1927

This election will end Wednesday night.

John McGraw has used up his eligibility and three black ballplayers – Chappie Johnson, George Stovey and Billy Whyte – have dropped from the rolls from lack of support.

5 Chief Bender 8th
1 Ping Bodie
7 Roger Bresnahan 3rd
1 Ray Caldwell
2 Ray Chapman
13 Jack Chesbro
2 Eddie Cicotte
2 Jack Coombs
2 Gavy Cravath
15 Lave Cross
5 Harry Davis
1 Charlie Deal
8 Mike Donlin
2 Larry Doyle 4th
4 Bud Fowler
8 Frank Grant 10th
2 Joe Jackson 7th
3 Grant Johnson
2 Benny Kauff
1 Bill Killefer
9 Johnny Kling
1 Ed Konetchy
4 Tommy Leach
12 Sam Leever
1 Duffy Lewis
10 Deacon McGuire
5 Chief Meyers
1 Dots Miller
8 Bill Monroe 5th
1 Dode Paskert
1 Pol Perritt
10 Jack Powell
5 Ed Reulbach
1 Braggo Roth
1 Slim Sallee
9 Cy Seymour
11 Fred Tenney
11 Roy Thomas
1 Lefty Tyler
1 Hippo Vaughn
1 Ossie Vitt
4 Bobby Wallace 6th
2 Buck Weaver
4 Sol White
1 Art Wilson

Bob’s ballot:

Kind of a strange ballot – no pitcher until the 10th spot. And only three were in the last election’s Top Ten (Doyle, Wallace and Grant)

1. Bobby Wallace
2. Larry Doyle
3. Ed Konetchy
4. Ray Chapman
5. Gavy Cravath
6. Tommy Leach
7. Frank Grant
8. Roy Thomas
9. Fred Tenney
10. Sam Leever

Terry’s ballot:

1: Roger Bresnahan
2: Larry Doyle
3: Chief Bender
4: Bobby Wallace
5: Cy Seymour
6: Grant Johnson
7: Roy Thomas
8: Mike Donlin
9: Jack Chesbro
10: Lave Cross

Honorable Mention

Hippo Vaughn- He started the other 3 games for the Cubs in the 1918 Series (see Lefty Tyler), and his era was even lower (1.00). He gave up 3 runs (no unearned runs) in 3 complete games, and lost 2 of them. Fred Toney was famously a huge man, but Hippo wasn’t exactly a midget. He’s listed at 6-4, 215. I don’t know if it’s true, I haven’t done any systematic research, but it seems like the biggest guys from this period were mostly pitchers. No wonder offense was down.

Vaughn lost most of 3 years, 1911-1913, and his career ended when he was only 33 and a year removed from a 125 era+ in over 300 innings. I looked at his minor league records and he was pretty bad in 1912, but he pitched well in 1913. There is no record of him in the minors after he left the majors. Given reasonable numbers in those years; he would have been comfortably over 200 wins, but probably still short of being a legitimate Hall candidate. My best guess is that he would rank in the Milt Pappas area, better than Pappas but short of Drysdale.

Ed Konetchy– Solid player for a long time, and he probably could have produced for a few more years. He hit 41 homers in the Texas League in 1925, and he set his career high for homers in his final season in the majors.

Other Stuff

Slim Sallee– Cardinals’ average record during his nine years with them was 64-90, and he was 106-107. Once he left and played with some good teams, his records got a lot better. He was 42-23 for the Giants, 26-13 with the Reds including 21-7 (second in wins) for the 1919 Champions when he was 34 years old. He was 18-7 and led the league in saves for the 1917 Giants. I don’t recommend him for the GOR, but he was probably as good as a few that we elected already.

Ping Bodie– Put up some big years in the minors after his major league career was over, hitting 32 and 37 homers in 1924-25 and hitting at least .338 every year from 1924-1928. He also hit 30 homers for San Francisco – in 1910.

Ray Caldwell– The Red Sox traded for him before the 1919 season, then dumped him in mid summer. He signed with Cleveland, went 5-1, 1.71 era in 6 starts down the stretch, then he was one of four Indian pitchers to win 20 games in their 1920 Championship year.

Duffy Lewis– Hit a combined .400 (14-35) in the 1915-1916 World Series.

Lefty Tyler– He’s more famous as part of the Miracle Braves of 1914, but his best season came with the pennant winning 1918 Cubs. He was 19-8, 2.00 era (138 era+, 6.5 WAR), and put up a 1.17 era in 3 starts in the World Series. His 3 starts were stretched out over 5 days; what a wuss.

Art Wilson– Backup catcher in the majors, star in the Federal League. Career ops+ as a major leaguer: 91 in 1557 PA spread over 9 years, not counting his first and last when he barely played. Ops+ in the Federal League: 157 in 881 PA, over 2 years.

My own take on a couple of sticky subjects:

– I see that Joe Jackson has a couple of first place votes, which makes sense if he’s eligible. He was far better than the rest of these guys. I also note that he’s missing on other ballots completely. That makes sense, of course. I didn’t include him myself. I find it weird that he would get any middle votes, though. Was he only sort of guilty? To me he’s either at the top or nowhere.

– Ray Chapman, I kind of see him the same way. Either he was important because of getting killed on the field, or he was a decent but not particularly great player with a short career. In this year’s crop, with nobody other than Shoeless Joe an obvious choice as a ballplayer, I would think that he’s either at the top or nowhere. I suppose there is a balance somewhere in there, but I don’t see it. He wasn’t good enough a player to be a serious candidate, at least not good enough to overcome such a short career. How do you quantify his place in history? To me, his place in history was in the batters’ box facing Carl Mays. Without that moment, he was no more important than the rest of the “other stuff” players. I can see an argument (Bill’s argument from the first HA), that Chapman was the best of the 1912 shortstops and that he would have been a Hall of Famer had he lived. I assume that anyone who thinks that through will see the problem with it.

– The Spitball, going forward. I don’t care who threw the spitball, and I’ll vote for them based on their record whether they spit on the ball, scuffed the ball, or attached GPS devices to it in order to cut down on their walks. My argument about the dirty ball versus dirty needles is on record, so I see no real reason to belabor it.

Results:

Kind of a strange election. Every one of us voted Monday, so the results have been more or less known since then, tho I was hoping that someone new would join in. And the votes were all over the place. Nine different men got a 1st or 2nd place votes.The top vote getter got only 50% of the possible 126 points, the second lowest percentage (Charley Smith got less than 50% the year we elected him) the top vote-getter has received so far.

Nine ballots, the results:

63 Larry Doyle
52 Bobby Wallace
**************
50 Roger Bresnahan
43 Joe Jackson
39 Bill Monroe
33 Frank Grant
32 Tommy Leach
30 Chief Bender
24 Ed Konetchy
22 Roy Thomas
20 Gavy Cravath
18 Bud Fowler
17 Ed Reulbach
13 Hippo Vaughn
11 Jack Chesbro
10 Cy Seymour
8 Ray Chapman
8 Deacon McGuire
8 Jack Powell
8 Sol White
7 Mike Donlin
7 Chief Meyers
6 Grant Johnson
6 Sam Leever
5 Eddie Cicotte
4 Benny Kauff
3 Lave Cross
2 Fred Tenney