2020 Baseball Hall of Fame Class

It has been beyond obvious for many years that opinions on Derek Jeter as a ballplayer are merely a surrogate for how people feel about the Yankees as a franchise. I must say I hope Larry Walker is a dynamic public speaker, because Jeter's acceptance speech is gonna be the dullest ever. Definitely the most boring great athlete I ever covered.

 

With the best stable of conquests this side of maybe Leonardo DiCaprio.

 

True enough. Rich, handsome and famous helps a lot there. He wasn't in New York to set up a new Algonquin Round Table. And maybe in private Jeter is a fascinating guy. But he learned quite early in his career that the best way to limit one's interactions with the media was to cliche them into a coma.

 

He'll link to it on The Player's Tribune

 

I'd rather deal with him than a 24-7 phony like A-Rod.

 

In 1994 I did an interview with A-Rod in his first week in the majors. It was mostly about the upcoming strike, and he was straightforward if hardly scintillating. But by the time he came to the Yankees, he was firmly set in his poor little rich kid routine. Too bad such a great player was also so insecure.

 

All pale in comparison to Wilt Chamberlian.

 

Maybe in terms of numbers, but what top grade talent was associated with the Stilt? Rachel Welch? If so, he wins.

 

He claimed Kim Novak, but I don't think that was ever acknowledged.

 

I know you didn't ask, but I love combing Baseball-Reference.com anyway -- and Walker's road OPS of .865 was better than many Hall of Famers total OPS -- including some no-doubters like Honus Wagner, Boggs, Joe Morgan, Rod Carew, Kaline, Eddie Collins, Tony Gwynn, Eddie Murray, Ernie Banks, Yaz and...Derek Jeter (.817).

His road OBP (.370) was better than many Hall of Famers overall OBP -- including Griffey, Molitor, Biggio, Puckett, Stargell, Eddie Murray, Ted Simmons and...Andre Dawson (.323; blech).

I don't understand how Dawson is in but Dave Parker isn't. Their counting stats and slash line are very similar, but Parker's peak was superior, IMHO.

 

One of the great tragedies of our time -- Kim and botox.

 

The problem with using OBP as a comparison over generations is that the game was played differently. A walk with no one on base is as good as a hit. A walk for the sake of a taking a base with a runners on base is often an abdication of the batter's responsibility, especially when you are talking about HOF caliber players like Murray and Carew and Griffey ... Just because a pitch is out of the strike zone doesn't make it unhittable. Gwynn and Carew could go inside out on a tight pitch or the other way with an outside pitch. You wanted Willie Wilson to get on base to get to Brett. Brett wasn't there to pad his OBP, he was there to advance wilson 2 bases or score him. Rather than take the walk they could put the ball in play and make the defense react and he even get a hit. For those guys, in the days when OBP wasn't preferable to BA, taking the bat out of their hands just so they 'line can keep moving' was an anathema to their character as hitters. While they might have given too much emphasis on batting average and RBI a generation ago, too much emphasis is placed on OBP today. Situational hitting is the best measure.