The Pecan Park Eagle

Remembering a Nolan Ryan Astros Feat

January 16, 2014

Nolan Ryan
~ wearing the right colors again ~

As an Astros fan, it still galls me that we lost Nolan Ryan to the Texas Rangers for the last incredible five seasons of his career – and that it happened because club owner John McMullen of Montclair, New Jersey had asked “free agent” Ryan to sign for less money to remain with the Astros. Nolan then did what you might expect him to do. He took his talents north to the Dallas-Fort Worth area and signed for more money with the Texas Rangers. And, of course, as we say from here to cliché’, “the rest was history.” Ryan pitched five more seasons (1989-93), won 51 more games, left a memorable collection of noogies on the head of Robin Ventura, and pitched the 6th and 7th n0-hitters of his career, while also becoming the 1st big league pitcher to record 5,000 strikeouts and retiring with a total of 5,714 “K”s.

Nolan Ryan went into the Hall of Fame adorned as a Texas Ranger. No telling what he might have achieved on the way to the Hall had he finished those last five seasons as a Houston Astro, but my guess is that it would have been positive in its own right, that Nolie would have still gone into the Hall – and that he would have been inducted as the first Astro to have been inducted with Houston selected as his major MLB identity.

During his nine seasons as an Astro pitcher (1980-88), Nolan Ryan pitched his 5th career no-hitter and also became the first pitcher to pass the 50-plus years career strikeout leader, Walter Johnson, in an April 27. 1983 game at Montreal when he struck out Expos pinch hitter (and future Astros manager) Brad Mills for the 3,509th “K” of his career.

Ryan passed Walter Johnson in career strikeouts on April 27, 1983. Since that time, seven others from recent baseball history have done the same – and most of them have membership in the Hall of Fame in common. Only the current # 2 man, Randy Johnson, and the # 3 guy, Roger Clemens, are not in the Hall. 2015 will be Randy Johnson’s first year of eligibility for the Hall vote and he is widely expected to go in on the first ballot. Roger Clemens, on the other hand, has done poorly in his two ballot years because of his association with the PED abuse era and hardly anyone expects that condition to change anytime soon, if at all.

Greg Maddux is the # 10 man on the career “K’ list, right behind # 9 man Walter Johnson. Maddux’s 2014 selection for the HOF elevates the percentage of HOF members among the Top 10 to 80%.

Here’s the list, And thanks again for the memories, Nolan Ryan. Some of us will always think of you as a former Astro, anyway, even if you did finish your brilliant career in North Texas and go into the HOF as a Ranger. Our loss of you will always be on the New Jersey owner who never really was a part of or got to know the fans of Houston.

Here are the strikeout totals for the Top Ten Career Strikeout Leaders:

Strikeouts All Time Leaders’Top 10′
Name	Strikeouts	Rank
Nolan Ryan	5,714	1
Randy Johnson	4,875	2
Roger Clemens	4,672	3
Steve Carlton	4,136	4
Bert Blyleven	3,701	5
Tom Seaver	3,640	6
Don Sutton	3,574	7
Gaylord Perry	3,534	8
Walter Johnson	3,508	9
Greg Maddux	3,371	10

Tags: nolan ryan's career strikeouts
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Thank You, Mr. Crane

January 15, 2014

At last, he sponsorship signs are being moved!

At last, the sponsorship signs are being moved!

Thank you, Mr. Jim Crane and the Houston Astros!

Finally, after about fifteen months of not always quiet protest from the fans and all of our Lego-linked blogs and other Internet communication media, the inner city youth baseball sponsorship program will be getting their signage in left field at Minute Maid Park moved down from the sky and on to the surface of the wall from left to left center field before the start of the 2014 season. Thank you too, Club President Reid Ryan for whatever role you may have played in either suggesting or affirming that this was a good way to go.

None of us were ever dismissing the importance of the inner city program that the Astros and their sponsors are so solidly behind. We simply felt the goal of honoring the sponsors by placing these huge acknowledgement signs in a way that allowed their dangle from the sky to obliterate the ballpark train and the previously free and expansive of downtown skyline were a terrible disservice to the architectural art and design of our beautiful ballpark. And now, that problem is being solved by an owner and team that is demonstrating their desire to hear the fans.

The Astros have also made some recent, if modest, free agent moves that suggest they are taking steps to stem the tide on the possibility of a fourth consecutive 100 plus loss season. And that’s very good too.

Sometimes, we cannot get every place we want to go in a single day, but that doesn’t mean we have to take all the unnecessary side trips that are available to us either.

A small grocer in my old Pecan Park neighborhood said it better as a model for these recent actions by the Astros. Mr. Haenel of Haenel’s Groceries put it this way. He said it something like this: “We can’t afford to give our customers all they want on an everyday basis, but we sure don’t have to stock the shelves we do have with stuff we’ve learned they don’t want on an any day basis.”

Thank you in another way, Mr. Crane. – Thank you for taking those misplaced signs off that poorly located shelf in left field and moving them to a place they will get the respect they deserve.

It feels good too as a great way to go through hump day in Houston.

Tags: the left field signage isue at Minute Maid Park
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300 Plus Game Winners in the Hall of Fame

January 14, 2014

Roger Clemens
2005

Of the 24 pitchers who have won 300 or more games in an MLB career, the elections last week of Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine means that only two men from this august group of winners now remains outside the rolls of membership in the Hall of Fame:

1) Roger Clemens, who received only 35.4% of the voting per cent in his second year on the ballot; and,

2) Randy Johnson, who will make only his first appearance on the BBWAA ballot in 2015.

We all know about the elephant in the living room that accounts for the BBWAA dismissal of Roger Clemens. The only substantive question is – how long can we continue to carry out the ruse of pretending that the man has a chance for induction when we all know that isn’t likely given his personal handling of the steroids personal use matter and his interaction with Congress on the issue. No matter. The fact remains. The man has 354 career wins, the 9th highest total of all time. We need to either induct Clemens and his PED brethren for what they done on the field as we also note publicly our concerns about the records-taint of the PED era. Or else, we need to ban Clemens and Company for life and turn the HOF front door keys over to those who think the place is only for choir boy achievers.

Pitching Wins All Time Leaders’The 24 – 300 Plus Game Winners’
Name	Wins	Rank
Cy Young	511	1
Walter Johnson	417	2
Grover Alexander	373	3
Christy Mathewson	373	3
Warren Spahn	363	5
Pud Galvin	361	6
Kid Nichols	361	6
Greg Maddux	355	8
Roger Clemens	354	9
Tim Keefe	342	10
Steve Carlton	329	11
John Clarkson	328	12
Eddie Plank	326	13
Nolan Ryan	324	14
Don Sutton	324	14
Phil Niekro	318	16
Gaylord Perry	314	17
Tom Seaver	311	18
Old Hoss Radbourn	309	19
Mickey Welch	307	20
Tom Glavine	305	21
Randy Johnson	303	22
Lefty Grove	300	23
Early Wynn	300	23

Tags: hall of fame 300 plus wins group
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Browns Dwindle Down to a Precious Few

January 13, 2014

The Pecan Park Eagle visiting with the now late Marty Marion at the afternoon reception in St. Louis for the Browns in 2003.

The start of the 2014 baseball season represents the 60th anniversary of the Baltimore Orioles returning to the major leagues as the reincarnation of the transplanted St. Louis Browns from their 52-year home in the Mound City. Some of the 23 surviving 23 members of the old Browns (1902-53) also made the shift of franchises as original 1954 Orioles. From our list of 23 current Browns survivors, three players also survive as members of the original 1954 Baltimore Orioles club. These include pitcher Don Larsen, shortstop Billy Hunter, and outfielder Don Lenhardt.

Sadly for me, I haven’t seen any of the former Browns I know, and that includes both Larsen and Lenhardt, plus Ned Garver, Ed Mickelson, Roy Sievers, Bud Thomas, and J.W. Porter in seven years, but I still maintain my membership in the St. Louis Browns Historical Society and Fan Club, even if I’m not traveling as much now as I once did. The old Browns are the salt of the earth good people who may have extended their lifetimes by not getting swallowed up by the stress of winning during their playing days.

Here’s the list of the former Browns survivors:

OLDEST TO YOUNGEST	SURVIVING BROWNS	BIRTHDATE	AGE IN 2014 ON BURTHDAY
1	CHUCK STEVENS	07-10-18	96
2	TOM JORDAN	09-05-19	95
3	DICK STARR	03-02-21	93
4	GEORGE ELDER	03-10-21	93
5	NEIL BERRY	01/11/22	92
6	JOHNNY HETKI	05/12/22	92
7	JIM RIVERA	07/22/22	92
8	DON LENHARDT	10/04/22	92
9	TOM WRIGHT	09/22/23	91
10	BILLY DeMARS	08/26/25	89
11	NED GARVER	12/25/25	89
12	FRANK SAUCIER	05/28/26	88
13	JOHNNY GROTH	07/23/26	88
14	AL NAPLES	08/29/26	88
15	ED MICKELSON	09/09/26	88
16	DON JOHNSON	11/12/26	88
17	ROY SIEVERS	11/18/26	88
18	HAL HUDSON	05/04/27	87
19	BILLY HUNTER	06/04/28	86
20	JOE DeMAESTRI	12/09/28	86
21	BUD THOMAS	03/10/29	85
22	DON LARSEN	08/07/29	85
23	J.W. PORTER	01/17/33	81

The St. Louis Browns won their only American League pennant in 1944 with veteran military service ineligible players while most of the traditional winners had all their major stars off serving the war effort, even if it was for most of the really big names just a chance to play baseball for various service groups. Stars like Ted Williams and Bob Feller, however, they wee manning combat duty, guns and flight for Williams and guns sea duty for Feller.

1944 Final American League Standings

American League	W	L	Pct.	GB
St. Louis Browns	89	65	.578	—
Detroit Tigers	88	66	.571	1
New York Yankees	83	71	.539	6
Boston Red Sox	77	77	.500	12
Cleveland Indians	72	82	.468	17
Philadelphia Athletics	72	82	.468	17
Chicago White Sox	71	83	.461	18
Washington Senators	64	90	.416	25

The Browns lost their Streetcar Series to the St. Louis Cardinals in six games.

For further information about the St. Louis Browns Historical Society, check out the website:

http://www.thestlbrowns.com/

And have a great second full week of the still bright and shiny new year!

Tags: 23 st. louis browns survivors in January 2014
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Time for Baseball to Get Real about PED Past

January 12, 2014

As far as we know, Mickey Mantle never used PED, but he did consume some stuff that may have forced him to excel in spite of himself. – Ballplayers are human beings first. They are not the gods we once wished them to be as children.

What’s wrong with the picture in the chart below on the top 100 home run hitters of all time?

The answer is easy and obvious. From the top down, look at how many are so deserving of recognition in any complete record of major baseball accomplishments, but who may never be inducted into the Hall of Fame due to their admitted or presumed use of PED on their ways to doing great things between the lines of the game. And this list doesn’t even include the harder to detect or suspect pitching greats.

We could each go down the list from the most notable Mr. Bonds at the top and find a group list that probably would not offer a lot of significant variance based on our fairly common exposure to the same media information, but that common view would still not stand as an established conviction – nor would it make the long-range question go away – “How can baseball have a real Hall of Fame if it never does anything more than handle the era by ignoring the feats of those who did the most to break some of the game’s most cherished records?”

On my list of the top ten home run hitters of all time, half were steroid users. Is your list on this top sub-group any more or less tainted than mine?

Tainted or not, these records still exist, and they need to be handled by more than a hushed footnote pasted in dull lighting on the museum’s exposition walls – or stored away in some records stack file at the national baseball library. As for the record-setters themselves, this Hall of Fame is a place for recognizing both the records and those who established them. It is not a body of character-building role models, as some would like the world to believe it is. Such thinking is the incubator for nose-snubbing votes for the Hall of Fame that are based on little more than libelous gossip and all the other perceptual facets of distrust.

My apologies. I promised to let the Biggio Hall of Fame snub go for a while after yesterday. I apparently spoke too soon. This whole thing has really awakened me on some new level to the fact that baseball needs to either realistically deal with its hypocrisy or suffer the loss of credibility that is coming soon, if it does not.

Home Runs All Time Leaders’Top 100′
Name	Home Runs	Rank
Barry Bonds	762	1
Hank Aaron	755	2
Babe Ruth	714	3
Willie Mays	660	4
Alex Rodriguez	654	5
Ken Griffey, Jr.	630	6
Jim Thome	612	7
Sammy Sosa	609	8
Frank Robinson	586	9
Mark McGwire	583	10
Harmon Killebrew	573	11
Rafael Palmeiro	569	12
Reggie Jackson	563	13
Manny Ramirez	555	14
Mike Schmidt	548	15
Mickey Mantle	536	16
Jimmie Foxx	534	17
Willie McCovey	521	18
Frank Thomas	521
Ted Williams	521
Ernie Banks	512	21
Eddie Mathews	512
Mel Ott	511	23
Gary Sheffield	509	24
Eddie Murray	504	25
Lou Gehrig	493	26
Fred McGriff	493
Albert Pujols	492	28
Stan Musial	475	29
Willie Stargell	475
Carlos Delgado	473	31
Chipper Jones	468	32
Dave Winfield	465	33
Jose Canseco	462	34
Carl Yastrzemski	452	35
Jeff Bagwell	449	36
Vladimir Guerrero	449
Dave Kingman	442	38
Adam Dunn	440	39
Andre Dawson	438	40
Jason Giambi	438
Juan Gonzalez	434	42
Andruw Jones	434
Paul Konerko	434
David Ortiz	431	45
Cal Ripken, Jr.	431
Mike Piazza	427	47
Billy Williams	426	48
Darrell Evans	414	49
Duke Snider	407	50
Alfonso Soriano	406	51
Andres Galarraga	399	52
Al Kaline	399
Dale Murphy	398	54
Joe Carter	396	55
Jim Edmonds	393	56
Graig Nettles	390	57
Johnny Bench	389	58
Dwight Evans	385	59
Harold Baines	384	60
Larry Walker	383	61
Frank Howard	382	62
Jim Rice	382
Albert Belle	381	64
Orlando Cepeda	379	65
Tony Perez	379
Matt Williams	378	67
Norm Cash	377	68
Jeff Kent	377
Adrian Beltre	376	70
Carlton Fisk	376
Rocky Colavito	374	72
Gil Hodges	370	73
Todd Helton	369	74
Ralph Kiner	369
Lance Berkman	366	76
Miguel Cabrera	365	77
Joe DiMaggio	361	78
Gary Gaetti	360	79
Johnny Mize	359	80
Carlos Beltran	358	81
Yogi Berra	358
Carlos Lee	358
Greg Vaughn	355	84
Luis Gonzalez	354	85
Lee May	354
Aramis Ramirez	354
Ellis Burks	352	88
Dick Allen	351	89
Chili Davis	350	90
George Foster	348	91
Ron Santo	342	92
Mark Teixeira	341	93
Jack Clark	340	94
Tino Martinez	339	95
Dave Parker	339
Boog Powell	339
Don Baylor	338	98
Joe Adcock	336	99
Darryl Strawberry	335	100

Tags: baseball credibility on the line
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Loose Ends on the Biggio HOF Vote Miss

January 11, 2014

"Gods of the Keyboard, be cautioned! Some of the little people are suggesting that our process for selecting candidates for the Hall of Fame has brought an element of taint to our normal state of perfection!"

“Gods of the Keyboard, be cautioned! Some of the little people are suggesting that our process for selecting candidates for the Baseball Hall of Fame has brought about an element of taint to our normal state of perfection!”

First of all, The Pecan Park Eagle wants to thank those of you who have made such seriously important comments in response to all of our Biggio column articles this week. Keep it up. Maybe we can drum up enough restlessness with the current system to eventually get something more than disappointment out of this arrogant and inept “near miss by the little gods of HOF selection”. Again, please keep all the good thoughts, questions, and improvement suggestions flowing into public print everywhere.

Just a few more loose end comments on the Biggio vote and the policies and powers of the BBWAA group in their historic handling of the induction process before I take a needed breather from the subject until something else sizzles to the front burner in this baseball news matter. First, the Biggio vote:

We’ve heard since Wednesday that Craig Biggio missed induction by two votes. His 74.8% was rounded up from the 74.78% he got for receiving 427 of the 571 votes cast. If that was OK, then why would they not have rounded his percentage up to 75.0% had he received only a single other vote to make it 428 out of 571 for his induction? – The following simple chart shows how Biggio’s support percentage would have increased with one or two more votes of support:

Biggio’s Vote Total Was	Of Total Votes	Biggio’s Vote Percentage
427	571	74.8 (.7478108)
If Biggio Total Had Been
428	571	75.0 (.7494956)
429	571	75.1 (.7513134)

Did they change the math rules about rounding up since I was a kid? Or does the BBWAA simply use the method until a vote percentage reaches the magic 75.0% mark and then insist upon actual penetration of the barrier without rounding?

Next, did you either already know or pick up from the PPE column on Biggio’s consolation of Thursday that there have been two past instances when the writers approved an induction of a player who had failed to get 75.0% of the vote, In both instances, the failed candidates had lower vote percentages than Biggio, but they led the pack in years that found no one qualifying for induction. In both instances, 1947 and 1964, runoff elections were held between the top two original vote getters for each year to approve one of the failed candidates for HOF induction in that same, otherwise induction-barren year.

Here’s a little chart that shows how the fates of these two men played out differently than it has for Craig Biggio:

Ballot Year	Candidate	Voting %	Result	Induction Year
1964	Luke Appling	70.6%	Won Runoff	1964
1964	Red Ruffing	70.1%	Lost Runoff
1967	Red Ruffing	72.6%	Won Runoff	1967
1967	Joe Medwick	72.6%	Lost Runoff	1968 (84.8%)
2014	Craig Biggio	74.8%	Failed bid	???????

So, Luke Appling defeated Red Ruffing in a 1964 runoff election between two candidates with less support than Craig Biggio in 2014 and Red Ruffing defeated Joe Medwick in the second runoff in 1967 to secure his own induction on the heels of two vote totals that were less than the support garnered by Biggio this year. Following his runoff defeat, by the way, Joe Medwick won induction the next year (1998) the old-fashioned way – he earned it with a support total of 84.8%.

Meanwhile, Craig Biggio is left twisting in the wind.

Questions: If the BBWAA has the power to call special runoff elections in years of all candidates failing to qualify, why didn’t they do so last year? Was Biggio’s vote percentage in the high 60%s too low for consideration? Has MLB and the Hall of Fame simply given the BBWAA blanket power to do this induction process any way they see fit to do it? If so, they need to be thinking about establishing some kind of overview body that has the guts to insist upon criteria, transparency, and the general bleeding of arrogance from a program in which big egos in small minds have the power to rob those who’ve already earned their rights to be duly honored for greatness in the game. We don’t need a capricious system which sometimes aids those who fail to qualify by the installation of a playoff ballot because it suits the needs of the BBWAA – and other times leaves even more qualified candidates (based on actual vote support) twisting in the winds of fate and gossip-mongering minds.

Now, much as we love Mr. Biggio’s character and talent, we shall try to let this subject marinate for a while, but please keep up the flow of your own comments and questions.

And have a nice weekend.

Tags: the HOF VOTE AND CRAIG BIGGIO
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The Legacy of Steroids is Conviction by Innuendo

January 10, 2014

Craig Biggio never liked getting nailed at 2nd on a potential double. We can only imagine how he feels this week.

“If I have doubts about a guy for the Hall of Fame, I don’t vote for a guy,” said veteran MLB.com writer Marty Noble, who said he decided to omit Biggio from his ballot after some former players accused the Astro of using steroids. “I know what I heard and know the tone of voice that I heard from a lot of players. I really don’t know how many I spoke with over the course of a week.”

… Jesus Ortiz, The Houston Chronicle, Thursday, January 9, 2014, Page c4.

By his reported remarks, writer Marty Noble stands out as an example of the problem facing Craig Biggio in search for that rightful and deserved place in the Baseball Hall of Fame. Please note that Noble did not omit Biggio from his 2014 ballot for any reasons that cast aspersions upon his qualifications and accomplishments as a player. Noble was hastened to caution by the ways in which some of Biggio’s player contemporaries spoke of him through a series of uncounted contacts that Noble had with them “over the course of a week.”

Week? What week? If you cannot tell us who these people were, Marty Noble, can you, at least, tell us what they said? Did they make clear accusatory statements? Or did they simply speak in hushed innuendo – with suspicious eyes darting left and right as they spoke? Did they present hard evidence of their charges? Or were they merely talking in “a guy told me” tones? Did they get together and conduct a trial of Biggio as an accused PED user, giving him a chance to defend himself as accusers showed convicting proof of his guilt? Or were they simply doing what a lot of people, players and non-players alike are doing – just treating almost everyone from the era who performed well as guilty unless the day comes that each suspect can prove himself innocent?

The PED Era legacy is spreading its cancer of distrust in ways we hate to even acknowledge as the foulest of legacies. PED use is now the sin that can be visited upon innocent people and harm them for life in some instances. A ballplayer does not necessarily have to be convicted in court to be found guilty of PED use. Sometimes, all he has to do is be accused of it by loose talk that plants the virulent seed of suspicion. Once that happens, all the accused needs to do to clear his name is make all those lingering thoughts go away from the minds of millions who’ve already convicted him on the basis of what they’ve either heard or seen in the body language of storytellers.

Craig Biggio deserves to be in the Hall of Fame. He does not need to be victimized by the steroid era syndrome that convicts innocent people by careless speech and innuendo.

In the meanwhile, it continues to be impossible to have a civil discourse on what the writers are doing to some of the greatest, most accomplished stars of the game because of the greater evidence against them as PED users. As far as I know, players like Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens have never been convicted of drug abuse in a criminal court. The writers’ response to Bonds and Clemens is preponderantly what a few did this year to Biggio. They simply ignored them.

OK, on the larger scale, if we are not going to have a Hall of Fame that includes Pete Rose and Barry Bonds, the two guys with the most hits and most home runs in history, I’m thinking we, at least, need to have a forum discussion on the need for a name change. – How can we continue to call it the Hall of Fame if its going to exclude the two greatest hitting total achievers. Their records are important to any complete history of baseball.

Maybe we should keep “Hall of Fame”, but add the “Hall of Shame” wing for those people who’ve done things on the field that should never be ignored, but who also have done some proven things off the field that most people wish we could ignore.

Tags: Craig Biggio and the Hall of Fame
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One Strong Biggio Consolation

January 9, 2014

Red Ruffing was 1-1 in HOF runoff elections.

Craig Biggio came closer to induction by the writers’ ballot and missed the Hall of Fame by the smallest margin by any candidate, all time. Biggio reached 74.8% this year, 2014; Nellie Fox pulled a 74.7% level of support in 1985; and Pie Traynor hit 73.9% at the close, but failed support level in 1947. – The trouble for all three? The ballot is controlled by some loose cannon, self-important writer egos and you need approval from 75.o% of them to get elected to the Hall of Fame.

But here’s the punchline: Every candidate who has reached 70.0% to 74.9% support and missed induction by a whisker brush-off from some type of writer arrogance has eventually made it into the Baseball Hall of Fame. For most, they’ve made it into the HOF on the following year’s ballot. And every player who missed on his final run at the writer’s vote has later been inducted by the Veterans Committee.

Here’s a chart to show how that has worked out for the 25 men who registered 27 lower 70% totals on their ways to induction. The chart shows how each candidate registered in their failed vote years, plus how and when they got in subsequently by either a clear 75% Writers’ support vote or Veterans Committee approval. In two interesting instances, Red Ruffing (1967) and Jim Bunning (1988) won induction by Writers group run-off elections.

The chart only includes candidates who registered sub-par 70-75% vote support prior to induction by writers vote or committee recommendation:

CAME CLOSE: 70.0-74.9%	CANDIDATE WHO MISSED	YEAR CANDIDATE MISSED	VOTE % FOR CANDIDATE	YEAR CANDIDATE INDUCTED	VOTE % FOR INDUCTION
1	Craig Biggio	2014	74.8%	~	~
2	Burt Blyleven	2010	74.2%	2011	79.7%
3	Jim Rice	2008	72.2%	2009	76.4%
4	Gary Carter	2002	72.7%	2003	78.0%
5	Goose Gossage	2007	71.2%	2008	85.8%
6	Don Sutton	1997	73.2%	1998	81.6%
7	Orlando Cepeda	1994	73.5%	1999	Veterans Committee
8	Roberto Alomar	2010	73.7%	2011	90.0%
9	Gaylord Perry	1990	72.1%	1991	77.2%
10	Jim Bunning 2	1988	74.2%	1996	Veterans Committee
11	Jim Bunning 1	1987	70.0%	See Jim Bunning 2	See Jim Bunning 2
12	Billy Williams	1986	74.1%	1987	85.7%
13	Nellie Fox	1985	74.7%	1997	Veterans Committee
14	Hoyt Wilhelm	1984	72.0%	1985	83.8%
15	Harmon Killebrew	1983	71.9%	1984	83.1%
16	Juan Marichal	1982	73.5%	1983	83.7%
17	Duke Snider	1979	71.3%	1980	86.9
18	Robin Roberts	1975	72.7%	1976	86.9%
19	Roy Campanella	1968	72.4%	1969	79.4%
20	Joe Medwick	1967	72.6%	1968	84.8%
21	Red Ruffing 2	1967	72.6%	1967	* See Note Below
22	Red Ruffing 1	1964	70.1	See Red Ruffing 2	See Red Ruffing 2
23	Luke Appling	1964	70.6%	1964	** See Note Below
24	Bill Terry	1953	72.3%	1954	77.4%
25	Paul Waner	1951	71.7%	1952	83.3%
26	Pie Traynor	1947	73.9%	1948	76.9%
27	Frank Chance	1945	72.5%	1946	Veterans Committee
BIGGIO NOW!	NOW!	NOW!	NOW!	NOW!	NOW!

* “The balloting of 1967 was Ruffing’s final year of eligibility, as he had retired twenty years prior. Ruffing finished with 212 votes, tied with Joe Medwick for the highest vote count, but was seven votes short of the 219 required for induction.^[90] However, a runoff election held the next month saw Ruffing into the Hall of Fame the next month.^[91]” – WIKIPEDIA ON CHARLES “RED” RUFFING. … http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Ruffing

** In 1964, Luke Appling finished at 70.6% on the ballot in his last time up with the writers and Red Ruffing stopped at 70.1%. With no one qualifying for induction, the writers conducted a runoff and selected Luke Appling for induction.

Keep the faith, Craig! – You deserve to be there – and you will be!

Tags: Hall of Fame Vote
Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments »

Biggio Gets HOF Answer at 1PM Today

January 8, 2014

Winners Win! – After his MLB days, Craig Biggio coached both of his sons at St. Thomas High School in Houston (my alma mater). He also led the Eagles to a state championship. – Winners Win!

Today, Wednesday January 8, 2014, @ 1:00 PM CST, Craig Biggio gets his “yes” or “support falls short” call about his 2014 induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Houston hearts are strongly on the side that this will be the year, that Caig Biggio’s second year of eligibility will land him with the 75% support he needs from the American Baseball Writers Association for induction as the first Houston Astro selected on merit for the Hall of Fame. Others, like Nolan Ryan, have made it there with “Astros” on their resume’, but these, as typified by Ryan, made their biggest merit splash elsewhere.

Ryan would have gone into the HOF as an Astro, but, as most of you recall, the penurious money moves of former Astros owner John McMullen chased him north to the Texas Rangers, where he earned even greater fame as the aging pitching machine who threw two more no-hitters and established the career strikeout record for all pitchers, all time. Meanwhile, Ryan was leaving during the early years of Mr. Biggio’s twenty-year run as a pure Astro career, establishing himself as one of the most versatile multiple-position all-stars in history on his way to 3,060 career hits.

I hate the arrogance that’s built into the current system of selecting players for induction, but, given the psychological flaws of ego that live inherently within the framework of the human condition in general, there’s probably not much we can do about it. My principle irritation is with those voters, historically and contemporarily, who claim they rarely, if ever, vote for a candidate in his first year on the ballot. If they are telling the truth, then these are the people who kept Biggio out of the Hall last year, when his 68.2% support left him outside the door. If it’s any consolation, there were voters back in 1936 that didn’t vote for Babe Ruth and Ty Cobb on the very first HOF vote of all time. There were not enough of these types (04.9% against Ruth; 01.8% against Cobb) to keep the two super-greats out of Cooperstown, but gee-ma-nee, to withold support for guys who still are the gods of baseball greatness is the epitome of attention-seeking arrogance.

And don’t get me started on voters who apparently vary their support for people like long-term candidate Lee Smith from 2012 to 2013. Smith’s support vote total fell from 290 in 2012 to 270 in 2013. What did a guy who had been retired for years do in one uneventful year to go from worthy to unworthy of induction? Maybe we should insist upon individual vote disclosure and a statement of reasons for these apparently capricious changes of the mind in some voters.

The selection system will have to hang in the air, for now, as a battle for another day. Let’s get ready for what we hope will be the good news about Craig Biggio at 1:00 PM today.

And, PLEASE, once the word is in, please post your comments to and about Craig Biggio in the comment section that follows this column. I will be honored to collect them all and send them to Craig, if he doesn’t first read them here.

Thank you! – And GO, CRAIG, GO – All the Way to Cooperstown!

Tags: Craig Biggio HOF Vote
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Baseball Almanac Features College Ball Section

January 7, 2014

Bill Henry
UH Cougars
Cincinnati Reds

Baseball Almanac now runs a college baseball section in which they list the names of all the players as a group from their various alma maters who then went on to play major league baseball. My first stop in this section, as you may have guessed, was to see how they handled the list from my own undergraduate alma mater, The University of Houston. Like all things new in this crazy old world, the UH list was not perfectly complete. They left pitcher Brad Lincoln’s name off their Internet-published list. We added Lincoln’s name to the box shown here, but did not know how to make his name search-active for his career stats and first box score features as are the others.

By my count, there are 24 former UH Cougars who have gone forward to play major league baseball since the UH baseball started in 1947. Bill Henry was the earliest recognizable star as one of the early relief specialists in the post World War II era. Former Pirate, Astro, and Cy Young winner Doug Drabek is undoubtedly the most accomplished listed player. Michael Bourn stands out as a former Astro and current star center fielder for the Cleveland Indians and Jesse Crain represents represents a UH homeboy coming back to town as a possible relief staff boost to the 2014 Astros.

University of Houston “Cougars” Major League Baseball Player Alumnus
Name [Click for M.L. Stats]	Dates Played	Debut / Box
Bill Henry	1947 – 1947	04-17-1952
Glenn Vaughan	1962 – 1963	09-20-1963
Tom Paciorek	1966 – 1968	09-12-1970
Gary Weiss	1977 – 1978	09-13-1980
Doug Drabek	1981 – 1983	05-30-1986
Steve Cummings	1985 – 1986	06-24-1989
Steve Decker^{(Lewis-Clark)}	1985 – 1985	09-18-1990
Jeff Banister	1986 – 1986	07-23-1991
Anthony Young	1986 – 1987	08-05-1991
Mike Walker	1984 – 1986	06-16-1992
Woody Williams	1987 – 1988	05-14-1993
Vaughn Eshelman	1990 – 1991	05-02-1995
Chris Tremie	1989 – 1992	07-01-1995
Matt Beech	1993 – 1994	08-08-1996
Scott Sheldon	1988 – 1991	05-18-1997
Jason McDonald	1993 – 1993	06-05-1997
Ben Weber	1989 – 1991	04-03-2000
Shane Nance	1997 – 2000	08-24-2002
Ryan Wagner	2002 – 2003	07-19-2003
Jesse Crain	2002 – 2002	08-05-2004
Chris Snyder	2000 – 2002	08-21-2004
Michael Bourn	2001 – 2003	07-30-2006
Brad Lincoln	2010-2013	06-09-2010
Donnie Joseph	2007 – 2009	07-11-2013
Name [Click for M.L. Stats]	Dates Played	Debut / Box
University of Houston M.L.B. Player Alumnus

Eight former UH players have played in at least one game for the Houston MLB club. Their names include: Bill Henry, Glenn Vaughan, Doug Drabek, Anthony Young, Woody Williams, Chris Tremie, Chris Snyder, and Michael Bourn.

Steve Clark is noted above for having played college ball earlier for Lewis-Clark prior to his active playing time at UH.

Also, be sure to let Baseball Almanac of any errors or omissions you discover in your own searches of this material. None of us are perfect and name identification mistakes and oversights are two of the easiest mistakes we all sometimes make.

We need to help each other out on the way to building a more complete and accurate baseball history.

Get up next to the hot stove on one of those cracker barrels, baseball friends. – It’s cold outside – and a much better day for thinking about baseball than it is income tax return preparation. 🙂

Tags: Baseball Almanac, College Ball Section
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