The No Hall Of Famers League

[Highlander]

Career Records




The biggest changes this year were with Fred Dunlap. He took over the records for Runs, Triples and Steals. Denny Lyons improved the numbers for his records, which is pretty impressive, considering where they are.




On the pitching side, Dupee Shaw is the only new name on the list, as he took over for the career lead in Saves. Considering his career total is half of what more current players can get in a season, I'm guessing that won't be a record that stands the test of time!

Single Season Records

- On the hitting side, Ed McKean of the Cleveland Spiders set the single season record for singles, with 148. The previous record was 143 by Ed Swartwood (then of the Brooklyn Grays, but currently a teammate of McKean) back in 1887. Jim Burns of the Cardinals tied Swartwood this season as well, but unfortunately, he chose to do it in a year the record was broken by 5.

- For pitching, a positive record was set this season as well as a negative one. On the negative side, Mike Morrison of the Columbus Solons shattered his single season walks record that he set last year. He walked an incredible 260 batters this past season.....making his 233 walks in 1892 seem like nothing. On the positive side, Scott Stratton of the Boston Reds set the single season WAR record with 13.37.

Milestones

Fred Dunlap (CLE)- 2000 Hits
Jimmy Wolf (BOS)- 1000 Runs
Fred Pfeffer (PHI)- 1000 Runs
Oyster Burns (LOU)- 1000 Runs
Pete Browning (BOS)- 1000 RBI
Jerry Denny (BRK)- 1000 RBI

Bert Dorr (CIN)- 200 Wins
Ed Seward (STL)- 200 Wins
Don Casey (LOU)- 200 Wins
Jocko Flynn (CHI)- 200 Wins
Pete Conway (WAS)- 200 Wins
John Coleman (PHI)- 200 Wins
Charlie Geggus (WAS)- 250 Wins, 2000 Ks
Bill Wise (PHI)- 250 Wins
Tommy Bond (BRK)- 500 Wins

Accomplishments

- Jack Clements of the Phillies and "Dirty" Jack Doyle of the Brewers each joined the 6-hit club, each doing so in 7 AB.

- Denny Lyons of the Cardinals hit for the cycle on 4 hits with 4 RBI against Cincinnati.

- Bill Dahlen of the Chicago Colts had the longest hitting streak of the year, with 22 games.

Awards

AL Batting Champion- Fred Dunlap (CLE)- .375
NL Batting Champion- Elmer Smith (CIN)- .363

AL Rookie of the Year- Duff Cooley (BAL)- .300/.340/.374, 7 Doubles, 8 Triples, 3 HR, 71 R, 64 RBI, 14 SB, .9 WAR
NL Rookie of the Year- Jimmy Bannon (STL)- .350/.420/.533, 26 Doubles, 16 Triples, 12 HR, 105 R, 127 RBI, 32 SB, 6.4 WAR

Quite a debut for Bannon of the Cards.....he led the league in RBI and at just 22 seems to have a great career ahead of him.

AL Pitcher of the Year Award- Scott Stratton (BOS)- 36-11,1 Save, 431.2 IP, 2.81 ERA, 1.09 WHIP, 115 K, 13.4 WAR
NL Pitcher of the Year Award- Jocko Flynn (CHI)- 31-14, 394.1 IP, 2.60 ERA, 1.27 WHIP, 82 K, 5.7 WAR

Stratton had a great season for sure, leading the league in Wins, ERA, IP, WHIP and WAR. Flynn was very good too, but it was a little bit of a down year for pitching in the NL. At least as far as great seasons were concerned.

AL MVP Award- Fred Dunlap (CLE)- .375/.459/.589, 25 Doubles, 24 Triples, 13 HR, 122 R, 122 RBI, 38 SB, 7.2 WAR
NL MVP Award- Jack Clements (PHI)- .350/.433/.560, 35 Doubles, 10 Triples, 16 HR, 119 R, 116 RBI, 43 SB, 6.3 WAR

A great year for Dunlap with one of the higher Batting Averages we've seen in a while (I think!). Clements was even more impressive, however, as he again put up MVP numbers as a catcher, which means he plays a good 10-15 games less than most other players.

[Highlander]

26 players are on the ballot this year, so votes may be spread a little thinner. 13 are in their 1st year of eligibility.

Players Dropped

Six players were dropped off the ballot this year. They were-

P Sam Weaver- Sam was in his first year and split his career between the Philadelphia and Troy. He played from 1875-1887 and was lucky enough to be on the Philly team that won the Championship in his final season. Other than that, there were no real notable accomplishments for Sam. He only had a winning record in two seasons of his career and one of those was in his second to last season where he went 1-0 in just 6 innings. He unsurprisingly received no votes.

P Harry Salisbury- Harry only played from 1879-1888, for Troy and Philadelphia, and had less than 5 IP in 3 of those seasons. He did pitch 2 innings for the 1887 Philly team that won the championship (sound familiar?), but much like his teammate above, he did nothing else of note in his short career. He also received 0 votes in this, his 1st year of eligibility.

OF Tim Murnane- Tim broke into the league in 1872 and stayed until 1888. His first two seasons, he played for Middletown and Baltimore. Then he spent the rest of his career with Chicago. He won 2 Gold Gloves and 2 Silver Sluggers to go along with 1 World Championship back in 1877 with the White Stockings. That was about it for him. He got .7% of the vote. This was also his 1st year on the ballot.

OF "Big Jim" Clinton- Jim started his career in 1872 with Brooklyn, then after 3 years there, spent 6 with Keokuk and his last 8 with Detroit until 1888. He was a 3x Gold Glove winner and won a single Silver Slugger. Similar to those we've reviewed so far, he was in his first year and registered a very small share of the vote with just .7%.

OF George Hall- I covered him way back in my 1890 report. He was dropped after his 4th year with just 3% of the vote.

OF Orator Shafer- Dropped in his 2nd year with 3.3% of the vote, Orator played from 1874-1887. He started with Hartford and spent time with Milwaukee, Cleveland, Troy and Philadelphia. He won the Rookie of the Year in 1874 and led the league in HR....although it was with just 3. His defense kept him on the ballot the extra year, as he won 6 Gold Gloves....and was part of 3 championship teams.

Players Staying on the Ballot

C Scott Hastings- 5.6% in Year 6

P Frank Buttery- 8.6% in Year 1

P Ballplayer O'Rourke- 10.3 % in Year 6

P Ed Stratton- 10.6% in Year 1

P Jim Devlin- 12% in Year 3

OF Dick Higham- 13.6% in Year 1

P Joe Blong- 24.3% in Year 1

OF Tom York- 24.9% in Year 1

2B Jack Burdock- 24.9% in Year 1

C Pop Snyder- 28.2% in Year 2

OF Dave Eggler- 38.5% in Year 4

3B Davy Force- 39.2% in Year 3

P Jim Britt- 46.5% in Year 7

SS Chick Fulmer- 47.5% in Year 2

P Frank Fleet- 55.8% in Year 5

OF Cal McVey- 64.1% in Year 1

2B John Peters- 68.8% in Year 3

1B Lip Pike- 69.1% in Year 5

1894 Hall of Fame Inductees- That leaves 2 players left who were inducted into the Hall of Fame!

First up is P Charles Witheroe. He is the 8th player inducted and the 7th pitcher. He received 92% of the vote and it was his 1st year of eligibility.

His career highlights include-

5x Player of the Week
5x Rookie of the Month
4x Gold Glove Award

As of his induction, his career rankings include-

#20 in Complete Games


Here's his career numbers....and if anyone can explain how he got elected, please let me know!



The next member of the Class of 1894 is P John Greason. Greason is the 9th player and 8th pitcher elected. He was also in his 1st year on the ballot and got 98.3% of the vote.

His career highlights include-

11x Player of the Week
8x Pitcher of the Month
4x Rookie of the Month
1x Rookie of the Year

His career rankings at induction time were-

#12 in ERA
#18 in Wins
#12 in Saves
#16 in Complete Games
#18 in Shutouts
#13 in WHIP

Here's his career numbers-



John is definitely a better candidate than Charles, but I'm not sure either was worth 1st ballot induction. Of course that could be said about a number of real HOFers as well, so I guess I can't complain too much!

[Syd Thrift]

Also um Tim Murnane is in the Hall… as a sportswriter and executive for the early New England League.

[Highlander]

Originally Posted by Syd Thrift

Also um Tim Murnane is in the Hall… as a sportswriter and executive for the early New England League.

Not as a player, though. There will be others like that....like Tommy Lasorda.....who are in the Hall as a manager, executive, etc but who were not consequential in any way as a player. I'm just looking to remove HOF players to see what effect that has. Having a guy who was a HOF sportswriter still playing in the league doesn't really matter for what the purpose of the league is.

[Syd Thrift]

2 late dnysaty BANED

[Highlander]

The following players were deleted from history for the 1894 season-

Fred Clarke- Louisville

Bobby Wallace- Cleveland

That's it! Referring to a prior post, Connie Mack also debuted as a player in 1894, but he was definitely not inducted as a player, so he will be left in the league to see if he can change his playing fortunes. I am doubtful at best.

Moving on, here are the final standings for each league-






This Boston team is just blowing everyone else away. Four straight years of being in the championship with the closest team 18 games back. Chicago had a tougher time repeating, with St. Louis on their tail the whole way. In the end, however, we will see a repeat of last year's championship.

This was a huge offensive season in both leagues. There were a total of 4 players who hit .400+ and 5 guys with 150+ RBI. I haven't checked the record book yet, but I am guessing a few of them fell this season. It will be interesting to see who our award winners will be.

[textilemonster]

I stumbled across your previous attempt at this a few months ago and was bummed you stopped, so seeing you make a second attempt is great!
I think you opened your Hall of Fame a bit early (1886? I think that's as early as you could make it with the 10/5 eligibility rules), but this is still a fun read.