[VanillaGorilla]

The floor continues to break as the Hall Committee wrangles over what players they previously deemed not worthy of induction to now be enshrined. Both players come off the leader boards as the recently imposed 5 year wait continues to have an effect on selections.



I see the Hall committee populated with a Sabermetric wing and a traditional wing who are both hardcore in their beliefs that they are right and the other side is completely wrong. There are also Blue Dogs in each camp that can be swayed away from ideological doctrine, and they broker the deals.


John J McGraw was a boarder line candidate who came up just short of getting in previously. The Saberheads demanded his entry based on his career walk total of 1929, the most ever. The traditional guys said he only hit .260, so they fought against him. The committee was told to pick 2 hitters, so they had to come to an agreement on someone.

The traditional guys relented on McGraw, noting he did have 2808 hits from 1928 through 1948. They also liked his 649 stolen bases, 18th all-time.

A 5 time All Star, McGraw won 2 GGs at third base and won 3 titles in 5 WS. He ranks 9th on the all time runs scored list with 1795, ahead of all other eligible players not already in the Hall. McGraw's composite score is slightly above the RL Hall average of 4.

Black Ink: 34 (10)
Gray Ink: 110 (50)
HOFm: 112 (62)
HOFs: 50 (41)

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Gene Tenace gets in by the agrument of the Traditional wing who said "If you have Bill DeLancey in, you have got to put Tenace in!"

Tenace and DeLancey were contemporaries. He enters the Hall as the highest eligible player on the WAR list where he is tied (yes, tied) for 25th place with Hall member Home Run Baker.

The traditionalists accused the Saberheads of simply looking at WAR and then cherry picking reasons for DeLancey. One argument they made was DeLancey's #2 spot on the Catcher Zone Factor list...well, the Trads said Tenace is number 1, so he has to be there if that is the criteria. The Blue Dogs agreed.

Tenace is also 5th All time on the games at C list and the GS at C list, ahead of DeLancey. He also won a WS, appearing twice, and DeLancey never played in one.

Tenace led the league in HRs in 1900 with 11.

The Traditionalists looked over his career .245 BA, perhaps so that Yogi Berra would no longer have the lowest Hall BA. But the Saberheads were secretly giddy as Tenace did lead the league in walks 4 times to give him an OBP 100 pts above his BA.

Both sides think they got over on the other one by selecting Tenace.

Tenace won 2 GGs at C and was twice an all star. From 1891 through 1908 he collected 1852 hits.

Black: 13 (4)
Gray: 81 (38)
HOFm: 84 (7)
HOFs: 33 (40)

ADD: I have read complaints about WAR not taking into account positions in OOTP. With the entry of DeLancey and Tenace, both of whom are way down on the VORP list, but were the top eligible players on the WAR, and ahead of the top player on the VORP (who has 3000 hits) it is pretty clear that position is factored into the OOTP WAR.