Hall of Good Induction Thread - Baseball

[The"threadicidal"bristolspapa]

I always love listening to sports talk radio when someone retires, or is a year from it. The "is he a hall of famer debate" creeps into the scene. Some say that if it must be debated, then the answer is no. Others say that the purists should shut their pie holes and finally admit that there were good teams and players since the 1975 Athletics.

Then you have seamheads pushing for guys like Jim Rice, Andre Dawson, and Ted Simmons to make it to the hall. But at least they are trying to accept ideas, or better yet, establish new knowledge for evaluating talent. But these guys aren't always in conflict with the purists since it is against the old guard that the new information is evaluated.

So let's just say that they're both wrong and compromise: The WC Forum Hall of Good. I will make the initial induction, and everyone can nominate others. We will have a ceremony at the end of the week with the initial seven entrants.

Charter members:
Daryl Strawberry and Dwight Gooden
These two go in as a tandem and embody the spirit of the Hall of Good. On the same team, each was the dominating force in their role from 1986-1988. Then the 80s caught up with these two. Strawberry hit 335 career home runs, and was on-pace for over 500 when his troubles overtook him as a member of the Dodgers. He was a key contributor to 3 World Series champions, and has an OPS of .862, higher than a significant number of HOFers.

Doc Gooden left the Mets, and actually pitched a perfect game for the Yankees. He finished shy of 200 wins. Also played on 3 WS champs, won ROY, Cy Young, and the Triple Crown of Pitching.

While nobody would put these guys in the HOF class, they were on pace before personal demons got a hold of them. But for a three year stretch, they were the NL's best. This makes them HOG worthy.

Let the nominations begin!

[gsguy]

Your first two hall of good entrants are druggies? Make no mistake, I love Doc and Darryl for their baseball abilities but they were not moral people.

[The"threadicidal"bristolspapa]

"Good" in the sense of ability, but not the greatness associated with Hall of Fame material. Oh, I should mention that if anyone wants to take someone OUT of the HOF and place them in the HOG, then that's cool too.

[gsguy]

sheltonspapa said:

"Good" in the sense of ability, but not the greatness associated with Hall of Fame material. Oh, I should mention that if anyone wants to take someone OUT of the HOF and place them in the HOG, then that's cool too.

Oh I see...

I nominate Dave Kingman, Dick Allen and Dave Parker then.

[Poker Joker]

Darryl Strawberry was actually in Fargo-Moorhead a couple years ago to speak at a charity auction to raise money for the D.A.R.E. program (an anti-drug program in the area aimed at kids and teenagers). My dad was the auctioneer at the event, and got to meet Mr. Strawberry. From what I was told, he's changed A LOT from the days when he played baseball.

He was very open about his drug problems and how they tainted his career and his personal life. At one point, he told how his addiction even cost him a multi-million dollar contract with the New York Yankees (all he had to do was show up for the physical, and he'd have gotten his contract; he got wasted the night beforehand in celebration, and couldn't even make it to the physical. The Yankees then withdrew their offer). He's considerably more humble than he once was, and now spends a lot of time traveling and speaking at events such as this.

Needless to say, I respect him far more than I did when he was a player. I just thought that I should share that, considering the conversation in this thread.

[The"threadicidal"bristolspapa]

^Hmmmm. Good ones. Parker especially since his name has been mentioned in the same sentence as the HOF. Kingman also interesting because he was the first guy that people asked "What if he gets to 500 HR?" Some say that basbball blacklisted him to prevent the debate from having to go forward (Canseco also accuses MLB of this).

[fuzzywarble, squat cobbler]

There's no way Kingman makes the HOF with 500 HRs, not with his .236 lifetime batting average.

Adam Dunn is the new Kingman, by the way. One-dimensional slugger with a lot of strikeouts and low average.