Vote for the WBL Hall of Fame! (please)

Bobbuttons · 05-20-2002, 02:58 PM

I am here to ask your help in selecting the inductees to the World Baseball League Hall of Fame. This is a little fictional thing I started up. The league began in 1975 and has continued with little change to now.. the 1999 season. As part of the 25th Anniversary festivities, the league has started a Hall of Fame in NYC, where the league offices are located.

First, some history of the WBL:

When I was around 11, I got the nice little generic game Baseball for the Nintendo. I played it constantly. In my mid teens, when I became a stat buff, I created a league in which I would play in. I called it the World Baseball League with teams in Pittsburgh (my team), New York, London, Moscow, Cairo (the Cairo Pharoes), etc. I realize the logistics of this kind of league would be impossible in real life, but in fiction, all is possible. I played a 35 game schedule (uneven, I know) and with each at bat I would keep track of who batted and write down the results. After each game I totalled up the numbers and calculated the new averages and ERA's. Fun stuff. The league lasted 2 years.

So it has begun anew, a decade after the last game played. It began with the following teams:

Northern Conference
New York Knights
Los Angeles Tremors
Mexico City Aztecs
London Monarchs
Tokyo Samurais
Moscow Bears

Southern Conference
Rio de Janeiro Amazons
Santiago Ancients
Lima Leopards
Sydney Rabbits
Alice Springs Aborigines
Brisbane Barricudas

In 1984, the team expanded, adding the Toronto Titans and the Paris Panthers to the NC and the Sao Paolo Saints and Wellington Wallabies in the SC. The Wallabies moved to Melbourne in 1994 after financial troubles. The league has a 150 game schedule.

The following 2 players have already been inducted to the HOF:

Steve Magallanes
OF Played with New York for almost all of his career. Career homeruns leader at time of retirement, first to hit 500. Currently 5th on the all time HR list with 517 and 5th in RBI with 1,624. Also 7th in Doubles with 419 and 2nd in Triples with 119.

Lamont Andres
CL Currently the All Time Leader in saves with 494.

And now, those eligible for induction as the 1999 class.

Daniel McMann SP 1975-92
Wins- 234-209 (2nd All Time)
ERA- 3.82
K- 2,151 (18th)
CG- 117 (1st)
SHO- 34 (T-1st)

Played entire career in Lima. Selected in 5th Round as the 52nd overall pick in the initial draft in '75. Won 16 or more games 7 times, including 6 years in a row ('84-'89). Owner of one Best Pitcher Award and one No Hitter and was selected to 9 All Star games.

Harry Harper SP 1975-87
Wins- 212-108 (4th)
ERA- 2.56 (2nd)
K- 2,796 (5th)
CG- 71 (T-4th)
SHO- 30 (T-3rd)

The greatest pitcher of the first 15 years of the league, he was the first overall pick in the initial draft of '75. He was selected to 10 All Star games and won 16 or more games 7 times. He spent entire career with Moscow, setting a rookie record in 1975 with 19 wins that still stands. Also won 6 Best Pitcher Awards (which may be called the Harry Harper Award in the future) and two World Championships. His .663 winning percentage is all time best.

James Spearman CL 1976-91
Spent career with London and is second All Time in Saves with 485. 7 All Star games. 3.56 career ERA.

Brian Witherington LF 1975-86
BA- .291
HR- 458 (10th)
RBI- 1,208 (24th)
2B- 426 (5th)
Hits- 1,910

Bounced around with Mexico City, Rio and Wellington. Was named to 9 All Star games and won 3 MVP awards. He was the 5th overall pick in 1975 initial draft. Won one World Championship. Set still standing Rookie Records in HR (40) and RBI (115) for the Northern Conference.

Luis Guerra 1B 1975-87
BA- .302
Hits- 2,473 (7th)
HR- 451 (11th)
RBI- 1,446 (10th)
R- 1,377 (12th)

Played all but the final year of career with New York. 3rd overall pick in 1975 initial draft. 10 time All Star, one MVP. Hit NC record 53 home runs in 1985 that still stands.

Rick Florio 2B 1977-93
BA- .319 (14th)
H- 2,446 (8th)
HR- 428 (14th)
RBI- 1,410 (14th)
BB- 1,420 (3rd)
R- 1,477 (6th)
OBA- .426

Picked 2nd overall in 1976 draft. Played with Mexico City, Moscow, London and Toronto. 11 time All Star, with one MVP.

Choose whoever you think deserves it. All, none or a few.

Oh, yeah... and like Smithers when he was sent by Mr. Burns to hire ringers for the plant softball team, "You have 24 hours!"

[ 05-20-2002, 09:02 PM: Message edited by: Bobbuttons ]

Netsky · 05-20-2002, 03:44 PM

1.Harper
2.Florio
3.Guerra

Since there are only a few people I chose 3
Also, do you have a site for your league?

Tiger Fan · 05-20-2002, 04:03 PM

1-Harper
2-Florio

Harper is a no-brainer. Florio has impressive numbers for a middle infielder. The other 4 fall just short on my ballot.

CMH · 05-20-2002, 04:11 PM

McMann...you cant reject the man who is 2nd all time in wins.

Harper...once again, but this time in ERA. outstanding career.

Spearman...and again, second in saves all-time. people may feel saves arent a great stat but over 25 years this man stands as number two, gotta reward him somehow.

i say NONE of the hitters. their rank in every category shows me they werent dominant in any one stat. they have impressive numbers but what about the 10 guys who had more hits, hrs, rbi, runs, etc. then them???

*i would be interested in knowing wat games you used for your league.
using Baseball is interesting. how did you devise a way to make one guy better than the other. from wat i could remember, all the players were basically the same in talent. even if they arent, the players were already pregenerated...so how did you do it???

i'm just interested b/c i did a lot of similar things when i was 10-15 years of age. sometimes i wanna do it today at the age of 20 but i guess my imagination has died out some way and now i demand to much realism...sigh.

Bobbuttons · 05-20-2002, 04:35 PM

Thanks for the responses guys, to answer some questions:

As for where are the guys that are ranked higher in the big categories, those eligible for this year retired in 1994 or earlier because of the 5 year rule. There is quite a crop coming in the next 3 to 4 seasons, especially hitters.

In Baseball, all of the players are pretty generic, although it seemed that certain points in a lineup hit a little better. What I did was combine my very limited baseball card collection with my Baseball game. I created my own team using just players cards that I had. I put them in a little scrapbook to represent the team. Then I would write out lineups on paper and "pretend" that the batter on screen was the player at bat on paper.

I used to have all the paperwork on the team, with the stats, but they got tossed out during a move years ago. I do remember that Barry Bonds (my LF, as most of my team were Pirates... as were most of my cards) hit .627 one season with 13 HR.

So, mostly the early league was in my imagination.

That is until I bought Tony LaRussa Baseball for the Genesis. Then I actually got to ease up on the imagination.

MizzouRah · 05-20-2002, 04:46 PM

Mcmann, Harper, and Spearman as well.

Yankeepride summed it all up for me.

Todd

JimServo · 05-21-2002, 06:47 AM

Harper, Spearman, Florio

CMH · 05-21-2002, 10:00 AM

between 1994 thru 1999 those retired players dropped below 10th in ranking for every major category in hitting???

thats amazing, and i think gives me more reason to reject those guys. i'm sure they had their great careers and i respect that (maybe you can hold them as honorary players who made the game wat it is today) but if in 5 years their stats dropped about 10 spots, then maybe they werent that great to begin with.

*also thats wat i thought you did with Nintendo Baseball...BUT its still amazing how you did it. b/c it seemed too random and lucky that barry bonds played up to bonds ability, whoever the "player in the lineup was that represented them. you know wat i mean? i mean anything couldve happened. if bonds batted third for you, then wat if the third guy was bad all the time and the number one hitter, i dont know lets say derek bell (just for an example) hit the 13 Hrs and batted .600. then that would lead too some dissapointment or i guess, surprises.

Bobbuttons · 05-21-2002, 02:51 PM

During the '80s and 1990 and '91 I was a big Pirates fan. It started to wain when they let Bonilla and Bonds move on. Although they still had my favorite player, Andy Van Slyke, it just wasn't the same. So, the middle of my lineup was from the Pirates of that time.

3. Van Slyke
4. Bonilla
5. Bonds

Van Slyke usually hit around .540 with 6 or 7 homers, and Bonilla would hit .500 with only about 3 homers. But it usually seemed that the 3 and 5 spots had a bit more power in the game. Probably just my imagination, though.

RyanExpress · 05-21-2002, 03:10 PM

McMann-Obviously impressive numbers and you've gotta appreciate team loyalty that keeps a player with the same team for his career.
Spearman-You previously let the Number 1 all time saves leader in, so it's clear you gotta let in the number 2 guy, too.
Florio-Offensive numbers are always nice.
Nice post but next time you might want to mention how these guy's team performed. A solid pitcher who has won his team afew championships is worth more to me than the greaest pitcher to never win anything.

rangerforlife · 07-05-2005, 02:39 AM

was going to respond until i saw how old thread was. curse my insomnia.

05-20-2002, 02:58 PM	#1
Bobbuttons Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Picturesque Mentor-on-the-Lake, Ohio Posts: 3,708	Vote for the WBL Hall of Fame! (please) I am here to ask your help in selecting the inductees to the World Baseball League Hall of Fame. This is a little fictional thing I started up. The league began in 1975 and has continued with little change to now.. the 1999 season. As part of the 25th Anniversary festivities, the league has started a Hall of Fame in NYC, where the league offices are located. First, some history of the WBL: When I was around 11, I got the nice little generic game Baseball for the Nintendo. I played it constantly. In my mid teens, when I became a stat buff, I created a league in which I would play in. I called it the World Baseball League with teams in Pittsburgh (my team), New York, London, Moscow, Cairo (the Cairo Pharoes), etc. I realize the logistics of this kind of league would be impossible in real life, but in fiction, all is possible. I played a 35 game schedule (uneven, I know) and with each at bat I would keep track of who batted and write down the results. After each game I totalled up the numbers and calculated the new averages and ERA's. Fun stuff. The league lasted 2 years. So it has begun anew, a decade after the last game played. It began with the following teams: Northern Conference New York Knights Los Angeles Tremors Mexico City Aztecs London Monarchs Tokyo Samurais Moscow Bears Southern Conference Rio de Janeiro Amazons Santiago Ancients Lima Leopards Sydney Rabbits Alice Springs Aborigines Brisbane Barricudas In 1984, the team expanded, adding the Toronto Titans and the Paris Panthers to the NC and the Sao Paolo Saints and Wellington Wallabies in the SC. The Wallabies moved to Melbourne in 1994 after financial troubles. The league has a 150 game schedule. The following 2 players have already been inducted to the HOF: Steve Magallanes OF Played with New York for almost all of his career. Career homeruns leader at time of retirement, first to hit 500. Currently 5th on the all time HR list with 517 and 5th in RBI with 1,624. Also 7th in Doubles with 419 and 2nd in Triples with 119. Lamont Andres CL Currently the All Time Leader in saves with 494. And now, those eligible for induction as the 1999 class. Daniel McMann SP 1975-92 Wins- 234-209 (2nd All Time) ERA- 3.82 K- 2,151 (18th) CG- 117 (1st) SHO- 34 (T-1st) Played entire career in Lima. Selected in 5th Round as the 52nd overall pick in the initial draft in '75. Won 16 or more games 7 times, including 6 years in a row ('84-'89). Owner of one Best Pitcher Award and one No Hitter and was selected to 9 All Star games. Harry Harper SP 1975-87 Wins- 212-108 (4th) ERA- 2.56 (2nd) K- 2,796 (5th) CG- 71 (T-4th) SHO- 30 (T-3rd) The greatest pitcher of the first 15 years of the league, he was the first overall pick in the initial draft of '75. He was selected to 10 All Star games and won 16 or more games 7 times. He spent entire career with Moscow, setting a rookie record in 1975 with 19 wins that still stands. Also won 6 Best Pitcher Awards (which may be called the Harry Harper Award in the future) and two World Championships. His .663 winning percentage is all time best. James Spearman CL 1976-91 Spent career with London and is second All Time in Saves with 485. 7 All Star games. 3.56 career ERA. Brian Witherington LF 1975-86 BA- .291 HR- 458 (10th) RBI- 1,208 (24th) 2B- 426 (5th) Hits- 1,910 Bounced around with Mexico City, Rio and Wellington. Was named to 9 All Star games and won 3 MVP awards. He was the 5th overall pick in 1975 initial draft. Won one World Championship. Set still standing Rookie Records in HR (40) and RBI (115) for the Northern Conference. Luis Guerra 1B 1975-87 BA- .302 Hits- 2,473 (7th) HR- 451 (11th) RBI- 1,446 (10th) R- 1,377 (12th) Played all but the final year of career with New York. 3rd overall pick in 1975 initial draft. 10 time All Star, one MVP. Hit NC record 53 home runs in 1985 that still stands. Rick Florio 2B 1977-93 BA- .319 (14th) H- 2,446 (8th) HR- 428 (14th) RBI- 1,410 (14th) BB- 1,420 (3rd) R- 1,477 (6th) OBA- .426 Picked 2nd overall in 1976 draft. Played with Mexico City, Moscow, London and Toronto. 11 time All Star, with one MVP. Choose whoever you think deserves it. All, none or a few. Oh, yeah... and like Smithers when he was sent by Mr. Burns to hire ringers for the plant softball team, "You have 24 hours!" [ 05-20-2002, 09:02 PM: Message edited by: Bobbuttons ] __________________ Frankenstein never scared me. Marsupials do....cause they're fast! Gibson swings, and a fly ball to deep right field! This is gonna be a home run! Unbelievable! A home run for Gibson! And the Dodgers have won the game, 5 to 4; I don't believe what I just saw! I don't believe what I just saw!

05-20-2002, 03:44 PM	#2
Netsky Bat Boy Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Central Coast CA Posts: 19	1.Harper 2.Florio 3.Guerra Since there are only a few people I chose 3 Also, do you have a site for your league? __________________ WSBL-SF Giants TBL-Capital City Giants

05-20-2002, 04:03 PM	#3
Tiger Fan Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Ontario Canada Posts: 9,873	1-Harper 2-Florio Harper is a no-brainer. Florio has impressive numbers for a middle infielder. The other 4 fall just short on my ballot. __________________ Cliff Markle HOB1 greatest pitcher 360-160, 9 Welch Awards, 11 WS titles

05-20-2002, 04:35 PM	#5
Bobbuttons Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Picturesque Mentor-on-the-Lake, Ohio Posts: 3,708	Thanks for the responses guys, to answer some questions: As for where are the guys that are ranked higher in the big categories, those eligible for this year retired in 1994 or earlier because of the 5 year rule. There is quite a crop coming in the next 3 to 4 seasons, especially hitters. In Baseball, all of the players are pretty generic, although it seemed that certain points in a lineup hit a little better. What I did was combine my very limited baseball card collection with my Baseball game. I created my own team using just players cards that I had. I put them in a little scrapbook to represent the team. Then I would write out lineups on paper and "pretend" that the batter on screen was the player at bat on paper. I used to have all the paperwork on the team, with the stats, but they got tossed out during a move years ago. I do remember that Barry Bonds (my LF, as most of my team were Pirates... as were most of my cards) hit .627 one season with 13 HR. So, mostly the early league was in my imagination. That is until I bought Tony LaRussa Baseball for the Genesis. Then I actually got to ease up on the imagination. __________________ Frankenstein never scared me. Marsupials do....cause they're fast! Gibson swings, and a fly ball to deep right field! This is gonna be a home run! Unbelievable! A home run for Gibson! And the Dodgers have won the game, 5 to 4; I don't believe what I just saw! I don't believe what I just saw!

05-21-2002, 06:47 AM	#7
JimServo Major Leagues Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Near Philadelphia, PA Posts: 418	Harper, Spearman, Florio __________________ "When I was a small boy in Kansas, a friend of mine and I went fishing and as we sat there in the warmth of the summer afternoon on a river bank, we talked about what we wanted to do when we grew up. I told him that I wanted to be a real major league baseball player, a genuine professional like Honus Wagner. My friend said that he'd like to be President of the United States. Neither of us got our wish." -Dwight D. Eisenhower

05-20-2002, 04:11 PM	#4
CMH Hall Of Famer Join Date: Feb 2002 Posts: 5,057	McMann...you cant reject the man who is 2nd all time in wins. Harper...once again, but this time in ERA. outstanding career. Spearman...and again, second in saves all-time. people may feel saves arent a great stat but over 25 years this man stands as number two, gotta reward him somehow. i say NONE of the hitters. their rank in every category shows me they werent dominant in any one stat. they have impressive numbers but what about the 10 guys who had more hits, hrs, rbi, runs, etc. then them??? *i would be interested in knowing wat games you used for your league. using Baseball is interesting. how did you devise a way to make one guy better than the other. from wat i could remember, all the players were basically the same in talent. even if they arent, the players were already pregenerated...so how did you do it??? i'm just interested b/c i did a lot of similar things when i was 10-15 years of age. sometimes i wanna do it today at the age of 20 but i guess my imagination has died out some way and now i demand to much realism...sigh.

05-20-2002, 04:46 PM	#6
MizzouRah Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Troy, Mo Posts: 6,266	Mcmann, Harper, and Spearman as well. Yankeepride summed it all up for me. Todd

05-21-2002, 10:00 AM	#8
CMH Hall Of Famer Join Date: Feb 2002 Posts: 5,057	between 1994 thru 1999 those retired players dropped below 10th in ranking for every major category in hitting??? thats amazing, and i think gives me more reason to reject those guys. i'm sure they had their great careers and i respect that (maybe you can hold them as honorary players who made the game wat it is today) but if in 5 years their stats dropped about 10 spots, then maybe they werent that great to begin with. *also thats wat i thought you did with Nintendo Baseball...BUT its still amazing how you did it. b/c it seemed too random and lucky that barry bonds played up to bonds ability, whoever the "player in the lineup was that represented them. you know wat i mean? i mean anything couldve happened. if bonds batted third for you, then wat if the third guy was bad all the time and the number one hitter, i dont know lets say derek bell (just for an example) hit the 13 Hrs and batted .600. then that would lead too some dissapointment or i guess, surprises.

05-21-2002, 02:51 PM	#9
Bobbuttons Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Picturesque Mentor-on-the-Lake, Ohio Posts: 3,708	During the '80s and 1990 and '91 I was a big Pirates fan. It started to wain when they let Bonilla and Bonds move on. Although they still had my favorite player, Andy Van Slyke, it just wasn't the same. So, the middle of my lineup was from the Pirates of that time. 3. Van Slyke 4. Bonilla 5. Bonds Van Slyke usually hit around .540 with 6 or 7 homers, and Bonilla would hit .500 with only about 3 homers. But it usually seemed that the 3 and 5 spots had a bit more power in the game. Probably just my imagination, though. __________________ Frankenstein never scared me. Marsupials do....cause they're fast! Gibson swings, and a fly ball to deep right field! This is gonna be a home run! Unbelievable! A home run for Gibson! And the Dodgers have won the game, 5 to 4; I don't believe what I just saw! I don't believe what I just saw!

05-21-2002, 03:10 PM	#10
RyanExpress Bat Boy Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Rhode Island Posts: 15	McMann-Obviously impressive numbers and you've gotta appreciate team loyalty that keeps a player with the same team for his career. Spearman-You previously let the Number 1 all time saves leader in, so it's clear you gotta let in the number 2 guy, too. Florio-Offensive numbers are always nice. Nice post but next time you might want to mention how these guy's team performed. A solid pitcher who has won his team afew championships is worth more to me than the greaest pitcher to never win anything. __________________ jkl

07-05-2005, 02:39 AM	#11
rangerforlife Minors (Triple A) Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: I want to hear from a clone! React to me!!! Posts: 225	was going to respond until i saw how old thread was. curse my insomnia. __________________ "Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men." - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Last edited by rangerforlife; 07-05-2005 at 02:42 AM.