Wednesday, January 24, 2007

A Great American

Our President paid tribute to Dikembe Mutombo in his SOTU last night. You know, in that part in the end where it has nothing at all to do with the state of the union, but where presidents who have run out of stuff to say stick a few guys next to their wives in the rafters to milk applause and standing ovations. Do you get a sense of how I feel about these speeches?

Anyway, naturalized citizen Mutombo was introduced as a great guy, worthy of a national standing ovation. This is the same Mutombo who has used his elbows to put more basketball players on the injured list than anyone in NBA history.

This is the guy W and Karl Rove idolize. Throw an elbow, break a nose, open a hospital. It all goes together. Land of the free throw, home of the Buffalo Braves.

Tuesday, January 09, 2007

#5 and #6

All the talk today is about the baseball writers snub of Mark McGwire, with his 583 home runs, seventh all time. There is also some mention of the two guys who made it on their first ballots, Cal Ripken and Tony Gwynn, mostly in the context of “What do you guys think about McGwire not making it?”. But I want to talk about two guys who didn’t make it who deserve to be in the Hall of Fame.

Andre Dawson finished fifth in the voting with 309 votes (56.7% of the ballots). This is down from 317 votes last year. Bert Blyleven finished sixth with 260 votes (47.7%), down from 277 votes last year. It was Dawson’s sixth time up for enshrinement and Blyleven’s tenth, suggesting that time may be running out for two players who have been underrated and forgotten for too long.

Andre Dawson is among the career leaders in many hitting categories. Let’s start with his 4,787 total bases, which is 24th all-time. The names ahead of him represent the pantheon of players in the game: Aaron, Musial, Mays, Cobb, Ruth, Bonds, Rose, Yaz, Murray, Palmiero, Frank Robinson, Winfield, Ripken, Speaker, Gehrig, Brett, Ott, Foxx, Williams, Wagner, Molitor, Kaline, and Reggie Jackson. Virtually every one of these players was voted in on the first ballot, including the three original hitters enshrined in 1936 (Cobb, Ruth and Wagner). Anyone who has 4,700+ total bases was unquestionably a great hitter, and that stat ought to be enough to put you in.

Dawson finished with 2,774 hits (45th), 438 homers (35th), 1,591 RBI’s (29th) and 503 doubles (42nd). He is far ahead of Mark McGwire in every category except homers. In fact, he was substantially ahead of Jim Rice, who finished 4th in the balloting with 346 votes (63.5%), in every one of those categories. He hit for power, consistency, and he hit in the clutch.

And he could run. Dawson had 314 stolen bases, making him one of only 6 300 HR-300 SB players. Until this season it was only Mays, Bonds, Bonds and Dawson, but the club was cheapened a bit this season with the entrance of Steve Finley and Reggie Sanders.

One more thing about The Hawk – he was one of the greatest right fielders ever. He won 8 Gold Gloves and had one of the most intimidating throwing arms in baseball history.

Andre Dawson could do it all. Unfortunately, he did it for crummy ball clubs, toiling for the Expos and the Cubs for most of his career. In spite of that, he won an MVP award for the last place Cubs in 1987 as he led the league in homers (49) and RBI’s (137) and total bases (353). I just don’t know how the idiot writers can leave him off the ballot.

Bert Blyleven’s credentials are mostly about 1 number: 3,701. That’s strikeouts. It’s an unbelievable number, fifth all-time behind Ryan, Clemens, Randy Johnson and Carlton. That’s it. Fifth all-time. And unlike these guys, he did it primarily with a curve ball.

This season Pedro Martinez, with 2,998 K’s, will become the 14th player in history to top 3,000. This is exclusive territory. The others in the 3,000 club that Blyleven is ahead of are Seaver, Sutton, Perry, Walter Johnson, Niekro, Jenkins, Maddux, Gibson and Schilling. Is the world watching? He’s ahead of Walter Johnson, fer crissakes!

Like Dawson, he played for some mediocre teams. He only made it to the post-season three times, including 2 World Series where he won rings with the Pirates in 1979 and the Twins in 1987. His post-season record was 5-1 in 6 starts, with an ERA of 2.47. Not too shabby.

I know he didn’t get 300 wins (287) and he had a lot of losses (250) playing for some crummy teams. He had an ERA of 3.31, far in excess of the league ERA of 3.90. He finished with a career WHIP of 1.198, much better than Carlton and Ryan (who lost 292 games, by the way), and only slightly higher than Clemens and Randy Johnson.

But in the end he could always get batters out the one way that proves someone can pitch, by getting them to swing and miss. As I said before, I think any pitcher who ends up with more strikeouts than Walter Johnson, who held the record for something like 70 years, ought to be in the Hall.