Ray Oyler SS (MLB, 1965-70): Poster Boy for the Proposed Baseball Hall of Mediocrity.
The Baseball Hall of Mediocrity is a concept first suggested nearly ten years ago by a Wisconsin-based writer friend of my mine named Al Doyle. In Al’s wild imaginings, The “BHOM”, if created, would serve to recognize all of those big leaguers whose contributions to the game over time fell about 3,000 hits or 300 pitching wins short of the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown.
We never developed any stringent guidelines for membership, but these kinds of variable mixes find each other often in our discussions of specific players who might qualify: Do something bad (like average .200 +/- .010 points over time (5 seasons or more) and still get picked up by a club for a sixth year MLB roster in spite of your past because of something you do well that somewhat compensates for your obvious inadequacies.
In other words, as a player, you average out as mediocre, but good enough about something to have some MLB staying power.
Shortstop Ray Oyler of the Detroit Tigers (1965-68), Seattle Pilots (1969), and California Angels (1970) sort of jumps out as a poster boy for the kind of BHOM candidate that Al has in mind: Oyler was there six years, batting .175 in 542 career regular season games, but providing exceptional defense and morale support as a guy off the bench. (It’s doubtful that Ray’s teammates felt much of a morale boost when they saw him advancing to the plate as a hitter, but he apparently made up for that mostly bad new transaction by his behavior on defense and on the bench.
If there were a BHOM, we could find an appropriate location that helped the theme of the place, mediocrity, take on some brighter, fresher hues, Detroit, Michigan, Terre Haute Indiana, Newark, New Jersey, and Cleveland, Ohio jump to mind.
As for mediocre commissioners, how about excepting Bart Giamatti, and inducting the rest of them from Landis to Selig, in a Bugs Bunny conga-line coronation ceremony, as Bugs did with those HR hitters in the old “Umpire State Building” cartoon about baseball in New York?
Here’s where all of you come in: What should we use as the induction standards for a Baseball Hall of Mediocrity? Al and I have wanted to create a digital version of such a place, at least, but we don’t want to take the word “mediocrity” for granted.
Short-term, mediocrity in the short-term usually either means (1) back to the minors; (2) go play independent league ball; or (3) go find a regular job.
But not always.
Sometimes, players like Ray Oyler make it over time in spite of themselves.
Who do you think should qualify for a Baseball Hall of Mediocrity? And who else should it includes, besides players? And where do you think it should be located?
Postscript: This is a light, playful subject. Please don’t take Al Doyle, me, or yourself all that seriously. Just have fun with the questions and your responses: what is a workable definition for mediocrity in baseball? And how do we honor those who bring it to the table over time in the big leagues. For now, it seems, we do our best to simply ignore mediocre contributors while they are with us and then forget them completely once they are gone. (Sort of like Exxon, Texaco, or Shell might do with their employees.)
And what about mediocre team owners, general managers, field managers, announcers, and writers? Do we recognize them too? If so, who are your candidates and why?
Go for it. Please post your ideas as comments here, not as e-mails to me.
The Pecan Park Eagle 
April 25, 2013 at 2:58 pm |
I think Terre Haurte is the perfect place for this shrine – hopefully the winds are blowing a foul stench from the paper mill every year at the introduction ceremonies. I grew up 45 miles from there in an area so rural that we considered it a treat to go to the big town of Terrible Hut.
Mario Mendoza obviously has to be a charter member. Bob Uecker as well would be a good charter member. The place will be filled with Cubs that is for sure.
April 25, 2013 at 7:25 pm |
How about pitcher Dick Littlefield? He hung around the majors for nine seasons and was on ten different teams. There was always a team interested in him, but no one who wanted to keep him very long. His lifetime record was 33 wins, 54 losses, and a 4.71 ERA.
April 26, 2013 at 12:20 am |
What a challenge! I’ll dig thru my cards from ’49 thru ’57 for ideas.
My “collection” is full of likely candidates for the BHOM. Mercy.
Thanks for the great suggestion.
April 26, 2013 at 1:12 am |
Bill: MLB continues to perpetuate mediocrity. The latest is the quality start, to wit: 6 innings pitched with three runs. That is mediocrity at its best. Two thirds of a game is mediocre. Three runs in six innings is a 4.50 era. More than mediocre. I remember that Warren Spahn pitched 22 complete games in 1964 or 1965 at the age of 42. I don’t think the Rockies had a complete last year and the closest we have come this year is seven innings. Major league starting pitching is terrible. Browns forever.