FanNation - The Republic of Sport

Bigalke said 06/03, 11:08 PM
Well, deserving is a loaded word, but when I think of it in regards to this topic, I think of a player whose legend grew far larger than his actual production. Phil Rizzuto once said about his spot in the Hall, "I never thought I deserved to be in the Hall of Fame. The Hall of Fame is for the big guys..."

??????You know what? Looking at Phil's stats against the statistical average of all Hall of Famers with at least 4000 career plate appearances, he's right. In fact, the Hall of Fame, which was originally intended as the Pantheon of players, has devolved into the Hall of I-Accumulated-Enough-Hits-or-Etc....

One player, for me, stands head and shoulders (or, rather, wallows far below) the rest -- the diminutive former catcher for the Chicago White Sox, Ray Schalk. Schalk was among the first to consistently catch a hundred games a season... but merely becoming one of the first to be fitter does not make one a FAMER. Here's his stats and the HOF average per 162 games:

??????Schalk: 488 AB, 53 R, 124 H, 1 HR, 55 RBI, 16 SB, 59 BB, 33 SO, .253 BA
HOF: 601 AB, 101 R, 183 H, 15 HR, 93 RBI, 17 SB, 67 BB, 48 SO, .304 BA


??????Schalk is the least deserving player in the HOF...

Bigalke said 06/04, 02:54 AM
Just as the bat is not all that matters with Schalk, neither is mere ERA and percentages all that define Haines.

Haines doesn't have the greatest stats. But he has history on his side -- he won in big situations. He was an integral part of five pennant winners and three world champs. He was 3-1 with a 1.67 ERA in World Series play... as you can see, Haines is in because his numbers improve in the big situations. But I'll get more to him later... I need to get to fielding stats for Schalk:

By Hall of Fame standards, for catchers with at least a thousand games played, Schalk looks like this per 162 games versus the HOF average:

Schalk: 672 putouts, 170 assists, 16 errors, 21 double plays, .981 fielding %
HOF Average: 763 putouts, 96 assists, 12 errors, 13 double plays, .986 fielding %


So while Schalk assisted more and turned eight more double plays, his fielding is down five-hundredths on the HOF average, he gets 91 fewer putouts against only 74 more assists and commits four more errors per season...


Schalk won one Series, in 1917 with the White Sox. He played in the ill-fated 1919 Series. Yet Haines has more homers & RBIs than Schalk... who IS the least deserving Hall member.

Bigalke said 06/04, 12:04 PM
First, you forget the 1931 Series... and the reality here is that big-time play in the postseason DOES matter to voters. Schalk pulled off not being implicated with the Black Sox of 1919... and he showed durability @ the catcher position. He had decent defense and a horrific bat. He was a risk-taking baserunner -- the 1913 30-stolen-base season saw Schalk also get caught 13 times. The year before, he had 15 stolen & 18 caught...

Schalk, beyond all his "I was the first catcher to do this so I must be good" apologists, simply didn't have the numbers OR the postseason dominance of Haines. Cooperstown rewards quality feats, and they know well enough to know that Haines would have more wins had he gotten more run support throughout his career. Schalk, for all the pitchers he caught, couldn't get it done at the plate -- hell, when Haines has better postseason hitting stats than Schalk, something is deeply amiss. He couldn't provide the spark to experience postseason success.

Haines has dismal numbers, sure... but at least he did some memorable things in the biggest games for the Cardinals of the 1920s & 1930s... Schalk simply is worse...