Peabody: Life, Friends Baseball

“He’s bound for the Hall of Fame, and deserves a farewell celebration weekend at Safeco Field.” So wrote John McGrath this morning in the TNT.

Ichiro pitching, Ichiro Hall of Fame, Ichiro and 3,000 hits.

This is what we’ve got to. I now expect that there is a decent probability that he’s here for several years more to get to 3,000 hits in the belief it will get him into the hall of fame. Between him and Mr. Yaumachi it is an issue of National pride and honor.

I am going to write a lot more about Ichiro and the Hall of Fame, but let me share this with you:

1. The only two hall of fame right fielders that have lower OPS than him are Harry Hooper and Tommy McCarthy. Both are dead ball players. McCarthy’s last game was in 1896 and he was elected in 1946. Hooper graduated from St. Mary’s in Moraga, CA (East Bay). 09-25. Similar to Ichiro, centerfielder playing right field. Today he’s .250 hitter. He has a featured role in the 1910-20 segment of Ken Burns Anthology has he kept journals.

2. Ichiro did win an MVP vote, but a player on his own team deserved it more, i.e. Brett Boone. Using OPS as a yard stick he was the fourth best hitter on the 01 team. He’s rarely been the best hitter on the team, 04 comes to mind.

3. Being a Japanese player resonates here more, because Northwest people think that we need to be hospitable and nice. I’m not sure away from this market it will mean much to the baseball writers who vote on the hall of fame that he was the first great Japanese player. In fact there are players, American players not in the hall of fame and likely not to get there that have better stats than he. Jim Rice essentially is the same as him, a corner outfielder and he took forever and he has very good stats. Defensive centric position guys that should be in, Alan Trammel are better than him.

4. Let me zero in on some comparisons that resonate locally, with OPS:
A. Edgar Martinez .933
B. Brett Boone .767
c. John Olerud .863
d. Mike Cameron .782
e. Jay Buhner .852
f. Ichiro .784

In that list you have two guys that played tough defensive positions in Boone and Cameron. Both very good major league players, very, very good in all aspects of their game. They will not be elected to hall of fame and Boone should have won the MVP in 2001. Maybe the best season for a second baseman since the Hornsby era. Edgar’s case is in front of the Hall of Fame now, simply one of the top five right handed hitters ever. Look at John Olerud’s numbers! He has better stats than the following HOF first basemen: Orlando Cepda, George Sisler, Cap Anson, Eddie Murray, Ernie Banks, Rod Carew, Tony Perez and four other dead ball guys. I don’t hear any hew and cry for his enshrinement and there should be, actually. Finally, there is Jay Buhner at .852 for his career, way over Ichiro in OPS, RBIs home runs and he has better numbers than Hall of Fame right fielders such as Enos Slaughter, Reggie Jackson, Ross Youngs, Roberto Clemente, Dave Winfield, Sam Crawford, Andre Dawson, Willie Keeler, Sam Rice, Harry Hooper and Tommy McCarthy. And better than Ichiro.

Some of those guys have more homers than Jay, some do not such as Clemente and Slaughter.

IF Ichiro gets there it won’t be first ballot and it won’t be soon.

This entry was posted on Friday, July 13th, 2012 at 2:37 pm by terrybenish and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.