When it Raines, it Pours

Tim Raines is on the Hall of Fame Ballot for the first time. It’s a weak year for new guys, so we may finally see some justice for some older guys excluding Justice himself.

The new guys, in addition to Raines, are:

The aforesaid Dave Justice (on the Mitchell list)
Chuck Knoblauch (on the Mitchell list)
Rod Beck (given a Gehrig/Clemente exemption???)
Chuck Finley (exactly 200 wins, not 300)
Travis Fryman (less than 2000 hits)
Shawon Dunston (played his last game in the 2002 WS)
Brady Anderson (come on – 50 homers???)
Jose Rijo (get real - he had 116 wins)
Robb Nen (no closer gets in immediately)
Todd Stottlemyre (see Nen)

Except for Raines, can we all agree that none of these other guys, steroids or not, had Hall of Fame careers? I love Beck and Nen, but let’s get real, this is a joke of a list, and none of them should even get the 5% required to get back on the list next season.
The old guys on the ballot are:

Harold Baines (the ultimate in lasting a long time)
Bert Blyleven
Dave Concepcion
Andre Dawson
Rich Gossage
Tommy John
Don Mattingly
Mark McGwire
Jack Morris
Dale Murphy
Dave Parker
Jim Rice
Lee Smith
Alan Trammell

We can get more serious about these guys. I’ve said here before, it is absurd that Dawson and Blyleven aren’t already in the Hall. Dawson is 25th all time in Total Bases, 35th in homers, 32nd in RBI’s, and he won an MVP, an ROY and eight Gold Gloves. How can these stats not get him in? He was a tremendous all-around force, who, despite his bad knees, had 314 stolen bases to boot. He had more doubles (44th all-time) than the speedster Raines.

When you look at the list of guys ahead of him on these lists, it’s the freaking pantheon of baseball hitters. There are no flukey guys in the top 25 in Total Bases. He's right behind Kaline and Reggie, and he's ahead of Rogers Hornsby and Ernie Banks.

As for Blyleven, I’ll say it again: anyone who has more strikeouts than Walter Johnson has to go in the Hall. I don’t care if he pitches 100 years, Walter Johnson is the demarcation line. Cross it, and you’re in.

As for the other guys, they pale by comparison. Among the hitters, Parker, Mattingly and Rice deserve attention. They all won an MVP. After that, Dawson’s stats overpower them all. Parker was 99 homers, 160 steals, 98 RBI’s and 382 total bases and 5 Gold Gloves behind the Hawk. Mattingly was 216, 300, 492 and 1486 behind respectively, though he won 9 Gold Gloves, one more than Dawson. Rice always outpolls Dawson by a few (he’ll probably get in, finally), but despite his higher BA, he was 56 homers, 140 RBI’s, 256 steals and 658 total bases behind. Plus, he wasn’t exactly known for his fielding, though I personally own a Jim Rice model glove, purchased on my first trip to Price Club.

Among the starting pitchers, Jack Morris has some appeal. That 10 inning game seven in 1991 is legendary. But he’s got lots less of everything than Blyleven, except for that spectacular moment. Tommy John’s got a surgical procedure named for him, and he had 288 wins (Blyleven had 287). But he was 1456 strikeouts behind. That’s an awfully big number.

The rest of the pitchers were closers, and good ones. You don’t get on the hall list as a relief pitcher unless you were damned good, though as much as I loved him, Shooter Beck doesn’t really measure up – that was strictly a sympathy thing. Goose Gossage and Lee Smith were the real deal for a while. All you had to do was watch them pitch, watch them terrorize batters in the 9th to know they were special. But it’s hard to put a closer in before a guy who is 25th in Total Bases or 5th in Strikeouts. Come on – Tyler Walker had 23 saves for the Giants in 2005.

OK, I’m recognized by the Supreme Court as a member of the press, but I don’t have an official vote. So here’s my published, unofficial vote: Dawson and Blyleven. And let’s throw in Gossage and Smith for good measure, because they were fun to watch.

As for Raines, he deserves in, but he’s not a first ballot guy. Yeah, 808 steals - it's a number. He goes in the first time if he had 3,000 hits (only 2,605, less than Dawson). Rickey will be in on his first shot next year, for sure, but not Rock. You had to love him, though. He was National League, baby. Here’s my vote for The Rock in 2010.