@EasyAce
Thank you for sharing your vast knowledge of the HOF requirements. I haven't been a baseball fan for years and really haven't kept up with stats and rules.
Those aren't "requirements" so much as measurements Hall of Fame voters often use to determine who is or isn't truly a Hall of Famer. Bill James
developed those measurements as a way of looking deeper into a player's game, particularly keeping in mind a way to let someone who didn't get
to see a player play evaluate his actual worth. One classic example: You take one guy who hit .303 lifetime and the other who hit .305 lifetime.
If
that's all you look at, you think the guy who hit .305 was just a little more valuable and a little bit better than the guy who hit .303 lifetime.
Now, look a little deeper:
* The lifetime .305 player in my example produced 158 runs per 162 games.
* The lifetime .303 player produced 215 runs per 162 games.
* The lifetime .305 player was an early-in-the-order hitter; the lifetime .303 player was a number three or number four hitter.
* The lifetime .305 player has a .375 lifetime on-base percentage; the lifetime .303 player his a .383 lifetime on-base percentage.
The .305 player is Pete Rose. The .303 hitter is Willie Mays.
Or, how about a couple of lifetime .267 hitters, both of whom played defensive positions that drain you physically and mentally.
* Player One produced 208 runs per 162 games lifetime.
* Player Two produced 185 runs per 162 games lifetime.
* Player One has a .380 lifetime on-base percentage.
* Player Two has a .342 lifetime on-base percentage, even though he had far better teammates during his prime seasons than Player One.
* Both players had the same type of home ballpark in which to hit for most of their careers. (Player Two got to hit in a hitter's paradise of sorts
for his first four seasons.)
Player One in that example is Mike Schmidt. Player Two is Johnny Bench.
The Hall of Fame Monitors and Standards and Jay Jaffe's JAWS are just two ways to do it, but a diligent Hall of Fame voter will do his or her best to look
at the player's entire game, not just the surface.
Well, it looks like Staub was a generous individual off the field. I happen to believe that the good he did in this life will mean a much better reward in the next life than membership in the HOF.
When you get a Hall of Fame caliber person in the same being as a Hall of Fame player, it's often a rare occurrence. Men like Honus Wagner, Christy Mathewson,
Walter Johnson, Lou Gehrig, Stan Musial, Jackie Robinson, Yogi Berra, Robin Roberts, Willie Mays, Ernie Banks, Hank Aaron, Sandy Koufax, Bob Gibson, Roberto
Clemente, Brooks Robinson (
Around here, they don't name candy bars after Brooks, they name their children after him), Billy Williams, Jim Palmer, Monte
Irvin, Mike Schmidt, George Brett, Tony Gwynn, and Gary Carter, among others, are the exceptions.
