The arguments for – and against – each of the candidates for the Classic Baseball Era Hall of Fame
The Hall of Fame’s Classic Baseball Era Committee considers players, managers, umpires and executives who made their greatest impact before 1980. That’s a big part of the sport’s history – more than a century – so simply achieving the voting is already an achievement.
The eight candidates announced on Monday now face an even tougher process: actually winning the vote. A 16-person committee will meet next month during the Winter Meetings, with a maximum of three votes per member and 75 percent needed for election.
The results of the elections will be announced on December 8. Here are some factors the committee – whose members have not yet been announced – will take into account.
Dick Allen (1942-2020)
3B/1B/OF, 1963-77, Philadelphia, St. Louis, Los Angeles (NL), Chicago (AL), Oakland
The case for: Through eleven seasons (1964 through 1974), only one player had a better OPS than Allen’s .940: Hank Aaron, at .941. And while those years specifically highlight Allen’s highlights, it’s notable that everyone else in the top 11 in OPS is a Hall of Famer before that time: Aaron, Willie McCovey, Frank Robinson, Willie Stargell, Roberto Clemente, Willie Mays, Harmon Killebrew, Carl Yastrzemski, Billy Williams and Reggie Jackson. Allen led his league in OPS four times and won an MVP award for the White Sox in 1972.
The case against: Allen played for several teams — unusual for a star before free agency — and was continually cast as a rebel, without any regard for his perspective or the context of his time. He was often unavailable (only six seasons with a minimum of 130 games), fell short of 2,000 hits and 400 home runs and appeared in only three postseason games.
Ken Boyer (1931-1982)
3B, 1955-69, St. Louis, New York (NL), Chicago (AL), Los Angeles (NL)
The case for: Like Allen, Boyer was an All-Star in seven seasons and an MVP in one (1964 for the Cardinals) with a strong 11-year prime, much of it at third base. In his best period (1955-1965, consisting of his entire stay in St. Louis), Boyer ranked fourth in the majors in hits with an .832 OPS. He also won five Gold Gloves at a position that was underrepresented in Cooperstown.
The case against: Like Allen, Boyer is light on stat counts, with 2,143 hits and 282 home runs. He didn’t have much of an impact for the Mets, White Sox or Dodgers, hitting 30 home runs just once, and his MVP season was his only top-5 finish for the award.
John Donaldson (1891-1970)
P/OF, 1920-1924, Kansas City Monarchs
The case for: Research has revealed more than 400 wins and 5,000 strikeouts for Donaldson, who pitched and played outfield for more than 30 years and later became a scouting pioneer for the White Sox. Born in 1891, Donaldson was a major figure in the early rushing days and developed a blueprint for profitability that Satchel Paige and others would follow.
The case against: Donaldson was already 29 years old when the Negro National League was founded in 1920. Because of that, and Donaldson’s many years of barnstorming, the new statistical information added to the official baseball record this year does little to advance his case. Only five seasons are listed for Donaldson.
Steve Garvey (1948-)
1B, 1969-87, Los Angeles (NL), San Diego (NL)
Steve Garvey remains in the public eye today. (Stephen Dunn/Getty Images)
The case for: Garvey — now the Republican candidate for U.S. Senate from California — did many things that were hallmarks of a future Hall of Famer in his day. Ten All-Star selections. Seven .300 seasons. Six seasons with 200 hits. Five MVP awards (one regular season, two All-Star Game, two NLCS). Four golden gloves. Elite postseason performance (.338/.361/.550). A National League record of 1,207 consecutive games.
The case against: Through a modern statistical lens, Garvey’s ledger suffers from a lower on-base percentage (.329) and slugging percentage (.446) than most Hall of Famers at his position, and his defensive rewards are undermined by a dWAR of min- 11.7 on Baseball Reference.
Vic Harris (1905–1978)
Manager, Homestead Grays, 1936-1942, 1945-1948 (also outfielder for various teams, 1922-1945)
The case for: Of all managers in MLB history with more than five years in the role, Harris has the highest winning percentage, at .663. He led the Homestead Grays for 11 seasons, winning seven pennants and the last Negro National League championship in 1948. A seven-time All-Star outfielder, Harris played 18 seasons, batting .303 and gaining fame for his ferocious base running. “He just stripped the opposing infielder,” said Hall of Famer Buck Leonard, as quoted in Harris’ SABR biography. “Cut the uniform off his back.”
The case against: Now that the Negro Leagues have been officially recognized as part of the MLB record, it is difficult to make a case against a manager with Harris’s success, especially considering his playing career.
Tommy John (1943-)
LHP, 1963-74, 1976-89, Cleveland, Chicago (AL), Los Angeles (NL), New York (AL), California, Oakland
The case for: Dr. Frank Jobe saved John’s career with experimental elbow surgery in 1974. John was 31 at the time, with 124 career victories. He pitched until age 46 and added another 164 victories. John has the same ERA as Fergie Jenkins (3.34), with almost the exact same record: 288-231 for John, 284-226 for Jenkins. He also had 46 career shutouts, more than contemporaries like Phil Niekro, Catfish Hunter and Jim Bunning, who – like Jenkins – are all in the Hall. Among lefties, only Steve Carlton started more games than John, who started 700.
The case against: Since Cy Young’s retirement in 1911, no pitcher with as many wins as John has had a strikeout rate as low as his 4.3 per nine innings. John connected with one of the best sinkers of his era, so he gave up hits often but was hard to beat for home runs. He never won a Cy Young Award and never pitched in the World Series for the winning team, though so did Don Sutton, Juan Marichal and others.
Dave Parker (1951-)
OR, 1973-1991, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Oakland, Milwaukee, California, Toronto
The case for: All the others with 2,700 hits and 300 home runs are in the room, except Miguel Cabrera and Albert Pujols, who have not yet appeared on a ballot; Carlos Beltran, who is still on the ballot; and three players with steroid ties (Barry Bonds, Alex Rodriguez and Rafael Palmeiro). Parker won an MVP award, two batting titles, two World Series and three Gold Gloves. The only other player to accomplish all that was a precursor to the Pirates’ right fielder: Roberto Clemente. Parker was also a seven-time All-Star, the first Home Run Derby champion, an All-Star Game MVP and a pioneer in the clubhouse T-shirt game.
The case against: Injuries and drug use seriously hampered Parker’s performance during a four-year period (1980–83) that should have been part of his prime. To his credit, he reinvented himself as a respected, still productive force for the Reds and the Athletics throughout the remainder of the 1980s, but there is a perception that he could have gotten more out of his talent.
Luis Tiant (1940-2024)
RHP, 1964-1982, Cleveland, Minnesota, Boston, New York (AL), California, Pittsburgh
The case for: Tiant, who died Oct. 8, had 50 career shutouts, including one in the historically important 1975 World Series, in which he was a major star. Style, flair and fun should mean something if there’s substance behind it – and Tiant had it, with four 20-win seasons, two ERA titles and more than 2,400 strikeouts.
The case against: There are clearly ten great seasons in there, which is basically Hall of Fame standard (think Roy Halladay). But the choppy nature of Tiant’s career is probably working against him; after his astonishing 1968 season (21-9, 1.60 ERA), he spent the next three seasons with three different teams, going 17-30 with a 3.84 ERA. He never won a Cy Young Award or a World Series title, unlike Catfish Hunter, a Cy Young Award winner who won five rings but had essentially the same career: 224-166, 3.26 ERA for Hunter, 229-172 , 3.30 ERA for Tiant .
(Top photo by Allen: Diamond Images/Getty Images)
