2020 Baseball Hall of Fame Class

why so serious

 

Making outs is bad, always has been.

 

RBIs are good, always have been.

 

And swinging at balls leads to a high percentage of RBI?

 

Until Jim Rice got in, Dawson may him been the "really, him?" guy of the modern ballot. There are enough "bad" players in the Hall of Fame that you can always point to them to ask "why not this guy?"

 

Kicking somebody in the balls leads to a high percentage of pain.

 

Rice was one of my favorites growing up. Then I interviewed him in spring training in like 2002 or 2003 and asked him about the Hall and the process and if he was frustrated. He swore a blue streak and looked like he was about to assault me. After that, I couldn't have given a damn if he made it or not. His peak was pretty sick, but his splits are glaring.

 

That's not what I said. What I said was don't milk the walk just to get on base, a walk isn't always as good as a hit. There are great hitters who were notorious bad ball hitters. It is said that Yogi was the best bad ball hitter. Why take a walk that doesn't score a run when a hit will. Making non-sacrifice outs may often be a bad thing. But with the game tied in the bottom of the 9th and one out with a man on third, do you want a run scoring flyout to CF or a walk? What's bad about that out?

 

You make it sound so easy. Swing at bad pitches and good things will happen.

 

It is kind of amazing that guys like Gwynn and DiMaggio didn't walk much or strike out much. They put the ball in play, and yet you had to imagine a lot of those were pitches out of the strike zone.

 

It is my belief from observation that so-called "bad ball" hitters are actually good at hitting pitches just outside the strike zone that are extensions of the quadrant or quadrants IN the strike where they murder pitches. Berra killed low balls. His personal strike zone where he could make good contact was lower than the standard. Hence his reputation. Dick Allen killed high fastballs in the zone. So he'd swing at high fastballs outside the zone, too. Sometimes he'd whiff. Sometimes he'd hit 450-foot homers.