2020 Baseball Hall of Fame Class

I'm really surprised Munson didn't have more support as a sort of sympathy vote, given how he died so early. To me, that says a lot about how electors viewed him.

 

I was just starting out when the Munson HoF debate began, and it was most vehement. You never know how many electors didn't vote for him because he was a prick, but all of the arguments I heard were that he just didn't qualify. As a rule, the HoFers with short careers were utterly dominant for some period of that career, while Munson was never more than the second best catcher of his time. That's the one I heard most often, anyway. Outside of NY writers, he had little support I heard.

 

He had the misfortune of playing in the same era as arguably the greatest catcher ever in Bench.

 

This is true. However, the old-timers (at that time) said that back in the '50s, Yogi Berra and Roy Campanella were peers, each multiple MVPs, while Munson was never in the same ballpark as Bench. Consensus on Munson was damn fine player, not a Hall selection, although perhaps he would have been had his career not been cut short. This is like 1981 talking, remember.

 

7-time All-Star in 11 seasons, AL MVP, ROY winner, two-time WS winner, five times in the top 10 in hitting, captain of the Yankees. Died tragically.

I mean, that is a HOF resume. And I say that as a Red Sox fan.

He must have been a Defcon 1 dick and the sportswriters held that against him; that's the only thing that makes sense to me.

 

BTW, man, I'm a little light on cash. Any chance you can advance me some of that money you owe me for when Eli Manning inevitably gets elected to the Hall of Fame?

 

Fisk always was considered better than Munson
As was mentioned earlier, he wasn’t a great defensive catcher and was at the point of his career where he’d have to move to first or DH

 

If Munson had lived to have 5-7 more years in his career, no matter at what position, there's no doubt in my mind he'd have been elected to the Hall.

 

Jay Jaffe weighs in

Whitaker, Evans, and Munson Get Long-Overdue Turns on Modern Baseball Ballot

 

Munson was a better defensive catcher than Simmons, according to WAR. Much better.

 

He was, but he wasn’t in the class of Bench or Fisk.