1994

Twenty-four elections to go.

This election ends Friday.

Quite a few names drop from lack of support: Baker, Cuellar, Fregosi, Kingman, Marshall, McDowell, McNally, Tenace, Wood.

8 Sal Bando
1 Don Baylor
3 Vida Blue
8 Bobby Bonds 8th
1 Steve Carlton
15 Norm Cash
3 Cesar Cedeno
2 Ron Cey
1 Chris Chambliss
1 Dave Concepcion
2 Cecil Cooper
1 Jose Cruz
10 Willie Davis
10 Dock Ellis
4 Rollie Fingers
3 George Foster
13 Bill Freehan 4th
2 Steve Garvey
3 Bobby Grich 3rd
1 Ron Guidry
3 Toby Harrah
1 George Hendrick
1 Bob Horner
10 Jim Hunter 6th
6 Jim Kaat
1 Ray Knight
4 Jerry Koosman
7 Bill Lee
10 Mickey Lolich
2 Dave Lopes
7 Sparky Lyle
1 Scott McGregor
2 Hal McRae
10 Thurman Munson
1 Graig Nettles
1 Joe Niekro
13 Tony Oliva 7th
4 Al Oliver
5 Amos Otis
1 Larry Parrish
3 Tony Perez 10th
14 Vada Pinson
2 Darrell Porter
3 Pete Rose 5th
1 Ted Simmons
5 Ken Singleton
7 Reggie Smith 9th
1 Mario Soto
1 Bruce Sutter
1 Don Sutton
12 Jim Wynn

Bob’s ballot:

1. Carlton
2. Sutton
3. Simmons
4. Hunter
5. Nettles
6. Grich
7. Perez
8. Fingers
9. Garvey
10. Oliva

Terry’s ballot:

1: Steve Carlton– 177-91 with Tim McCarver on the roster, 152-133 without him including 42-15 in 1981-82, 70-38 from 1981-84. When McCarver was in the league and elsewhere, Carlton’s record was 53-51. I guess they had the perfect balance – one never talked, one never shut up.
2: Don Sutton– I always feel like I’m on an island about Sutton, the only one who thinks he was a star player at his peak. There are other guys like that; Harold Baines, Staub, Catfish in a way. Their peak value, to me, is underrated. Bob spent some time on Catfish; maybe Sutton will get some attention from somewhere?
3: Ted Simmons– Another island, though this one is better populated: Simmons was actually a pretty good defensive catcher for quite a while, but since he played an entire decade past his peak people tend to think of him as a slow, sluggardly guy who Whitey Herzog called a bunch of unflattering names. If you ask me, Whitey got away with it a little there, got carried away. Simmons was a terrific player, not just a hitter. He came out of his peak years right when cable TV expanded baseball’s exposure to the public. Bad timing, dude.
4: Graig Nettles– It seems to me that Bill talks about Nettles a ton, but since he can’t remember how to spell his first name he always calls him “Darrell Evans”. If I have a choice between Nettles and Evans, to me it’s a mismatch. Evans is a good consolation prize, not good competition for Nettles.
5: Catfish Hunter
6: Steve Garvey
7: Tony Perez
8: Dave Concepcion– We’ve elected worse shortstops, and some of us have spent a lot of time arguing in favor of far inferior shortstops. The pool of players is 150% of what it was then, so of course the ballots have gotten deeper. Concepcion would rank somewhere between Bourdeau (legit Hall of Famer) and Rizzuto (overrated pretender). That’s for Butler stealing the Zags’ thunder, Bob…
9: Thurman Munson
10: Rusty Staub

HM
Jose Cruz
Ron Guidry
Bruce Sutter
Don Baylor
Chris Chambliss
Joe Niekro

I could make a decent ballot out of guys who didn’t even make my top 12.

Results:

14 ballots; the results:

176 Steve Carlton
100 Don Sutton
**************
80 Bobby Grich
76 Ted Simmons
54 Graig Nettles
54 Pete Rose
35 Bill Freehan
32 Jim Hunter
24 Reggie Smith
19 Jose Cruz
17 Al Oliver
17 Tony Perez
16 Bobby Bonds
14 Steve Garvey
14 Dave Kingman
13 Sal Bando
13 Rollie Fingers
12 Ron Guidry
11 Gene Tenace
10 Norm Cash
9 Ron Cey
8 Bill Lee
8 Bruce Sutter
7 Ken Singleton
6 Cesar Cedeno
5 Dave Concepcion
5 Thurman Munson
5 Rusty Staub
4 Jim Kaat
4 Jim Wynn
3 Vida Blue
3 Jerry Koosman