Three former Boston Red Sox who should be in Cooperstown
In light of a couple of former Red Sox players falling short in last week’s Hall of Fame vote, let’s look at three who deserve to get in.
Count me as one of those old school baseball fans (I’m 40, for what it’s worth) who thinks that the Baseball Hall of Fame has been watered down over the last two decades. It used to be a place where only the very best of the best were enshrined. There were some “magic number” milestones that most of those players hit (3,000 hits, 500 home runs, 300 wins, 3,000 strikeouts), and even the ones that didn’t hit those usually were very close and had something else that pushed them over the top.
With the analytics boom of the last twenty years, there have been a whole host of new statistics that aim to capture a player’s productivity beyond old-fashioned stats and the eyeball test. This has led, in my opinion, to a lot of players who more aptly belong in the Hall of Very Good being inducted into the Hall of Fame. We saw this just a week ago when Larry Walker, someone who no one ever thought was one of the greatest ever at his position, was finally enshrined in his tenth and final year on the ballot.
While I don’t like the direction the Hall has headed in, if these are the rules that we’re going to play by going forward when it comes to sending guys to Cooperstown, then we’ll play by these rules. I’ve been arguing for the last few years that if we’re going by the metrics that have gotten guys like Walker, Craig Biggio, Alan Trammell, and Harold Baines in the Hall of Fame, then we also need to let deserving players like Lou Whitaker, Fred McGriff, Dale Murphy, and Curt Schilling (as I recently wrote about) in as well.
Along those lines and still staying on the Hall of Fame kick from last week, it got me thinking about which other former Red Sox players who aren’t yet in Cooperstown deserve to be inducted. I’m staying away from the ridiculous suggestions that far too many fans have been making lately about Jason Varitek, Tim Wakefield, and Dustin Pedroia. I’m not including David Ortiz because he’s sure to get in once he’s eligible in 2022. I’m also leaving off Manny Ramirez because he’s a known PED user who was caught and suspended by MLB and guys like that (Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, Rafael Palmeiro, Alex Rodriguez) are going to have a hard time getting in, if they ever do.
So without further ado, here is my trio of former Red Sox who should be in Cooperstown…
“Wait a minute…I thought you said no known steroid users like McGwire or Sosa?” I can hear you asking yourself. Hear me out, because this is where I’m going to split hairs a little bit. Unlike those other cheaters mentioned above, Roger Clemens was never actually proven to have used PEDs. Do we all think he did? Yes. Does most of the circumstantial evidence around him make it look like he did? Sure does. Was he ever actually punished by MLB for using PEDs? No. The same goes for Barry Bonds. Those two were well on the Hall of Fame path before they started juicing, unlike the others I’ve mentioned.
With that (slightly sleazy) distinction out-of-the-way, just look at the numbers. While guys like McGwire and Sosa were rather one-dimensional in their achievements and their PED use directly impacted it, Clemens was a prototypical dominating power pitcher during his twelve-year Red Sox career.
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From 1984-1996, Clemens racked up 192 wins and 2,590 strikeouts for the Red Sox, both franchise records. He won three American League Cy Young Awards (1986, 1987, 1991) with the team as well as the American League MVP in 1986. He also set the Major League record for strikeouts in a single nine-inning game, whiffing twenty Seattle Mariners in 1986. For good measure, he accomplished the feat again versus the Detroit Tigers in 1996.
Based on just his Red Sox career alone, Clemens was probably a Hall of Famer. After 1996, he went on to play for the Toronto Blue Jays, New York Yankees, and Houston Astros, and he kept racking up the milestones. Clemens finished his career with 354 wins (and 184 losses), 4,672 strikeouts (the third most all-time), and a record seven Cy Young Awards. His career ERA was 3.12 and he was an eleven-time All Star and two-time World Series champion. He won the pitching Triple Crown twice, led MLB in wins four times, ERA seven times, and the American League in strikeouts five times.
On numbers alone, Clemens is a no-doubt Hall of Famer and one of the greatest pitchers of all time. Would he have finished with numbers almost as good after 1996 whether he’d remained with the Red Sox or not? Almost certainly. The PED accusations and his Congressional trial for lying under oath (for which, need I remind you, he was found not guilty) have sullied his reputation as did the accusations that he had an affair with Mindy McCready in the early 1990s.
Still, Clemens was inducted into the Boston Red Sox Hall of Fame and while his number 21 hasn’t been retired, no one has worn it since he left the team in 1996. He and Bonds alone among the big steroid-era names have been gaining steady support each year during Hall of Fame voting and it will probably only be a matter of time before he gets in. It will be long overdue, regardless of how you feel about him.
Roger Clemens was my favorite pitcher when I was growing up in the 1980s, and now we move on to one of my favorite position players from when I was a kid: Dwight Evans.
Long before Mookie Betts, Evans spent nineteen years patrolling the massive right field of Fenway Park with Gold Glove defense, speed, and a rocket arm to go along with power from the plate. Evans is a player who has been hotly debated in recent years as deserving of enshrinement in Cooperstown and especially based on who has gotten in before him (Harold Baines, anyone?), his induction should be a no-brainer.
First, the career numbers:
20 years, .272 BA, 385 HR, 1384 RBI, .370 OBP, .840 OPS, 3x All Star, 8x Gold Glove Award, 2x Silver Slugger, 1x AL HR leader, member of Boston Red Sox Hall of Fame.
Contrast those numbers with the newest poster child for undeserving Hall of Famers, Harold Baines:
22 years, .289 BA, 384 HR, 1628 RBI, .356 OBP, .820 OPS, 6x All Star, 1x World Series champion, 1x Silver Slugger.
Their batting numbers are fairly similar although Baines compiled his over two more years than Evans and was primarily a DH while Evans played right field for his entire career. Evans’ eight Gold Gloves alone should push him over the top as well as the fact that during his career, Evans was considered one of the premier right fielders in the game. The knock against him was that he was a relatively late bloomer which probably hurt his overall numbers as he aged.
For one last comparison, consider these numbers from a contemporary of Evans:
16 years, .298 BA, 382 HR, 1451 RBI, .352 OBP, .854 OPS, 8x All Star, 1x AL MVP, 2x Silver Slugger, 3x AL HR leader, 2x AL RBI leader, member of Boston Red Sox Hall of Fame.
Those hitting numbers are very similar to Evans but it’s the individual offensive accolades that pushed this player over the top. Have you guessed who it is? Not only was this player a contemporary of Evans, they were teammates for their entire careers. It’s none other than Baseball Hall of Famer Jim Rice.
Rice’s peak in the late 1970s/early 1980s was better than any stretch Evans had, culminating with his MVP award in 1978. However, he didn’t have the consistency of Evans and wasn’t nearly the defensive player, either.
All this is a long-winded way of saying that if Rice and Baines, among others, are enshrined in Cooperstown, why isn’t Evans? Using the criteria that are established now, there isn’t any rational argument for keeping him out. Remember, the Hall of Fame and analytics crowd set these rules up, not me.
Finishing up with another pitcher and a player who was teammates with Dwight Evans and Jim Rice in the 1970s, my third pick for a former Red Sox player who deserves to be in Cooperstown is Luis Tiant.
El Tiante played for nineteen years in the majors and spent eight of those with the Red Sox. He is remembered as a colorful character who was also one of the best big game pitchers of his era and he remains one of the most beloved Red Sox from those great 1970s teams.
First, his career numbers:
19 years, 229-172 W-L, 3.30 ERA, 2416 K, 1104 BB, 3486.1 IP, 3x All Star, 2x AL ERA leader, member of Boston Red Sox Hall of Fame.
On the face of it, those numbers are very good but not great. Add in his postseason numbers and his case gets a bit stronger (and remember, during the 1970s there was only the LCS and the World Series).
2 years, 3 series, 3-0 W-L, 2.86 ERA, 20 K, 11 BB, 34.2 IP.
That’s a small sample size, but when the games mattered, Tiant pitched well.
Now compare and contrast with this Hall of Fame pitcher who was El Tiante’s contemporary.
15 years, 224-166 W-L, 3.26 ERA, 2012 K, 954 BB, 3449.1 IP, 8x All Star, 5x World Series champion, 1x AL Cy Young Award, 2x MLB wins leader, 1x AL ERA leader.
This pitcher is also in the Baseball Hall of Fame and is none other than Jim “Catfish” Hunter. The individual statistics are strikingly similar. It’s the multiple World Series rings where Hunter has it definitively over Tiant, although it should be noted that Hunter had the good fortune of playing his entire career for loaded Athletics and Yankees teams.
His postseason numbers also help, although they lean a bit toward quantity over quality:
7 years/12 series, 9-6 W-L, 3.26 ERA, 70 K, 35 BB, 132.1 IP.
Those numbers are good but not great and if you want to do the mental exercise of realistically extrapolating Tiant’s postseason numbers out to the same amount of games, you’ll find he’d likely outperform Hunter. It’s been said that Tiant had the misfortune of appearing on the ballot with some loaded candidate classes which is why he was never voted in. I also think that the effect of playing on those great Oakland and New York teams of the 1970s that won a lot of World Series helped Catfish as well.
Next. Red Sox All-Decade Team. dark
As with the case for Dwight Evans, Curt Schilling, and many others, Tiant on his numbers alone as historically judged probably falls short. However, if Hunter or especially a guy like Jack Morris (who has the highest ERA of any pitcher in the Hall, ever, as well as similar numbers to Tiant) have been inducted, and if we’re playing by the current set of rules set forth by the Hall of Fame voters, then there isn’t a valid reason why Luis Tiant shouldn’t be in as well.