There are 196 former major-league and Negro leagues players in the Hall of Fame including the five being inducted Sunday. This weekend’s inductees include two pitchers (Nolan Ryan and “Smokey” Joe Williams), a first baseman (Orlando Cepeda), a shortstop (Robin Yount) and a third baseman (George Brett). The chart below shows the number of Hall-of-Famers represented at each position:
Postion Players
Pitcher 64
Catcher 12
First Baseman 17
Second Baseman 14
Shortstop 21
Third Baseman 11
Left Fielder 19
Center Fielder 18
Right Fielder 20
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COMING ATTRACTIONS
Hall of Fame
Three of the players who will be inducted into the Hall of Fame Sunday were elected in their first year of eligibility. Ryan, Brett and Yount all appeared on the ballot for the first time in 1999. Below are the notable players who will become eligible for election to the Hall in the next three years:
Rich Gossage, Kirk Gibson, Andre Dawson Kent Hrbek, Kirby Puckett, Alan Trammell, Jack Morris, Don Mattingly, Ozzie Smith, Bob Welch, Dave Righetti, Willie Wilson and Dave Winfield.
SINGULAR SENSATIONS
Inductees Brett of the Kansas City Royals and Yount of the Milwaukee Brewers will be the 43rd and 44th players enshrined at Cooperstown who played their entire careers with only one major-league team.
LEADING BY EXAMPLE
The second half of the season got off to a bang in Boston on July 15 when the leadoff hitters for both the Philadelphia Phillies and Boston Red Sox (Doug Glanville and Jose Offerman, respectively) each connected for home runs in their first at bats of the game. According to David Vincent of the Home Run Encyclopedia, it was the 14th time since 1920 that both teams’ leadoff men homered in their first at bat. Of all the hitters, only Harry Hooper is in the Hall of Fame. The other matched sets of leadoff home runs were:
YEAR TEAMS VISTOR LEADOFF HOME LEADOFF
1920 Red Sox at Yankees Harry Hooper Roger Peckinpaugh
1950 Braves at Pirates Sam Jethroe Hank Schenz
1955 Senators at Yankees Eddie Yost Hank Bauer
1980 Yankees at Orioles Willie Randolph Al Bumbry
1983 Royals at A’s Butch Davis Rickey Henderson
1985 Yankees at Rangers Rickey Henderson Oddibe McDowell
1985 Reds at Giants Eric Davis Dan Gladden
1986 Cardinals at Phillies Curt Ford Jeff Stone
1994 Twins at Tigers Chuck Knoblauch Tony Phillips
1995 Cardinals at Rockies Bernard Gilkey Trent Hubbard
1995 Twins at Angels Chuck Knoblauch Tony Phillips
1996 Mariners at Angels Joey Cora Randy Velarde
1998 D’Backs at Expos Devon White F.P. Santangelo
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COMING ATTRACTIONS
There have been 52 Hall of Fame games played since 1940 when the tradition began. Only seven of the teams that participated in those games have gone on to play in the World Series. Six of those seven became World Series champions. This year’s participants are the Texas Rangers and the Kansas City Royals. The seven Hall of Fame game teams that were World Series bound were (* – did not win World Series):
Year Team
1942 St. Louis Cardinals
1947 New York Yankees
1968 Detroit Tigers
1975 Boston Red Sox*
1983 Baltimore Orioles
1984 Detroit Tigers
1991 Minnesota Twins
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EMPIRICAL
With the addition of Ryan to the ranks of the Hall of Fame, 87 of the 182 former major-leaguers in the Hall, or nearly 48 percent, played for a team from New York at some point in their careers. Ryan came up in the New York Mets organization and played for the major-league club in 1966 and in 1968-71.
PERFECTLY AGED
David Cone of the New York Yankees joined Dennis Martinez as the second-oldest pitchers to throw perfect games. Both were 36. The oldest perfect pitcher was Halll-of-Famer Cy Young at 37 in 1904 and the youngest was another Hall of Famer, John Montgomery Ward at 20 in 1880 when he won 40 games after winning 47 the year before. %%
