Final Card Friday: 1988 Ted Simmons

Primarily as a catcher, Ted Simmons had a career WAR of 50.3.  That’s better than at least fifteen Baseball Hall of Famers, including Orlando Cepeda, Tony Lazzeri, Larry Doby, Ralph Kiner, Sandy Koufax, Dave Bancroft, Bob Lemon, Johnny Evers, Nellie Fox, Earl Averill, Jim Rice, Buck Ewing, Chief Bender, Ernie Lombardi, and Lou Brock. Yet, Ted Simmons is not in the Hall of Fame. He was a 1970s/1980s version of future Hall of Famer, Joe Mauer.

As a National League catcher throughout the 1970s, Ted Simmons was second only to Johnny Bench in offensive performance. Simmons’s career numbers put his production somewhere between Hall of Famers Gary Carter and Carlton Fisk. In The Cooperstown Casebook, Jay Jaffe rates him as the 10th best catcher in baseball history. However, somewhere along the line, Simmons fell out of favor with Hall of Fame voters.  Was it because he was a polarizing figure politically in the early 1970s? How about the fact he was the first playing holdout in MLB history? Did his feud with Whitey Herzog hurt his candidacy? Was it his sub-par defense? Probably NO on all accounts.  More than anything, it was because he first appeared on a ballot with eventual Hall of Famers Bruce Sutter, Don Sutton, and Steve Carlton. Plus, there were hold-overs, soon-to-be Cooperstown members Orlando Cepeda, Tony Perez, and Phil Niekro.  Needless to say, Simmons got lost in the shuffle and only received 3.7% of the vote, which removed him from consideration for the next fifteen years.

Ted Simmons was born near Detroit in 1949, and grew up to be a multi-sport, star athlete.

Ted Simmons’s 1968 Rookie Card

He played hockey, basketball, football, and baseball. He was good enough on the gridiron to get an offer to play halfback at the University of Michigan. However, his best sport was baseball, and the St. Louis Cardinals made him their number one pick in 1967. In between playing minor league baseball, Simmons took classes at Michigan. As a teenager, he got into seven Big League games with the Cardinals in 1968 and 1969.

Yet, it wasn’t until 1970 that Ted Simmons made his mark in Major League Baseball. That year, at age twenty, he played in 82 games and hit .243. Starting in 1971, he hit over .300 for the first of seven times in his twenty-one year career.  Simmons was an eight time All-Star, the first six appearances coming during his thirteen season with the St. Louis Cardinals. After being traded to the Milwaukee Brewers, Ted made two more mid-summer classics and helped Harvey’s Wall Bangers make it to the 1982 World Series.

By 1986, Ted Simmons was done as an everyday player. His final three season were spent with the Atlanta Braves, and his last season was in 1988 when his primary duty was as a pinch hitter. As this card demonstrates, he was only mildly effective. On a positive note, it does have productive numbers on 11, 33, and 66. Plus, it has five 14s. I’ve seen worse cards (2018 Chris Davis). I project this card to hit .200, so it’s accurate and serviceable.

Statistically, Ted Simmons is the 10th best catcher in baseball history. His .285 career average, 248 homers, and 2,472 hits are impressive totals for a catcher. In my opinion, that makes him deserving of a plaque in Cooperstown. He is the best, eligible catcher not in the Hall. I hope that when the Modern Baseball Era Committee votes again in 2020, they do the right thing and induct Ted Simmons. Simmons will be 71 years old in the summer of 2020. Though he’s in good health, it’d be nice to see him enjoy the honor of a Hall of Fame plaque. He can’t wait for too many more Modern Baseball Era Committee ballots. We don’t need another Ron Santo situation when justice is served posthumously. I’m hoping Simmons will join Lou Whitaker, sure first-ballot inductee Derek Jeter, and any others who gain induction, in upstate New York.