The No Hall Of Famers League (2024)

Highlander

Join Date: Dec 2001

Posts: 853

To get things started, here's a look at the players that have been removed so far.

George Wright
Al Spalding
Deacon White
Harry Wright
Cap Anson
Candy Cummings
Jim O'Rourke
Pud Galvin
King Kelly
John Montgomery Ward
Dan Brouthers
Mickey Welch
Tim Keefe
Buck Ewing
Roger Connor
Charles Radbourn
John Clarkson
Bid McPhee
Tommy McCarthy
Sam Thompson
Billy Hamilton
Ed Delahanty
Hugh Duffy
Jake Beckley
Ned Hanlon
Amos Rusie

A number of those guys, especially the early ones, were part of the dominant Boston teams in the 1800's. You'd think that would have made Boston really struggle, but as you will see, that wasn't quite the case. I'd say Cleveland might get the overall award for most dominant team of these 19 seasons, but Boston has had a lot of appearances in the championship....they just couldn't get it done. I am sure those of you out there who know more about this era will be able to tell which teams took advantage of the missing players and which teams might have been hurt the most.

Here's a look at the single season and career records for hitting and pitching so far.

- Denny Lyons has been a standout for sure, with the career records in all 3 slash categories and a season with an incredible .481 OBP. While impressive, the fact that he is only 24 years old makes it more interesting. Maybe he can keep up his production to retire with the lead in all four, but chances are he will drop in at least one or two.

- Paul Hines has a lot of the "compiling records", as he started his career in 1872 at age 17 and is still going. At 34 years old, he should be able to add some more seasons.....his 1889 season was still pretty solid.

- Fred Pfeffer has been the big power guy so far, with 3 seasons of 20+ HR and leading the league in HR 5 times out of his 8 seasons. He's 30 heading into the 1890 season, so we'll see if he can keep up the power.

- Another Fred....Fred Dunlap.....is underrepresented on the leader boards so far, with just the single season RBI record and career walks record. He's been one of the best players in the league so far, however, and one of the main reasons Cleveland has been so dominant. At 30, he may still have time to move up in some other categories.

- Finally, Ross Barnes is a name that is familiar as he had some incredible seasons in his "real" career with 4 seasons hitting over .400, but his career just didn't last long enough to be a HOFer. That isn't the case here, as he started right in 1871 at 21 years old and is still going....although relegated to very limited duty at this point. He only has one more .400 season after that .446 he hit in 1872, but his career is pretty impressive. He should be in line for a HOF induction this time through, for sure.

- I started out having the pitching award just being called "Best Pitcher Award", since I was starting before Cy Young ever pitched....and he won't even exist in this world! So, I am looking to see who will take the name of the award in his place. Based on what I am seeing, it might have to be Bobby Mathews. He started his career in 1871 at 19 and is still pitching really well as of 1889 at age 38. Based on his skills, he should easily have at least a couple more years of being a really good pitcher....unless he falls off a cliff. His 56 wins in 1875 is clearly untouchable and his 499 career wins so far (pretty much guaranteed he will end up well over 500) is 89 more than the next closest guy and 96 more than the next closest active pitcher. Oh yeah....in his 19 year career so far, he has won 11 Best Pitcher Awards, which is pretty amazing.

- If anyone is going to challenge Mathews for the Best Pitcher Award name, it will be that next active pitcher I mentioned in the wins category....Tommy Bond. He's been pretty amazing too, as that .84 ERA season shows. Bond is only 33, so he's 5 years younger than Matthews but at 403 wins, it will still be tough to catch Bobby....especially since Mathews isn't done yet.

A few other accomplishments of note so far in the league....

- There have been two guys so far to hit 3 HR in a game.....Fred Pfeffer of the Philadelphia Quakers did it in 1883 and Charley Jones of the Providence Grays did it in 1884.

- 10 players have gotten 6 hits in a game so far....no one has done it twice yet.

- Tommy Bond, in addition to all of his other accomplishments, has the most Ks in a game, with 17....it took him 16 innings to do it, though. Bobby Mathews had a game with 16 Ks in just 12 IP, so it could be said that he really deserves the record.

- 7 players have hit for the cycle so far. Lip Pike and Jerry Denny are two of them and they are also two of the guys who have 6 hits in a game.....they were not accomplished in the same games either.

- There have been 19 No-Hitters so far in the league. Ed Morris has the only Perfect game, for Cleveland in 1887. George Knight of Cincinnati, Toad Ramsey of Louisville and Tommy Bond of Brooklyn each have two No-Hitters....and yes, Bobby Mathews has one.

- The only Triple Crowns so far have all been pitching ones. Cherokee Fisher of the Baltimore Canaries has two of them in 1872 (31 W, 1.82 ERA, 32 Ks....plus he led the league with 7 Saves and a .94 WHIP for good measure) and 1874 (26 W, 1.82 ERA, 35 Ks....and again, a league leading 6 Saves). The other pitching Triple Crown belongs to Bobby Mathews of the Boston Red Caps in 1876 (37 W, 1.62 ERA, 76 Ks....also led the league in WHIP at .95).

- The longest hitting streak by a batter so far has been 40 games by Abner Dalrymple of the Cleveland Blues in 1879.

- The most wins by a team so far has been 106 by the 1889 Philadelphia Phillies, as they went 106-34, but lost the championship to Cleveland. On the other side....and hopefully as one of the most unbreakable records.....the 1883 New York Gothams set an unbelievable record for futility, by going 11-101 on the season.

Finally, here's the group of players that make up the new Hall of Famers so far-

Two players made up the initial class in 1886. Both were pitchers.

-He spent 5 years with the Philadelphia A's and 5 with the Chicago White Stockings. Not so sure I agree with this one....seems like he was inducted a little prematurely, with only 10 years in his career. In his real-life career, he only went 24-53 with a 4.84 ERA and 1.70 WHIP, so to have even close to a HOF career is impressive, however. Here's the resume that got him in as a "pioneer" of the league-

170-122, 2 Saves, 2.55 ERA, 2624.1 IP, 377 Ks, 1.14 WHIP, 35.7 WAR

5x Player of the Week, 2x Pitcher of the Month, 1x Championship Winner with Chicago in 1877

Led the league in Saves 1x, GS 1x, HR/9 1x, K/9 1x

As of 1889, he is 18th in Career ERA, 21st in Wins, 21st in Shutouts, 68th in Ks, 26th in WHIP and 29th in WAR.

His best season was probably 1875 with the Philadelphia Athletics, although he had a losing record. He went 22-25 with a 1.66 ERA in 417 IP with a 1.07 WHIP, 25 Ks and 6.0 WAR.

Rynie Wolters- 95.6% of the vote- He spent all 10 seasons of his career with the New York Mutuals. Even though he had less of the vote than Asa, I feel a little better about him being elected....although I don't know that it is warranted. I don't mind having a few early guys who had shorter careers because of how old they were when the league started, though. Rynie's real life career saw him only go 19-23 over 3 seasons...really only 1 full season....and a 3.71 ERA, 27 Ks and a 1.42 WHIP. Here's how he did in this league-

201-138, 3 Saves, 2.46 ERA, 3055 IP, 409 Ks, 1.01 WHIP, 38.4 WAR

19x Player of the Week, 10 x Pitcher of the Month, 1x Rookie of the Month, 2x Silver Slugger Award (had a lifetime .288 BA)

Times as a League Leader-
Wins- 1x
GS- 4x
IP- 1x
Ks- 1x
WHIP- 2x
BABIP- 1x
WAR- 1x

As of 1889, he is 13th in Career ERA, 16th in Wins, 15th in Shutouts, 66th in Ks, 7th in WHIP and 25th in WAR.

His best season was in 1875, as he went 31-20 with a 1.33 ERA in 479.1 IP, 51 Ks, a .86 WHIP and 7.5 WAR.

The following year, 1887, saw the player who has received the highest percentage of votes so far....also a pitcher.

Cherokee Fisher- 99.7% of the vote- He broke in with the Rockford Forest Citys, then spent 3 years with the Baltimore Canaries, 1 with New Haven and the final 5 with Cincinnati. Cherokee's career was shorter than I'd like for a HOFer, but he was by far the best of the three guys elected so far. In his real life career, he went 57-84 with a 2.83 ERA in 1319.2 IP, 99 Ks and a 1.22 WHIP. His HOF resume is as follows-

208-95, 14 Saves, 2.00 ERA, 2734.2 IP, 429 Ks, .96 WHIP, 37.8 WAR

17x Player of the Week, 12x Pitcher of the Month, 2x Rookie of the Month, 4x Pitcher of the Year, 1x Gold Glove, 4x Championship Winner

Times as a League Leader-
Wins- 3x
Saves- 2x
ERA- 3x
GS- 4x
IP- 1x
Ks- 2x
WHIP- 2x
BABIP- 4x
WAR- 1x

As of 1889, he is 2nd in Career ERA, 15th in Wins, 5th in Saves, 9th in Shutouts, 64th in Ks, 3rd in WHIP and 26th in WAR.

His best season was his 1875 season with New Haven, when he went 21-11 with 289 IP, 1.03 ERA, 19 Ks, .71 WHIP and 4.1 WAR.

Our final Hall of Fame player is another pitcher....elected in 1889.

George "Charmer" Zettlein- 98.4% of the vote- George broke in with the White Stockings in 1871, then spent a year each with Middletown and Baltimore before spending the last 10 years of his career back in Chicago with the White Stockings. He had a good career, for sure, but Cherokee is really the only guy I'd say is truly worthy of induction. I have to keep reminding myself these are the pioneer guys, though...right? George's real life career was the best of the guys we've seen inducted so far saw and him go 129-112 with 2175.2 IP, 2.78 ERA, 115 Ks, 1.31 WHIP and 25.0 WAR. His HOF career for this league is as follows-

225-112, 2.38 ERA, 3048.1 IP, 557 Ks, 1.02 WHIP, 47.1 WAR

12x Player of the Week, 8x Pitcher of the Month, 2x Rookie of the Month, 1x Pitcher of the Year, 1 Time Silver Slugger (only a .228 lifetime BA, but had 4 years over .275), 1x Championship Winner

Times as a League Leader-
ERA- 2x
GS- 4x
WHIP- 1x
BABIP- 2x
WAR- 1x

As of 1889, he is 11th in Career ERA, 13th in Wins, 15th in Shutouts, 55th in Ks, 9th in WHIP and 18th in WAR.

His best season was 1876 with the White Stockings, when he went 25-6 in 285 IP with a 1.42 ERA, 59 Ks, .80 WHIP and 5.4 WAR.

I think that catches things up for the beginning of this baseball world. Next up will be the 1890 season!