MLB Hall of Fame Quick Hits: Aaron, Rolen, Flood, IBWAA

January 22, 2021 Eugene Tierney

Today, we lost an icon in baseball. Hank Aaron passed away at the age of 86. Aaron started playing semi-professional ball at 15 for the Mobile Black Bears; he joined the Indianapolis Clowns of the Negro League by the age of 17, and joined the Boston Braves franchise in 1953. He was one of the first African American players in the Sally League (at the time Class A). Aaron debuted in the Majors in 1954 and became a regular in 1955, where he’d continue playing until 1976 at the age of 40.

Aaron was the first player to pass Babe Ruth in career home runs in 1974 and would hit a total of 755; that record would stand until 2007, when Barry Bonds hit number 756. Aaron is still the career leader in total bases, runs batted in, and extra base hits.

Some other quick thoughts…

As of right now, there will not be anyone elected into the MLB Hall of Fame this year. Curt Schilling is the closest, but some voters are asking for their ballots back so they can remove their votes for him. Schilling has been a dirtbag for years, but his recent tweets supporting the storming of the Capitol Building has really riled up the reports. The Hall doesn’t want to give back the ballots because they don’t want to “set a precedence”. If that’s they case, why do they have a “character clause” for voting? At the same time, the voters knew that Schilling is not a good person prior to January 8th, but they didn’t care then.
I’m glad to see Omar Vizquel lose some steam; the domestic violence allegations are bad, but he also wasn’t a HOF caliber player. Many compare him to Ozzie Smith, but Vizquel is behind Ozzie in almost every offensive and defensive category. JAWS ranks Smith the #9 shortstop in baseball history; Vizquel ranks #41. The only HOF shortstops behind Vizquel in JAWS are John Ward (#62) and George Wright (#101), both of whom played in the 1800s. For more current comps, Vizquel sits behind Hanley Ramirez on the JAWS list, and just ahead of Andrelton Simmons and Rafael Furcal; no one calls for them to be included in the Hall.
I’d really like to see Barry Bond and Roger Clemens get in. They played in an era where steroids were ignored and not against the rules. Both had stellar careers, especially before the link to PEDs. If the Hall has no problem with Bud Selig, who did nothing about the steroids in the game, or Mike Schmidt, who openly admitted to using amphetamines while playing, being in, what’s the difference here? I also wouldn’t put an asterisk next to their names, but have something in the museum explaining the PED issue of the 1990s and 2000s.
Manny Ramirez and Rafael Palmeiro, on the other hand, should not be in the Hall. Both did fail tests and broke the rules.
I’m OK with the next tier of guys getting in too – Scott Rolen, Todd Helton, and Billy Wagner. All match up at their respective positions and has support from JAWS (well, except Wagner, but JAWS doesn’t really grade relievers all that fairly). Rolen was one of the best defensive third basemen in history. Helton has impressive numbers that unfairly get chalked up to the “Coors Effect.” Wagner was the last elite closer not in the Hall.
Now that Ted Simmons is in the Hall, my next 3 players I feel deserve to be in that aren’t are Curt Flood, Jim Edmonds, and Buck O’Neil. Flood had a good playing career and there would be no free agency without him; read A Well Paid Slave to see what happened with Flood. Edmonds was right there with Andruw Jones as elite centerfielders, and Edmonds hit better and for longer; if there is a push from the Sabermetric Community about Jones, they need to push for Edmonds with the veterans committee. O’Neil had a good Negro League career, but never got to be in the Majors; he was the first African American coach in the Majors and also a well respected scout (he found Lou Brock). He also help create the Negro League Museum and was on the HOF Veteran’s Committee that elected Negro Leaguers into the MLB Hall. For more on Buck, read The Soul of Baseball. I plan on longer write up to plead the cases on all 3 in the future.

Now, I don’t have a vote in the BBWAA for the Hall of Fame, but I do have one for the IBWAA (Internet Baseball Writers Association of America). The IBWAA follows the same guidelines as the BBWAA for voting. We have already recommended Clemens and Bonds for induction, so they weren’t on the ballot for us. My ballot consisted of:

Unfortunately, none of them, nor anyone else on the ballot, was selected by the organization this year. Below are the results: