As expected Barry Larkin got the only call to Cooperstown yesterday, joining Ron Santo in the Hall of Fame class of 2012. As I explained earlier, I think he is well deserving and was somewhat surprised his election took this long. Another surprising thing, as I look at the stats of the games I have attended, is that he, by far, has the worst numbers of any Hall of Famer I’ve seen play in more than 1 game.
| BA | At Bats | Runs | Hits | RBI | Walks | Strike Outs | Doubles | Triples | HR | SB | GIDP | Errors | Games |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0.111 | 27 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 7 |
After his .111 average, the next lowest is (again, those I’ve seen more than once) is Carlton Fisk at .302. Anyway, let’s take a look at the overall election results and see if there are any interesting tidbits.
Barry Larkin 495 (86.4%) 3
Jack Morris 382 (66.7%) 13
With two more years to go, it looks like Jack Morris will make it, no matter how undeserving he may be.
Jeff Bagwell 321 (56.0%) 2
Lee Smith 290 (50.6%) 10
Tim Raines 279 (48.7%) 5
Time is running out for Lee Smith, and I doubt he ever makes it. How Tim Raines and Jeff Bagwell continue to get so little support is, frankly, baffling.
Alan Trammell 211 (36.8%) 11
Edgar Martinez 209 (36.5%) 3
Fred McGriff 137 (23.9%) 3
Larry Walker 131 (22.9%) 2
Besides Trammell, this group seems to be getting punished for things mostly outside their control. Martinez for not playing the field, McGriff for having “pedestrian” power numbers during the steroid era, and Walker for playing his home games in Colorado.
Mark McGwire 112 (19.5%) 6
Don Mattingly 102 (17.8%) 12
Dale Murphy 83 (14.5%) 14
Rafael Palmeiro 72 (12.6%) 2
McGwire and Palmeiro continue to wear the PED badge of shame. Mattingly and Murphy continue to show that it isn’t how bright your star burns, but for how long as well.
Bernie Williams 55 (9.6%) 1
I am actually pleasently surprised by this total. While Bernie Williams was a perfectly good player, even above average, I figured he would get much more support simply because he was a Yankee. Good to see the voters use some thought for once.
Finally, these players received less than 5% of the vote and will fall off the ballot.
Juan Gonzalez 23 (4.0%) 2
Vinny Castilla 6 (1.0%) 1
Tim Salmon 5 (0.9%) 1
Bill Mueller 4 (0.7%) 1
Brad Radke 2 (0.3%) 1
Javy Lopez 1 (0.2%) 1
Eric Young 1 (0.2%) 1
Jeromy Burnitz 0 (0%) 1
Brian Jordan 0 (0%) 1
Terry Mulholland 0 (0%) 1
Phil Nevin 0 (0%) 1
Ruben Sierra 0 (0%) 1
Tony Womack 0 (0%) 1