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Major League Baseball’s lone Hall of Fame inductee in 2007 was SS Bernd Sprenger, who earned a first ballot nod at 73.6%. RF Brian Ostrovskaya came close to the 66% requirement, but missed it with 61.5% on his third try. Five other returners were above 55%, but short of 60%. CL Alex Cantos had 59.5% on his ninth try, CL Brendan Gordon got 58.9% for his second, CF Will Kemme had 57.2% on his third, RF Mike Castaneda had 56.9% on his sixth and SP Ollie Husband was at 56.0% on his ninth.



Just above 50% was CL Christopher Fournier on his second ballot, CL Isaac Porter on his third, and RF Xavier Chojnacki on his fourth. The second best debut on the ballot was CL Jordan Neveau at a mere 32.2%.

The only player dropped after ten ballots was 1B Roy Cote, who played 19 seasons for Calgary. He had 3157 hits, 1639 runs, 550 doubles, 478 home runs, 1775 RBI, 997 walks, a .290/.351/.480 slash, 123 wRC+, and 57.0 WAR. Cote’s longevity got him some key accumulations and he won two World Series rings with the Cheetahs.

However, he had only one Silver Slugger and the advanced stats suggest he was an above average guy with tenure. Poor defense and baserunning meant he had surprisingly low WAR when considering his finally tallies. Still, Cote remains 12^th all-time in doubles, 38^th in RBI, and 46^th in hits. Cote got as high as 60.1% on the 2004 ballot, but was usually in the 40s, ending at 46.8%.


Jayden Slater also notably fell off after nine ballots, falling below 5% and peaking at 19.2%. He had 2116 hits, 1230 runs, 304 doubles, 564 home runs, 1441 RBI, a .252/.328/.493 slash, 129 wRC+, and 52.5 WAR over 16 years. Slater was at that point the fourth guy to miss the MLB HOF despite having 560+ dingers. He also only had one Silver Slugger and largely played for subpar teams.



Bernd “Noodle” Sprenger – Shortstop – Denver Dragons – 73.6% First Ballot

Bernd Sprenger was a 6’2’’, 200 pound left-handed hitting shortstop from Badbergen, Germany; a small town of around 5,000 in Lower Saxony. He was nicknamed “Noodle” for his love of pasta. Sprenger was the rare shortstop who was excellent at hitting both for contact and power. Eight different seasons, Sprenger hit 40+ homers. He could find the gap too with around 30 walks per 162 game average. Sprenger’s eye for walks and avoiding strikeouts were both average. He was a smart baserunner, but his speed was lousy.

Despite poor straight line speed, Sprenger had solid range and glovesmanship. He was a career shortstop and graded out as above average to good, even winning two Gold Gloves in his early years. Sprenger had some nagging elbow, knee and back troubles, but held up pretty well at a demanding position for 23 years. He was a great leader and became a beloved international baseball figure.

Sprenger holds a very unique distinction as being a Hall of Famer in MLB despite beginning his career in a different league. Growing up in Germany, he caught the attention of a scout from Belfast. In June 1976, he signed a developmental deal and moved to Northern Ireland. Sprenger also was a rare player to debut at age 19, seeing only a few appearances in 1979. He was a full-time starter the next six years with the Brewers, although he did miss some time in 1981 and 1983 with elbow injuries.

In his third full season, Sprenger emerged as an absolute stud. From 1982-85, he posted four straight seasons with 11+ WAR, leading the Northern Conference in 1982, 1984, and 1985. Great defense played a role, winning Gold Gloves in 1982 and 1983. Sprenger also won Silver Sluggers each of those four seasons. He led in batting average and OBP in 1984 with career bests at .363 and .424, respectively. Sprenger also smacked 37, 44, 54, and 57 home runs in those seasons.

Even stuck on some abysmal Belfast teams, Sprenger was hard to miss. However, the Brewers’ best season during his tenure was 75-87, which may have kept him from winning MVP. Still, Sprenger took second in four consecutive seasons from 1982-85. He soon became a national hero back in Germany from the World Baseball Championship. Sprenger had started with the squad in 1981 and played 212 games and made 207 starts over the next two decades.

In 1983, Sprenger led the Germans to their first-ever world title, defeating Ukraine in the championship. He won tournament MVP with 33 hits, 20 runs, 15 home runs, 28 RBI, a .314/.342/.790 slash, and 2.0 WAR over 25 starts. Germany made it back to the 1991 final, falling to Canada. Sprenger was second in MVP voting that year with 30 hits, 16 runs, 8 doubles, 9 homers, and 17 RBI over 25 starts.

In total for the German team, Sprenger had 210 hits, 143 runs, 46 doubles, 78 home runs, 166 RBI, a .263/.325/.619 slash, 164 wRC+, and 10.5 WAR. As of 2037, he’s played more games than anyone for Germany and sits second in WAR by position players, first in hits, first in RBI, second in runs, and second in homers. Among all position players, Sprenger is 30^th in WAR as of 2037, as well as 17^th in homers, 16^th in RBI, and 26^th in hits.

With that, Sprenger was known across the baseball world and was a very hot commodity entering free agency at only age 26. Belfast showed no signs of climbing from the cellar and likely had no chance of matching his expected offers. Thus ended Sprenger’s EBF run after only seven seasons. As a Brewer, Sprenger had 1016 hits, 500 runs, 170 doubles, 223 home runs, 571 RBI, a .323/.376/.609 slash, 179 wRC+, and 55.2 WAR.

It would be Denver who signed Sprenger to an eight-year, $12,500,000 deal to start his MLB run in 1986. In this era, the Dragons reached out to a number of international stars, including EAB Hall of Fame arm Aiya Kodama and former Chinese League MVP Haojian Yu. The signings paid off, as the Dragons became a regular American Association contender in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Injuries cost Sprenger almost half of his debut season of 1986, but he was still so good that he won a Silver Slugger anyway. He won the Slugger in all eight of his Denver seasons, giving him 12 total counting the Belfast run. All of his seasons had 5.5+ WAR with two being worth 9+ WAR. Sprenger led in WAR in 1987 with 9.4. His MLB best was 9.6 in 1990, which also saw an AA-best 142 RBI, 392 total bases, and .624 slugging. He hit 40+ homers five straight years from 1987-91. Sprenger’s 52 homers in 1990 was his MLB best, leading him to his lone MVP.

From 1988-93, Denver had five playoff appearances and four division titles. The Dragons won the American Association in 1989 and 1991 and fell in the 1993 AACS. In 1989, Denver defeated Hartford in the World Series with Sprenger getting 19 hits, 9 runs, 4 doubles, 3 home runs, and 13 RBI in the playoff run. His Dragons career playoff stats were surprisingly underwhelming though with 47 starts, 48 hits, 23 runs, 11 home runs, 30 RBI, a .257/.281/.481 slash, 105 wRC+, and 0.8 WAR.

Regardless, Sprenger was a beloved superstar in the Mile High City and his #7 would be the first-ever uniform number retired by the Dragons. His contract expired after the 1993 season, becoming a free agent at age 34. Sprenger would sign a four-year, $12,600,000 deal with San Francisco.

Sprenger was less dominant in this stage of his career, but was still a very solid starter. He stepped up and won AACS MVP in 1994, helping the Gold Rush to a World Series title over Cleveland. In that run, he had 19 hits, 13 runs, 8 doubles, 4 home runs, and 8 RBI. San Francisco earned first round byes the next two seasons, but went one-and-done in the playoffs. Sprenger missed big chunks of 1996 to a knee sprain and to a dislocated shoulder in 1997.

He was a free agent again at age 38 and Denver brought him back for two years and $8,400,000. He had a resurgence with 5.2 WAR in the 1999 season. Between the two Denver runs, Sprenger had 1535 hits, 849 runs, 239 doubles, 383 home runs, 995 RBI, a .295/.345/.568 slash, 144 wRC+, and 63.7 WAR.

After that, San Francisco brought him back for $13,000,000 and two years. Elbow troubles kept him out much of 2000, although he was unremarkable when healthy. Sprenger was relegated to a bench role in 2001, struggling to a .189 average and -0.6 WAR.

Between the runs with the Gold Rush, he had 482 hits, 290 runs, 85 doubles, 104 home runs, 311 RBI, a .250/.302/.461 slash, 109 wRC+, and 13.9 WAR. Sprenger hoped to play in 2002, but was clearly cooked at this point. He retired that winter at age 43.

For his MLB career, Sprenger had 2017 hits, 1139 runs, 324 doubles, 487 home runs, 1306 RBI, a .283/.334/.539 slash, 135 wRC+, and 77.6 WAR. Starting off in Europe did lower his grand accumulations a bit within MLB, which did distance some voters. His immense popularity and role in World Series wins for two franchises though got him across the line for most voters.

Sprenger earned 73.6%, enough for a first ballot nod as the lone MLB Hall of Famer in 2007. For his full pro career, he had 3033 hits, 1639 runs, 494 doubles, 710 home runs, 1877 RBI, a .295/.347/.561 slash, 148 wRC+, and 132.8 WAR. Those combined totals and his WBC heroics prove that for much of the 1980s and 1990s, there were very few better shortstops in the world than Bernd Sprenger.