Here are the final players for me to consider including on my ballot.
TONY LAZZERI
Except for 4 games in his final season, Lazzeri spent his entire 19 year major league career with the Chicago Cubs. He was a two-time all-star and played in 4 World Series with the Cubs, winning it all in 1922 as an 18 year old rookie.
A decent hitter, he batted over .300 nine times in his career, but never finished higher than 7th in the league. His career batting average was .297. Lazzeri had 2,619 career hits and 268 homeruns in 2,363 games played. In real life he was a Hall of Famer and 5 times World Series champion with the Yankees, playing 1,740 games with 1,840 hits, 178 HRs and a career .292 average.
VERDICT -In the sim he received 57% of the vote in 1946, his first year of eligibility but has steadily declined and was on just 17.9% of the ballots last year. A good career but not good enough to get a vote from me.
HEINIE MANUSH
Like Lazzeri, Manush debuted as an 18 year old and spent his entire career, save for a few games at the end, with one organization. Originally singed by the Portland Beavers in 1920, his contract was purchased by the Cincinnati Reds prior to the start of the season and he spent all but 1 game on the Reds reserve roster. Manush became a regular the following year and remained a Red until 1938 when he played his final 3 major league games in a Detroit Tigers uniform.
A lifetime .340 hitter with 2,899 career hits, Manush led the National League in batting just once. That happened in his MVP season of 1924 (.386,15,88) which was the same year he won the second of his two Gold Glove awards. That MVP award ended a 5 year streak by Rogers Hornsby although Hornsby would win again in 1925. Manush was on some poor Reds teams - they finished as high as third only once in his career - he never played in a World Series.
Tied for 14th in career batting average, Manush is also 13th in career doubles, 30th all-time in hits and 55th in career games played. Manush came very close to election, getting 63% of the vote in 1944 - his first year of eligibility- and 71% each of the next two years. Support then dropped down to 46% and has been sliding. He was on just 8.6% of the ballots last year.
Real life numbers for Manush are a .330 career average with 2,524 hits in 2,008 games. A Hall of Famer, he won 1 batting title in real life just as he did in the sim.
VERDICT - Manush gets my vote. Nearly 2,900 hits and a batting average of .340 cement his candidancy for me. Aside from Ted Williams, who is not eligible yet, every player on the career batting average leaderboard ahead of him except George Sisler and Riggs Stephenson are in the Hall of Fame and Manush belongs there too.
DUCKY MEDWICK
A 6 time all-star, Medwick played 17 seasons primarily with Detroit but also spent time with the Phillies and Braves. He made his major league debut with the Tigers as an 18 year old in 1930. His only World Series experience came the following season when Medwick was 1-for-3 as a pinch-hitter in the Tigers 5 game loss to the Phillies.
A lifetime .327 hitter, Medwick won two American League batting titles and led his league in doubles 4 times and triples once in his career. He finished with 2,128 hits in 1,949 career games.
His sim career did not quite match real-life where the Hall of Famer won a triple crown, an MVP award and was a 10 time all-star. His batting average for his real-life career was .324 with 2,471 hits. He holds the record for doubles in a season with 64 in 1936.
VERDICT - Very good career but needed about 500 more hits or some great post-season exploits to be considered for my ballot. Other voters must have thought the same as his high for votes was 33% in his first year of eligibility, 1952.
SAM RICE
It took Rice a few years to get established but when he was moved from pitcher to a full time outfielder in 1916 his career really took off. Rice did not become an everyday player in the major leagues until he was 27 years old but he made up for it by not retiring until he was 44. In between, he managed to play 2,362 career major league games and get 2,965 hits, which ties him with Johnny Mize for 26th on the all-time hit list.
Rice debuted with the Red Sox in 1912 as a second baseman at the age of 22. He played just 14 games that season but hit .391. He spent 1913 on the reserve roster of 5 different teams as the Red Sox, Yankees, Senators and Phillies all signed and later released him. The last club to sign him was the Cubs but they dealt Rice to the Giants in October of 1913. Converted to pitcher, Rice pitched just 1 inning for the Giants before he was dispatched to Brooklyn. He went 13-7 on the mound and batted .273 to help the Robins win the National League pennant that year. Brooklyn beat Boston in the 1914 World Series but Rice did not play in any games.
Rice did get back to the World Series with Brooklyn the following year and was 1-1 in two World Series starts but his club lost to Chicago. By May of 1916 Brooklyn, which used him exclusively as a pitcher, lost confidence in his right arm and released him.
The Cincinnati Reds immediately signed him and although he pitched 1 game for the Reds, Cincinnati wanted him for his bat. He hit .307 in 74 games with Cincinnati as an outfielder and then led the National League in hits with 185 the following year. He got back to the World Series with the Reds in 1917 but lost once again to the White Sox.
Rice would go on to win 3 Gold Gloves as an outfielder and, while he never led his league in batting average, he did have 3 straight 200+ hit seasons from 1923-25. At that point he was with the St Louis Browns as Cincinnati dealt him in 1920. He would play five seasons for the Browns before being shipped to Brooklyn where he played his final 8 major league seasons.
A natural hitter, Rice's .333 career batitng average ranks 29th all-time. His career pitching record was 28-21. In real-life Rice was 6-6 on the mound for his major league career, which consisted of 2,404 games and 2,987 career hits to go with a .322 lifetime batting average.
VERDICT - Very similar situation as Manush in that he came close to be elected a couple of times but has seen support waver over the years. If I have room I will be putting both Manush and Rice on my ballot.
MICKEY VERNON
Vernon spent 20 years with the Browns-Orioles organization and amassed 2,890 career hits in 2,797 games. The first baseman broke in as a 21 year old in 1939 and would lead the league in hits once and doubles twice in his career but never topped the American League in any of the triple crown categories. The other knock on Vernon is a lack of awards as he made just 1 all-star appearance in his career and never played a post-season game.
The real-life Vernon was a 7-time all-star who won a pair of batting titles while getting 2,495 hits in 2,409 career games. He was a lifetime .286 hitter.
VERDICT - Vernon has been on the ballot for two years, earning 13.6% his first time and just 6.7% last year. He might drop off the ballot for good this year and falls short of getting my vote.