When Harold Baines was recently elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame, I saw several comments that the bar for the Hall is being lowered. Well, though I love the Hall of Fame with all its flaws, I must say it was lowered decades ago. The year 1954 was one such example when Walter “Rabbit” Maranville was inducted into Cooperstown.
Compared with other professional Halls of Fame, the Baseball Hall of Fame is one of the most challenging to make. Though mistakes have been made in the past (and present), it is an excellent representation of the greats of the game. However, for those who think Baines’s election is the biggest mistake, I urge you to look into Frankie Frisch’s Veterans Committee from 1967-1972 and Waite Hoyt’s Veterans Committee from 1971-1976. Those two committees elected nine players less deserving than Baines. Harold Baines’s basic statistical line reads: .289 average 2,866 hits 384 home runs 34 stolen bases. Here are nine players I deem less deserving than Baines:
Harry Hooper: .281 average 2,466 hits 75 home runs 375 stolen bases
Lefty Gomez: 189 wins – 103 losses 3.34 ERA
Joe Kelly: .317 average 2,220 hits 65 home runs 443 stolen bases
Freddie Lindstrom: .311 average 2,866 hits 193 home runs 34 stolen bases
Lloyd Waner: .316 average 2,459 hits 27 home runs 67 stolen bases
Jesse Haines: 210 wins – 158 losses 3.64 ERA
Dave Bancroft: .279 average 2,004 hits 32 home runs 145 stolen bases
Chick Hafey: .317 average 1,466 hits 164 home runs 20 stolen bases
Ross Youngs: .322 average 1,491 hits 42 home runs 153 stolen bases
Finally, we come to Rabbit Maranville with his .258 average 2,605 hits (in 23 seasons), 28 home runs, and 291 stolen bases.
| I | Split | G | GS | PA | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | SB | BB | SO | BA | OBP | SLG | OPS | TB | GDP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1935 Totals | 23 | 18 | 71 | 67 | 3 | 10 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 3 | 3 | .149 | .186 | .179 | .365 | 12 | 4 |
Rabbit Maranville’s final APBA card hits like a modern American League pitcher. In his 23 seasons, Maranville missed large portions of three seasons. In 1918, he was in the Navy. In 1927, he drank too much and found himself in the minor leagues. Finally, in 1934, he missed the entire season when he broke his ankle in an exhibition game. This card represents his failed comeback. After only 23 games, Rabbit knew his time had come and ended his playing days on his own terms. For that, you’ve got to give him credit. Other than the ability to hit a home run with a runner on third base only, this card has nothing to offer. I project that it’ll produce a .151 average, which is very close to the .149 mark Maranville reached. This card wouldn’t be useful as a defensive replacement either, with its
Being short of stature myself, I appreciate smaller ballplayers like Rabbit Maranville. However, Maranville comes up short of the Hall of Fame credentials that players like Hack Wilson and Joe Morgan produced. In my mind, Rabbit Maranville was a Jose Altuve that couldn’t hit.
Barry Bonds ; Roger Clemens ; Pete Rose ; Joe Jackson. Forget what they might have done, the best are not in the Hall.
NO. NEVER. Do not reward cheaters. Letting them in rewards cheating and sends a signal to those currently playing and those coming in the future to say “Why not cheat? There’s no penalty anyway.”
Not only should they not be in, they should have all their stats scrubbed forever just like Olympic cheaters.
I would love to see MLB shut down until there is weekly testing on EVERY player and a first strike, you are banned for life and all your stats are scrubbed forever.
Sorry, I respectfully disagree with Scott. The idea of banning the steroid users and scrubbing stats is a bit ex post facto. Yes, steroids was on MLB’s banned-substance list since 1991. But baseball unequivocally turned a blind eye to steroids. Major League basebal KNEW that steroids were in the game and WANTED the stats that came with them. There was no testing, no emphasis to remove them from the game, and certainly no indicating that stats would be scrubbed if positive tests turned up later on. Sure, from today’s vantage point, it was not honest to take steroids during that time. But that’s not the “message’ players got back then. Don’t think we can or should penalize people NOW for things that were not penalized back then. Moreover, new penalties now for new illegalities really can’t or shouldn’t be applied Babe Ruth used a corked bat for 40 days before it was ruled, in finality, to be illegal — he hit 14 HRs with the bat in those 40 days. Heck, Ruth himself tried to inject his body with a concoction made from sheep testicles, but just made himself sick. And then there are the spitballers, those stats haven’t been scrubbed. Mike Schmidt and countless others from the 70s and 80s took amphetamines that helped them in other ways. For me, the bottom line is that players of the steroid era had tacit approval from the league because there was no crackdown on them. I hate what PEDs did to the hallowed stats of the game, but that’s spilled milk now. They happened, they exist, the players were not dissuaded IN ANY WAY from using them. To penalize them now — while not penalizing the spitballers, the users of greenies, and even the great Babe Ruth — is just intellectually inconsistent. To me, Bonds and Clemens belong in the HOF.
Dave,
There something to be said for your side of the argument. I could be wrong but Mark McGwire’s use of “andro” was legal when he took it (just frowned upon).
At some point, MLB needs take responsibility for their role in the steroid era. They knew they benefited from up until a point. Now, they are paying for it. As for players like Clemens and Bonds, they did what felt they had to do to win.
I’m not advocating their induction necessarily. Just my two cents.
Great article as always, Kevin!
Yet 5 top ten finishes in mvp voting throughout his long career for this light hitting shortstop. We can discuss his stats and value, but the fact that he was viewed as one of the 10 most valuable players in 5 different seasons speaks volumes of how his contemporaries viewed him. He had to be something right to be so offensively anemic and still get MVP consideration after 1920.
The great thing about baseball is that we can debate generations of players. Jimmy Rollins had similar WAR as Rabbit, and he will receive serious consideration for HOF, yet Jim Fregosi had higher career WAR as a SS than either of them, and no one argues that Fregosi belongs.
Nice Article. I just found one error though (an easy one to make).
Its LLoyd WANER (not Warner).
Thanks…autocorrect.
For many years Rabbit Maranville must have been a phenomenal shortstop. How else do you explain his frequent votes as MVP? He must have been like Ozzie Smith with a stronger arm, or Luis Aparicio in his prime. Omar Vizquel is another great fielder who was still playing into his 40s. Too bad we have no films of Honus Wagner playing short. I have seen a couple of him hitting. And, of course he hit infinitely better than any of the
others.