I played a lot of Stratomatic growing up in the 1980s. Baines was always one of my favorite players on my “fantasy” teams.
4
Following the election of Craig Biggio to the Hall a few years ago, I wrote an article, https://the-cauldron.com/don-mattingly-should-be-in-the-hall-of-fame-6838d50fb16b, comparing Mattingly and Biggio and lamenting the ongoing omission of Mattingly. Without plunging too deeply into the statistical weeds here, that article is even more applicable to a Mattingly-Baines comparison.
Biggio and Baines were very good players who are to be commended for their durability. They were never close to being among the few best players in the game, if not the best player in the game, as Mattingly was for the first half of his injury-shortened career. I suppose being very good for 20-plus years is the ticket.
One stat I will mention in closing: In his 14-year career, Mattingly won nine Gold Gloves. Baines, in his 22-year career, didn't win even one.
1
Harold Baines had quite a power surge in 1999 at age 40 by hitting 25 homers in only 486 plate appearances. Why have Bonds, Sosa and Palmeiro been rejected by voters again?
This is a ridiculous selection.
Maybe if this were a "Hall of Very Good" or a "Hall of Longevity and Counting Stats" it would be justified.
So many players were better than Baines by any objective metric. Since they now apparently qualify, the HOF will need to expand into Otsego Lake to accommodate the new wings for these very good players.
6
The veterans committee is a farce.
I hate to see Harold Baines have his good name dragged into an argument about this, but the only reason he got in is because a bunch of guys on the committee were his old friends.
There is a reason his support among baseball writers never exceeded 6%.
3
Seems like the point of this article is to file a grievance on behalf of Don Mattingly. But if you look at the list of all-time greatest RBI hitters, Baines sits at 34 and everyone around him on that list is in the Hall of Fame. Mattingly, by comparison, is down in the 200s -- 212 -- and no one around him is in the hall. The point is Baines was, like LaRussa says, not just a great hitter, but a great clutch hitter. So if there is a problem here, it's with how these new age metrics that appear to understate Baines' contribution.
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Harold Baines was a good ball player but for sure not a Hall of Famer. This is becoming a joke. Reinsdorf plotted this one all way with LaRussa. DM deserves the Hall much more than this guy. But they continue to be Yankee Haters on the committee. Surrender.
IMO: don bollweg and r.a. dickey.
I'm not a baseball fan though some of my best friends have been, so the narrative is familiar if the details have been lost or were never the point. Even the sportswriters at the "Failing NY Times" are skilled crafters and Tyler Kepner is an artist. Thanks for making it worthwhile to read the whole paper, as has become my habit, almost in spite of myself.
1
As a 35 year season ticket holder in Seattle, I can say that Edgar Martinez was in a class by himself. No matter the score as long as Edgar had an at bat you still had a chance to win. The preponderance of baseball writers are from the east coast. They were sound asleep when Edgar was preforming the magic that makes him so remarkable.
West coast teams get a bad deal. I have visited HOF twice. Edgar not being part of this shrine is just plain baffling. He will always be an HOF player in the hearts and minds of Seattle fans, and many thousands of other serious baseball fans.
One last chance to make this right! Edgar 75% this year. You know this is right.
PS: one night I was late for a game so I jumped on the elevator reserved for the press to get to my seat. The operator intones “second floor, working press.” That brought a big laugh from everyone else on the elevator most of whom also had a real job!
@dennyb I’m with you in this one and add that Carlos Delgado also had a career worthy of the Hall Of Fame and was rejected on his first year of elegibility.
If Harold Baines is worthy of the Hall of Fame, then
Dwight Evans should be voted in.
Dwight Evans - 8 GOLD GLOVES
SUMMARY Career
WAR 67.1 AB 8996 R 1470 H 2446 BA .272 HR 385
RBI 1384 SB 78 OBP .370 SLG .470 OPS .840
OPS+ 127
Harold Baines - 0 GOLD GLOVES
WAR 38.7 AB 9908 R 1299 H 2866 BA .289 HR 384
RBI 1628 SB 34 OBP .356 SLG .465 OPS .820
OPS+
121
4
Omar Vizquel is not in the Hall of Fame yet? Whatever it is something is wrong.
1
If Harold Baines is in, so should Keith Hernandez be in. MVP, 11 Gold Gloves, 2x World Champion. He should already be in.
WAR
60.4
AB
7370
R
1124
H
2182
BA
.296
HR
162
RBI
1071
SB
98
OBP
.384
SLG
.436
OPS
.821
OPS
128
1
I hate bring in the position of sales anything negative about Baines. He was a very good baseball player for a long time and by all accounts a great teammate and person.
But he is not close to being a HOF worthy ballplayer. He was never thought of as being among the games greats. His selection isn't so much a victory of old-time stats as it is a victory for cronyism and a willingness to cheapen honors and ignore standards.
I've never been a fan of compilers who rack up big lifetime numbers thru (and while Baines' numbers are impressive, they aren't amazing) longevity. The HOF should be for the cream of the crop. I'll take Mattingly every day over a player like Baines. Just like I'll take Koufax and Pedro Martinez over Din Sutton, despite his 324 wins. He was never a dominant pitcher except for one year.
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Harold Baines had quite a power surge in 1999 at age 40 by hitting 25 homers in only 486 plate appearances. That was the best HR/plate appearance ratio of his career.
Why have Bonds, Sosa and Palmeiro been rejected by voters again?
Sorry, Harold Baines was a likable, popular and very good player, but not at a HOF level. 6% vote tally shows it.
4
One only needs a glance at the elegant photo of Harold at bat to recall the sublime geometry of that swing. Harold’s absence from the HOF has been exceeded only by that of Tony Oliva; some day to be also made right.
3
Ok, I was raised in Brooklyn, so you'll understand my bias for finally electing Gil Hodges. Not only as a hitter, fielder and manager, but as a strong, quiet man with class and integrity.
3
Dale Murphy. Best player in the game for a reasonable stretch in the early 80's. MVP winner '82-'83, good defender in center field, one of the rare members of the 30/30 (home runs and stolen bases) club. A major back problem later on held down his average and cut his career short just shy of 400 home runs. By all accounts, also a very good person. Put him in.
5
Harold is a great guy, wonderful broadcaster and was a fine player. But he couldn’t hold a fungo bat to Murphy. I agree.
1
I'm happy to see Harold Baines inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
For too long sports writers have decided who is eligible for the Baseball Hall of Fame. I've never seen a writer throw or hit a major league baseball. Have to play through the grinding baseball season. Suffer debilitating injuries, recover from those injuries. Then come back to play professionally again.
The Basketball and Football Hall of Fames have players decided who is eligible for induction. Not writers alone. They know what it takes to have an outstanding professional athletic career.
I'm an "old school" fan. I still read the box scores in my local newspaper. I look at batting averages, home runs, rbi's, ERA, strikeouts and stolen bases. Not these so called analytics: WAR and OPS; give me a break...
Congratulations to Harold Baines and to all the other deserving players who will now be inducted into the Baseball Hall of fame.
4
Even using traditional stats Baines falls well short. He was very good. But he's a compiler... never dominant or an all-time great.
6
No doubt I will be vilified for starting this, but the two baseball players who were robbed of the Hall of Fame honor are "Shoeless" Joe Jackson and Pete Rose. I will always long for the justice both of these men never received.
There. I said it. I make no apologies. That's just how I feel.
10
Cheaters don't deserve to be honored. Why don't you get that?
3
There are a ton of metrics that can prove or disprove a candidate - and all that can go into the mix. I definitely am in the camp that considering Baines' record only means having to close the door of the Hall of Fame on him.
However, the goal of the "Today's Game Era" committee is to grant Hall of Fame status to those who *they* think deserve it. And evidently Baines does. I don't have a problem with that.
4
"La Russa praised Baines’s longevity, pure hitting stroke and ability to hit in the clutch. Baines was too humble to campaign for himself, La Russa said, and missed out on 3,000 hits because of two prolonged M.L.B. work stoppages in his career"
“To be honest, I wasn’t sitting around waiting for the call,” Baines said on Monday. “I didn’t play for the Hall of Fame. I played the game to have a job and to try to win championships.”
And its reasons such as these that make a great Hall of Famer. He continues to be humble, keeping things real and just doing what he knows and does best - playing and coaching baseball.
I loved this guy when he played for the White Sox. He was always that unsung hero that through his efforts helped win many a game for Chicago.
Congratulations Mr. Baines. This prestigious honor is long over due.
14
Maybe it’s due—and I disagree with that—but “long overdue?” Unexpected and shocking are more like it.
I have nothing against Harold Baines, who was a very good player. But I certainly hope that his election is viewed as an aberration and not a harbinger of things to come. At a time when dilution is a societal curse -- of civic discourse, academic grade rigidity, et al. -- the BBHOF is a refreshingly and unapologetically exclusive institution. The HOF should keep its impossibly high standards and visitors should shake their heads every time they walk by Baines' plaque.
6
@Raj6 "The HOF should keep its impossibly high standards and visitors should shake their heads every time they walk by Baines' plaque."
As a result of poor choices in the past - for example, by the Veterans Committee in the early 1970s - the HOF contains a number of players who have no business being there. In other words, the "impossibly high standards" have not applied for quite some time.
1
So your argument is that because mistakes have been made in the past they should continue to be made now?
5
Well, LaRussa and especially Reinsdorf should have had the good sense to abstain. Baines was always a class act (which, admittedly, is not usually part of the HOF criteria) and the election of Lee Smith is long overdue. However, this little stunt may tarnish the election of both men and probably be the catalyst for proper rules regarding relationships between the candidates and the electors.
6
@JesseH you raise a sensible point, this from a Sox fan back to ‘59. Neither Tony nor Jerry would ever put a thumb on the scale on a baseball issue for anyone. I lived through a lot they got wrong, and they may be on the wrong side of this one if only because HB was and is such a class act. Just for the record, name a hitter with a sweeter stroke. I’ll go with that for HOF.
3
It’s about substance not style
The HOF is being watered-down by writers and committees, who make the discussions and the voting an event in themselves. Writers who can list up to ten nominees now routinely list ten every year, and then talk in their social media sites about every choice and why others should also be elected. Committees justify their existence by never passing on an opportunity to select a few "controversial" choices, then field phone calls and talk show invitations to discuss the choices.
If you now go to the HOF, you see plaques that do not list statistics, indicating "leadership" and "clutch performer". Their numbers are not impressive. Good but not great players are flooding in. If memory serves, in the past 5 years we have seen a record number of inductees per that period (23) , and at one time (6). And how far away can inducting the PED users be?
This is just how it is today. The media, committees and the fans enjoy inducting and discussing (this article itself is an example). The integrity of the HOF is a secondary consideration. Open the doors, here comes the flood.
4
Harold is a wonderfully nice man and has contributed to the sport after his playing career as an excellent analyst. But HOFer? Not even close based on just his playing career. If he was being considered by a body that takes into account post-player contributions then maybe. But that was not the criteria.
9
I always enjoy your baseball articles. I think no one could have a better argument for Baines´selection to HOF. Mattingly should be next (dificult for me to say since I´m a Red Sox fan).
Xavier de Zamacona
3
I was always a big Harold Baines fan and I think with more hits than anyone eligible for the HOF (excluding a couple of steroid implicated guys) plus a more than respectable total number of hrs along with the missed time of two work stoppages this was a good selection. That said it does raise the question of whether the HOF needs a minimum number of years, at bats, innings or appearances to allow consideration of shorter but more productive careers like say Don Mattingly’s 10 year career with his 2100 hits .300 batting average, MVP and gold gloves.
3