{"id":2598,"date":"2014-11-04T00:51:12","date_gmt":"2014-11-04T00:51:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=2598"},"modified":"2014-11-11T02:34:44","modified_gmt":"2014-11-11T02:34:44","slug":"one-more-chance-for-gil-hodges-to-make-the-hall-of-fame","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=2598","title":{"rendered":"One more chance for Gil Hodges to make the Hall of Fame"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"gil<\/a>
Gil Hodges<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Later this month, a special committee will be voting on baseball’s “Golden Age” Hall of Fame nominees.<\/a> These are players primarily from the 1960s and earlier (though a few played into the 70s). At the top of that list is yet again Gil Hodges.<\/p>\n

I’m part of a Facebook group<\/a> of very dedicated people working hard behind the scenes to help get Hodges finally into the Hall of Fame (I mostly just read and learn). Why he isn’t is in the Hall of Fame is beyond me, there are a few flaws in his overall statistics, but honestly, they’re minor, and his numbers stack up pretty well with a LOT of players who are in the Hall of Fame. Frankly, his numbers are pretty comparable to his teammate Duke Snider’s, who made the Hall of Fame 34 years ago.<\/p>\n

The only reason I can think of is Hodges died quite a while ago, in 1972, a relatively young man at 47. At the time, he was a fairly successful manager. I believe if he had lived longer and had been in the public spotlight longer, he might have been in the Hall of Fame by now. Unfortunately, “out of sight, out of mind,” likely hurt him with a lot of voters over the years. It’s such a huge oversight that he isn’t in the HofF.<\/p>\n

One thing hurting Hodges in the Golden Age Committee vote is there are some extremely strong candidates in the 2014 nominees (the committee now only votes every three years, so if Hodges doesn’t make it, his family will have to wait until 2017.). The vote is taking place later this year.<\/p>\n

(As an aside, I noticed there seem to be a LOT of Chicago White Sox on this list. I think White Sox players tend to get overlooked because the Cubs get more attention.)<\/p>\n

Here’s some of the biggest names being considered, including a couple of Steve Lardy’s Minnesota Twins boys! I use sort of a guide as “HofF worthy years,” “Good years, but not HofF,” and “Injured\/bench player\/poor years”. One thing most of these players had in common was relatively short careers that ended in their mid-30s, which is why they have trouble getting in the Hall of Fame.\u00a0 It’s totally subjective, but I just use it as a point of discussion, nothing more:<\/p>\n

\"Gilbert<\/a>\u00a0Gil Hodges<\/strong><\/p>\n

HofF worthy years: 7<\/p>\n

Good years, not HofF: 4 (tough one, because of a couple of these years were actually pretty good — .254, 32, 102 and .265, 32, 87 — and could easily go in the HofF category, but I’m trying to be tough)<\/p>\n

Injured\/bench player\/poor years: 7<\/p>\n

Strengths:<\/p>\n