<— DEC 21     DEC 23 —>

BIRTH ANNOUNCEMENTS:

1852 Bill Boyd
1860 Edward “Pop” Tate
1862 Connie Mack (Cornelius McGillicuddy)

Accomplished catcher who became manager of the Pirates, then worked his way through Milwaukee of the Western League and eventually became the manager and owner of the Philadelphia Athletics. Managed Waddell and Grove, Baker, Collins, Cochrane and Al Simmons (among hundreds of other players). Nobody will win as many games as a manager as this guy – who will be able to manage for nearly 50 years?  (80 wins per year for 47 years will get you there.)

1864 Charlie Cady
1866 Frank “Buster” Burrell
1879 Owen Shannon
1885 Ross Emil “Tex” Erwin
1886 Hughie Miller
1893 Jesse Winters
1893 Marty Becker
1894 Hervey McClellan
1897 Harvey Freeman
1907 Andy Sarvis
1908 Ed Fallenstein
1910 Roosevelt Owens
1910 Stan Klopp
1918 Bill Kennedy
1922 Johnny Bero
1923 Bob Hall
1931 Clyde Sowell
1937 Tony Curry
1937 Charlie James
1938 Matty Alou
1939 Al Ferrara
1940 Elrod Hendricks
1942 Warren Washington “Jack” Jenkins
1944 Steve Carlton

Without fail, the best pitcher of the late 1970s and early 1980s.

1948 Steve Garvey

I write this knowing that there are plenty of people who think that Steve Garvey doesn’t deserve to be in the Hall of Fame and have told me so either online or in person.

Hear me out.

I am reasonably certain that if you asked baseball fans in 1980 most of those people would have guessed that Steve Garvey had a good chance to make the Hall of Fame. By that time, he had played nearly every day for seven seasons, was regularly hitting .300 and getting 200 hits a year, played on winning teams, and was highlighted as a valuable player on every telecast of a Dodgers game no matter who was doing the broadcasting. He was a write-in All-Star, he was an MVP, he had big hits on national television in the biggest games – and had more big hits left in his bag (like in 1984 when he killed the Cubs in the NLCS).

Then came Bill James. James pointed out that Garvey made a lot of outs to get his 200 hits; that he rarely took a walk (he also wasn’t a big strikeout guy – he was a “see a strike, swing at a strike” kind of guy). Garvey hit a lot of homers, but he was more of a line drive guy than a power guy – most years he was around 20 homers and only once did he get to 30. He noticed that Garvey wasn’t Keith Hernandez in the field, despite the very few errors Garvey made at first base. Namely, he didn’t throw as well as Hernandez, and that Hernandez wasn’t nearly as mobile. Anyway – James made sure that people knew that Garvey was overrated (as James also said about Jim Rice). Maybe James didn’t intend for it to be as mean-spirited as it was but it certainly wasn’t helpful. Then, as Garvey’s career wound down, Garvey added other problems. He was involved in a nasty divorce, and I remember seeing “Steve Garvey Isn’t My Padre” bumper stickers when I went to California in the 1990s. Where once people thought that Garvey was going to be a senator one day (and in 2024 he ran for a senate seat and lost), now Garvey wasn’t going to be a Hall of Famer.

It didn’t happen, and Garvey has had multiple chances on veterans’ committee ballots to gain admittance since then – and he’s not likely to go into the Hall of Fame.

But I’d put him in. For more than a decade Steve Garvey was ridiculouisly successful in the most important games, he held the record for the longest consecutive game playing streak in the NL, he had so many seasons that Hall of Famers had for 100 years. And he was CRAZY FAMOUS. It is called the Hall of FAME, you know. Fine – modern metrics that amplify what Bill James identified 40 years ago have essentially killed Garvey’s baseball reputation. Had not Garvey’s career intersected with James’ advancing metrics and theories (I’m not saying I don’t buy those theories because, in general, I do), Garvey would have been eagerly added to the Hall of Fame – maybe even on the first ballot.

While not completely a big Hall guy (I think we have enough guys from, say, 1880 to 1950 in the Hall already, except when it comes to Negro League players), I have a warm spot for some of the overlooked guys of more recent vintage and not all of my reasons are tied to metrics. It’s a combination of metrics and other baseball contributions – and fame is a category. Garvey is likely the most famous player not in the Hall. The other one of his time might be Kirk Gibson.

Gibson, ironically, has about the same amount of career value (using bWAR) as Garvey (38.4 for Gibson, 38.0 for Garvey) – though he produced that value in about 2800 fewer at bats. Gibson had more power and more of a willingness to take a walk; Garvey played every day. And, as for fame, Garvey was a 10-time All-Star with 4 Gold Gloves. Gibson, for all his merit, never appeared in a single All-Star game and he never won a Gold Glove. But boy was he famous. I’d love to see Gibson in the Hall of Fame, but his fame far outweighs his overall performance – so the measurers will keep voting for other players who were valuable but nowhere near as responsible for making the kind of memories or impressions on people to make them love baseball.

The Hall of Fame will not be lessened because Steve Garvey or Kirk Gibson are added to its ranks. It just means that the metrics people will complain that we run the risk of other adding other players with, say, 40 bWAR to the Hall. I’m not saying we need to put Rusty Staub in the Hall or Bobby Bonds or Dave Parker in the Hall (and Parker just got in). I’m just saying that there are guys whose career metrics might fall short of other famers but were OBVIOUSLY very famous (and three of them have last names that begin with the letter G – the third being Ron Guidry). Well – these guys make up for some of their statistical limitations with a heaping dose of fame.

And so ends my Ted Talk. Thanks for reading.

1950 Tommy Sandt
1950 Tom Makowski
1953 Tom Underwood
1954 Sheldon Burnside
1954 Ken Landreaux

My friend, Jeff Bernau, was a big fan of his. He had a long hitting streak – 30 games or so – and Jeff created a card for him in Superstar Baseball.  If you never heard of it, it was a dice based game featuring 96 of the greatest players in baseball history (except, oddly Joe DiMaggio).  Landreaux was good, but not that good…

1955 Lonnie Smith
1956 Dave Schmidt
1956 Gary Cooper
1958 George Wright
1958 Glenn Wilson
1959 Orlando Isales
1961 Andy Allanson
1962 John Hoover
1964 Michael Jackson
1968 David Nied
1971 Jon Ratliff
1974 Trevor Enders
1976 Jason Lane
1976 Wes Obermueller
1978 Chris Jakubauskas
1980 Reid Gorecki
1983 Blake Davis
1983 Greg Smith
1985 Daniel Stange
1987 Zach Britton
1987 Chad Jenkins
1989 Rey Navarro
1989 Noe Ramirez
1989 Jacob Stallings
1989 Patrick Kivlehan
1993 Tyler Gilbert
1993 Gavin Cecchini
1994 Richie Martin
1996 Nate Eaton
1999 Jaden Hill
2000 Jack Kochanowicz

OBITUARIES:

1887 Jud Birchall
1909 Jimmy Sebring
1912 Ed Kennedy
1914 Phil Powers
1922 Dad Meek
1926 Harry Weber
1928 Hugh Reid
1933 Joe Flynn
1933 Nin Alexander
1934 Kitty Brashear
1940 Patsy McGaffigan
1940 Bill Schwartz
1943 Ed Kent
1945 Bill Crouch
1950 Jack Egan
1950 Cal Vasbinder
1955 Queenie O’Rourke
1960 Jack Onslow
1964 William Ross
1964 Lou Fiene
1968 Benny Bengough
1968 Ike Powers
1974 Allyn Stout
1980 Earl Grace
1980 Joe Graves
1981 Ed Gallagher
1982 John Mercer
1982 Tony Faeth
1987 Bobby Hogue
1989 Archie Campbell
1996 Fred Green
1997 Flea Clifton
1997 Jose Oliva
1997 Hal Rice
2001 Bob Davis
2004 Doug Ault
2006 Sam Chapman
2012 Ryan Freel

Freel committed suicide – shot himself – and was later found, after several concussions, to have suffered from CTE.

2013 Bill Tremel
2013 Ed Herrmann
2016 Ken Turner
2020 George Spriggs
2023 Ryan Minor

YOU SHOULD HAVE BEEN THERE!!!

1995 Bill DeWitt, Jr. (and two partners) purchase the St. Louis Cardinals from Anheuser-Busch after agreeing to keep the team in St. Louis.

TRANSACTION WIRE:

1975 St. Louis sends Mick Kelleher to the Cubs for Vic Harris. (This is right in the middle of my childhood baseball wheelhouse.)

1982 The Yankees send Lee Mazzilli to the Pirates for three minor leaguers and Tim Burke. (Mazzilli had been traded three times this calendar year.)

1988 The Hanshin Tigers purchased Cecil Fielder from the Toronto Blue Jays.

1994 San Francisco sends John Burkett to Texas for Rich Aurilia and Desi Wilson.

1999 San Diego sends Wally Joyner, Reggie Sanders and Quilvio Veras to Atlanta for Ryan Klesko, Bret Boone, and Jason Shiell.

2009 New York sends Melky Cabrera, Mike Dunn, and Arodys Vizcaino (and some cash) to Atlanta for Javier Vazquez and Boone Logan.

Free Agent Signings:

1993 Chicago White Sox sign Tim Raines.

1994 Florida Marlins sign Kevin Brown.