[VanillaGorilla]

With the entrants of the current class, there are now 102 batters in the HOF. I have been making note of positions on various leaderboards for entrants. A top 100 slotting is noteworthy considering that there are more than 100 hitters. I have been making note of adjacent players (not always) who are in the HOF just to add a bit of perspective, and also to refresh my own recollection of what previous inductees posted.

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At the age of 67, Richie Hebner (a HUGE personal favorite of mine) gets the call from the Hall. The selection committee ignored him since he retired in 2031 and became eligible in 2037. If I slanted the process for the HOF induction, Hebner would have been entered a looooong time ago. Welcome to the Tractor Shed!

Richie Hebner was selected as the 2nd overall pick by the Yankees in 2008. In his rookie season of 2009, a 19 year-old Hebner led the league in hits with 242, doubles with 51, and took the league batting title by hitting .381. He knocked 35 HRs, drove in 131 and scored 126 times while posting a npa OPS+ of 192. This garnered him ROY honors.

In 2014 a broken hand in April limited him to 124 games. He still managed to hit 31 HRs and drive in 80 while batting .311. He, along with HOFers Jesse Burkett, Mel Ott, and Bob Robertson, brought the WS trophy to the Bronx. This was the only WS Hebner won in 7 post season attempts. He batted .333 in his post season career.

Hebner retired following the 2030 season with 2751 career hits (33rd, 10 ahead of Ernie Banks), 482 HRs (t-64th, Ted Kluszewski and Pablo Sandoval), and 503 doubles (t-53rd). He drove in 1658 runs (38th, pacing him between Beals Becker and Mike Epsein) and scored 1528 (42nd, 2 behind Gavvy Cravath) while slashing 305/386/535 (60th/82nd/79th) for a career npa OPS+ of 150. He ranks 59th on the career OPS list, 0.0004 ahead of Keith Hernandez.

A 7 time All Star, Hebner enters the HOF with Gray Ink, HOFm, and HOFs numbers all above the Hall averages.

Black Ink: 9
Gray Ink: 138
HOFm: 174.5
HOFs: 73

Gorilla Composite: 3.9

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I love stories of redemption. With that in mind, it is a pleasure to have Chief Yellow Horse honored with an induction to this virtual HOF as the greatest closer in league history.

Chief Yellow horse saved 600 games in a career that spanned from 2027-2050. HOFer Hugh O'Neill's 513 saves is second place. His 1316 career appearances are also the most league history.

A 10 time All Star, Yellow Horse had a career w/l record of 96-99. Hardly meaningful for a relief pitcher to be below .500. What is meaningful is that his career ERA of 2.60 ranks him second all-time (current leader is active, and Yellow Horse may again be the leader). His career ERA+ is an astronomical 205.

In 2029 he saved 29 games and carried a 0.55 ERA (npa ERA+ 759!).
In 2030 he set the still standing single season save mark of 50. He posted a npa ERA+ of 327 that season.

Chief Yellow Horse was taken by the Mets with the 20th overall pick in 2026. He appeared in post seasons, but never saw a WS.

Yellow Horse enters the HOF by virtue of his HOFs number being above the Hall average with the added save bonus (the save bonus, itself, exceeds the HOF average).

ADD: I totally missed the fact that Chief Yellow Horse has a HOFm number above the Hall average (and this Hall average is above the RL HOF HOFm average) untill I was reviewing the inductee spreadsheet. For a reliever, this is absolutely amazing.

Black Ink: 3
Gray Ink: 48
HOFm: 182
HOFs: 17

Gorilla Composite: 1.8