Thursday, December 07, 2006

Does Gil Hodges Belong in the Hall of Fame?

Admittedly, my grasp of Dodger history could be stronger, and the Hall of Fame's standards sometimes seem arbitrary. But reading an impassioned piece such as "Who Was Gil Hodges and Why Isn't He a Hall of Famer?" by Larry Crino at BallparkGuys.com makes me wonder about the Hall of Fame's Committee on Baseball Veterans.

In their defense, Hodges' Wikipedia entry provides some insight:

...critics of his candidacy point out that despite his offensive prowess, he never led the NL in any offensive category such as home runs, RBI or slugging average, and never came close to winning an MVP award (in fact, he was never named first on any MVP ballot). The latter fact may have been partially due to his having many of his best seasons (1950-51, 1954, 1957) in years when the Dodgers did not win the pennant. In addition, his career batting average of .273 was likely frowned on by many Hall of Fame voters in his early years of eligibility....

A contentious subject for Dodger historians, to be sure. What do you think?

1 comments:

Lasorda said...

Well, I think everyone has their arguments. . . like this href=http://premium.si.cnn.com/pr/subs2/siexclusive/2006/pr/subs/siexclusive/12/06/z.baseball1211/article on Lefty O'Doul.