honors to real baseball players

[nostatic]

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/hof07/news/story?id=2725461

Tony Gwynn (one of my heros) and Cal Ripkin (partial namesake for my son) get into the Hall. Ripkin with the 3rd highest voting percentage of all time (Seaver and Ryan ahead of him), Gwynn 7th highest.

Guys who spent their entire career with a single team. Gwynn came in as an average fielder, worked his ass off, and won gold gloves. Showed up early every day for extra batting practice and watched videotape of all the pitchers. Hit over .300 19 straight seasons. Best hitter since Williams.

[nostatic]

in 1995, 35.1 at bats per strikeout. Holy crap.

[DonDavis]

No kidding! Those guys were the best. I still say Ripken's swing was a lot like Aaron's.

I guess this went up in value a few notches!
Even though it got smudged in transport.

[nostatic]

this is a great article from '97

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/features/1997/weekly/970728/gwynn.html

Fifteen years to the day on which he played his first major league game, San Diego Padres outfielder Tony Gwynn hunches over a small monitor propped up on a battered blue steamer trunk in the visitor's clubhouse of Miami's Pro Player Stadium, studying a video of his batting stroke—the sweetest swing since Glenn Miller's. Land softly on the front foot ... cock the top hand slightly toward the pitcher ... stay back ... pow! The checkpoints are as constant as the engraved notches on a dipstick. Gwynn, having had one hit in five at bats the previous night against the Florida Marlins, is half a quart low. "I'll fix it," the master mechanic says. The checkup is unremarkable except for this: 2,037 games after his debut he was at work last Saturday more than six hours before game time, well ahead of coaches, rookies and vendors.



With a .388 average at week's end, Gwynn seems certain not only to improve his career average for a fifth straight season, raising it from .329 to .339 over that span, but also to extend the best run of hitting the game has seen by someone at such an advanced age. Gwynn has batted .371 over the past five years, beginning with 1993 when he turned 33. Only five players—and none since '31—have had a better five-year average, and all five, Rogers Hornsby, Ty Cobb, George Sisler, Harry Heilmann and Al Simmons, began their runs in their 20s.

None of those Hall of Famers from before the era of expansion and of specialized relief pitching endured the grind Gwynn did last week. Beginning on July 13, Gwynn played six games in six days in four time zones against four teams in which he faced 16 pitchers in 28 plate appearances. That is why comparing hitters from different eras is a waste of time. A hitter is more accurately measured against his peers, those players hitting under the same conditions. By that yardstick—batting average measured against contemporaries—Gwynn is the best hitter since Williams and the sixth best hitter of all time . He has batted .0789 better than all other major leaguers combined during his career, a margin exceeded among players with 2,500 hits by only Cobb (.1029 better than his peers), Williams (.0841), Hornsby (.0810), Nap Lajoie (.0806) and Willie Keeler (.0794).

"O.K., that idea makes sense," Gwynn says, "but I don't care what the numbers say. Am I better than Hank Aaron? Stan Musial? Frank Robinson? Not a chance. The only thing I want people to say about me is that I played the game the way it should be played. What I've always wanted to do is be a complete player. This is as close as I've ever come to it."

[Seahawk]

When I lived in San Diego I went to a lot of Padres games just to watch Tony bat.

I also had the pleasure of watching Cal play at the old Memorial Stadium in Baltimore when I moved to Maryland.

Both seem to be great folks as well.

[on2wheels52]

Rogers Hornsby, George Sisler, Wee Willie Keeler- names from the past I read about as a kid (I was more the Micky Mantle era).
I wonder if they made $50 a game.
Jim

[Tim Walsh]

Cal is the epitome of the standup baseball and one of my heroes growing up. Congrads to them both.

[m21sniper]

Current fave: Ryan Howard

All time philly greats:

Mike Schmidt
Pete Rose
Steve Carlton
Greg Luzinski
Larry Bowa

Salute'!

[Jim Richards]

steroid-boy McGwire didn't make the cut. Ha-ha!

[Rot 911]

Originally posted by Jim Richards
steroid-boy McGwire didn't make the cut. Ha-ha!

And only got 28% in the voting. That is an indication he may never get voted in.

[artplumber]

And what'll happen to Bonds if breaks Hank Aaron's record?

[Jim Richards]

shunned, I hope.

[Joeaksa]

Still feel that Pete Rose deserves to be voted in. Hopefully it will happen someday.

Not going to get into his conduct off the field, he was a greadt player and deserves it.

Originally posted by m21sniper
Current fave: Ryan Howard

All time philly greats:

Mike Schmidt
Pete Rose
Steve Carlton
Greg Luzinski
Larry Bowa

Salute'!

[CJFusco]

Jim Rice and Goose Gossage both deserve to get in the Hall.

Prediction: McGwire and Sosa DON'T get in, but Bonds does.

[arcsine]

I have much respect for both Tony and Cal. Class acts across the board in my mind. What I'd like someone to explain to me is which knuckleheads did not vote for Tony and Cal and why not? If these guys are not deserving to be in the Hall, who is?

and I'll give a +1 to CJF's prediction.

[Jim Richards]

It would really be sad to see Bonds in the HoF. Cheaters should never be enshrined.

[artplumber]

How about this?
barry bonds w/amphetamines

[onewhippedpuppy]

Amazing ballplayers, and overall classy guys. It's unfortunate that while their numbers may be matched, their sense of sportsmanship and their value as role models will not be. When guys like that retire, the league loses a little of it's magic. In these days of huge contracts and free-agency, I don't think it will ever get it back. Sad.

[CJFusco]

Bonds might get in with the simple acknowldgement that he probably would have been HoF-worthy without the cheating. You can't ignore 700+ HR, with or without steroids. I don't agree with it - if Pete Rose is banned, steroid use should be enough to get a current player banned - but that's what I think will happen.

[JavaBrewer]

I was at Petco opening day sitting at 3rd base and Bonds walked past me each inning to the outfield. In my opinion he looks freakish big but then nothing has been proven to date so I think it's wrong to call him to task - especially since there are others who are also suspect.

Steroids don't make you see the ball any better...

I've always hated baseball but since my son started playing we've become very involved. Going to Peoria in March for Spring training. There are still MLB players, even young ones, that carry a healthy respect for the game and it's fans. Not many, but they are there.