Post by tonyo on Mar 11, 2007 21:45:48 GMT -5
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Three That Should Be!
There has been an oversight. A great injustice at The Baseball Hall Of Fame.
Three pitchers have been unjustly passed over for years. Why? These pitchers did not reach that "magical" figure of 300 career wins but they came very, very close. There are pitchers in the Hall who did not come as close as these three men did. Those pitchers are inducted and will be forever honored in Cooperstown and rightfully so. Still there are three who are on the outside looking in. What a shame!
First off Jim Kaat logged in 4530 Major League innings. His lifetime ERA was a respectable 3.45. He won 283 games and fanned 2461. He won numerous Golden Gloves for his outstanding fielding ability. Late in his career he become a first rate middle reliever and set up man.
Tommy John is famous for having a career saving surgery to prolong a wonderful stint in the majors. Since more fans remember the "Tommy John Surgery'', less time has been devoted to paying attention to how good Tommy really was. Tommy pitched a total of 4710 innings. He amassed 288 career victories and fanned 2245 batters. His lifetime ERA was 3.34. Tommy helped anchor some fine pitching staffs while with the Dodgers and the Yankees.
Last but not least is Bert Blyleven. The "Dutchman" won 279 games while pitching mostly for mediocre teams. He worked 4837 big league innings and posted a fine 3.27 ERA. He is very high on the career strikeout list with 3631 whiffs. On most of the staffs he pitched on he was usually the ace. The man they turned to in order to stop a losing streak.
Under slightly different circumstances each could have won #300. Maybe one or two more seasons as a starter instead of toiling, as a reliever would have pushed Kaat to that plateau.
If the surgery would have never taken place and Tommy had a sound arm throughout his career, 300 wins and them some would be a fair assessment.
Say if Bert would have played on more contending teams. Maybe they would have given Bert better run support. That may have added a few more wins to his ledger. Who knows?
There you have it. I say make room in the Hall for these deserving individuals. The recognition is long overdue.