I completely agree with you, Andy. In fact, I would choose each of the names you listed before Baines. Six all-star appearances and never really close to an MVP for Baines. Longevity seems to appeal to the voters, but I prefer guys who were dominant in the game for awhile as candidates for the Hall. Parker and Murphy were considered among the very best for a few years, as an example, something Baines was not, in my humble opinion.

And now, it is a shame that a very good player like Baines is gonna be the scapegoat for a dumb decision by the committee. Now, every time somebody says so-and-so should be in the HOF, they'll say "If Harold Baines got in..."

Reinsdorf is the present-day Frankie Frisch.

There are already worse players than Baines in, thanks to Frisch. Baines has 4 HOFers on his similarity score list top 10—Perez, Kaline, Billy Williams, and Hawk. Evans is on his comp list, too, at #8. Dwight’s WAR, however, is about 30 wins more than Harold, perhaps because (among other things) his defense was far superior. Both were effective late in their careers, Evans more so. On the whole, I guess they could’ve done worse. Pretty surprising selection, though.

What's also surprising is that Lou Piniella (!) came up 1 vote short...

Also today's vote was just for "Today's Game" players (1988-present)
Next year "Modern Era" players (1970-1987) will get voted on. which should include Dale Murphy and some of the guys who Andy listed.
In 2020 - "Golden Days" players (1950-1969) & "Early Baseball" (1887-1949) will get voted on.

What about Gary Sheffield? He as 1676 RBIs and 509 homers. Oh, by the way, he is in the California League Hall of Fame. So he's got that going for him.......which is nice.

[quote="rolandzeut"]What's also surprising is that Lou Piniella (!) came up 1 vote short...[quote]

I would assume that Piniella was being looked at as a manager (at least I hope so -- but then again this is the HOF). He and Davey Johnson would have been great picks.