Ozzie Smith treated baseball immortality like another screaming grounder up the middle. The Wizard needed only one chance to put a spot in baseball’s Hall of Fame in his back pocket.
Smith’s easy election Tuesday was a reminder that baseball is about more than home runs and 99-m.p.h. fastballs.
“The teams that win championships always play good defense,” Smith said. “It always has been a very important, if sometimes underrated, part of the sport.”
While Smith becomes the 20th shortstop selected for enshrinement, many of the others–the likes of Ernie Banks, Lou Boudreau, Luke Appling and Robin Yount–were known more for their hitting than their fielding.
Smith’s .262 career average is the fourth lowest for a position player in the Hall. It ranks ahead of only Luis Aparicio, Bill Mazeroski and Rabbit Maranville, the last of whom played when the ball was about as lively as a rolled-up pair of socks.
“I don’t think anybody ever played the position any better than he played it,” former St. Louis manager Whitey Herzog said of Smith. “He made more diving plays than I’ve ever seen. I don’t see how it was possible to play [shortstop] any better than Ozzie played it.”
Like Reggie Jackson in 1993, Smith will have the stage to himself at next July’s induction ceremony. The Hall’s revamped Veterans Committee won’t consider candidates this year, further delaying Ron Santo’s wearying march from Wrigley Field to Cooperstown, N.Y.
Smith was a no-brainer pick for voting members of the Baseball Writers Association of America. He received 433 of 472 votes–almost 92 percent–to meet the 75-percent requirement easily. But there were differing degrees of disappointment for others on the ballot.
Nobody was more pained than former Montreal and Mets catcher Gary Carter. He got 343 votes, falling 11 short of election.
“When the anticipation is so high and it’s being talked about so much, there’s a letdown,” Carter said. “I’m at the threshold. I’m waiting for them to open the door.”
This was the narrowest margin of rejection since Don Sutton missed by nine votes in 1997. Carter, who was on the ballot for the fifth time, can take heart in the knowledge that candidates are seldom turned away when they are this close to the door.
Dodgers first baseman Gil Hodges is the only former player ever to collect 60 percent of the BBWAA vote without eventually being selected by either the Hall or the Veterans Committee. Sutton picked up another 40 votes from ’97 to ’98, easily winning his plaque in the Hall of Fame’s gallery room.
It is clearly just a matter of time for Carter, whose career parallels that of White Sox Hall-of-Famer Carlton Fisk. But the tea leaves aren’t read as easily regarding Carter’s former teammate Andre Dawson, who won the 1987 National League MVP after taking a blank check to sign with the Cubs.
Lots of people–myself included–figured Dawson would follow Smith and Carter in his first year on the ballot. But he finished fifth, receiving less support than holdovers Jim Rice and Bruce Sutter.
Dawson’s 214 votes amounted to only 45.3 percent of the electorate. His career totals of 1,591 RBIs and 2,774 hits–not to mention 438 home runs–figured to make him a stronger candidate. After all, no eligible player has had as many hits or RBIs without making the Hall of Fame.
It’s hard to know what Dawson can expect in future votes. On the one hand, his first-ballot percentage was lower than all eight players elected in multiple ballots since Billy Williams in 1987. On the other hand, he’s starting out in better shape than Carter (42.3 percent) and Rice (30 percent) did in their first years on the ballot.
But it might be telling that Carter is ascending faster than Rice, who has been on the ballot eight years. The case for Carter is that he and Fisk dominated the catching position for more than a decade. Given the paucity of quality catchers, it’s easier to sell that argument than to make one for Rice and Dawson.
While Dawson was a complete right fielder in his 11 seasons in Montreal, bad knees turned him into an all-or-nothing slugger in the second half of his career. Next to relief pitchers (and the good news is Sutter and Goose Gossage slowly are building support), nobody seems to face a higher standard with Hall voters than pure sluggers.
That’s because we live in the golden age of hitting. At some point, with so many great hitters in the game, the bar is going to have to be raised for entry into the Hall.
In his latest calculations, Bill James gives 12 active hitters at least a 50-percent chance to join Mark McGwire and Barry Bonds in crossing the 500-homer threshold. Should that still be worthy of sure entry?
For guys like Dawson and Harold Baines, the question is whether they can find spots in the Hall before the torrents of runs that have rained down since the last expansion obscure all the familiar milestones.
Santo will be a test case for the new Veterans Committee, which includes all living Hall of Famers. That makes Smith the first player ever selected to receive both a plaque and a vote.
%% Smith by the numbers
REGULAR SEASON
YR TEAM AB R H HR RBI SB AVG
1978 SD 590 69 152 1 46 40 .258
1979 SD 587 77 124 0 27 28 .211
1980 SD 609 67 140 0 35 57 .230
1981 SD 450 53 100 0 21 22 .222
1982 StL 488 58 121 2 43 25 .248
1983 StL 552 69 134 3 50 34 .243
1984 StL 412 53 106 1 44 35 .257
1985 StL 537 70 148 6 54 31 .276
1986 StL 514 67 144 0 54 31 .280
1987 StL 600 104 182 0 75 43 .303
1988 StL 575 80 155 3 51 57 .270
1989 StL 593 82 162 2 50 29 .273
1990 StL 512 61 130 1 50 32 .254
1991 StL 550 96 157 3 50 35 .285
1992 StL 518 73 153 0 31 43 .296
1993 StL 545 75 157 1 53 21 .288
1994 StL 381 51 100 3 30 6 .262
1995 StL 156 16 31 0 11 4 .199
1996 StL 227 36 64 2 18 7 .282
Totals 9396 1257 2460 28 793 580 .262
DIVISION CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES
YR. OPP. AB R H HR RBI AVG
1996 vs. SD 3 1 1 0 0 .333
LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES
YR. OPP. AB R H HR RBI AVG
1982 vs. Atl 9 0 5 0 3 .556
1985 vs. LA 23 4 10 1 3 .435
1987 vs. SF 25 2 5 0 1 .200
1996 vs. Atl 9 0 0 0 0 .000
Totals 66 6 20 1 7 .303
WORLD SERIES
YR. OPP. AB R H HR RBI AVG
1982 Mil 24 3 5 0 1 .208
1985 KC 23 1 2 0 0 .087
1987 Min 28 3 6 0 2 .214
Totals 75 7 13 0 3 .173
FIELDING STATISTICS
YR TEAM G TC PO A E DP PCT
1978 SD 159 837 264 548 25 98 .970
1979 SD 155 831 256 555 20 86 .976
1980 SD 158 933 288 621 24 113 .974
1981 SD 110 658 220 422 16 72 .976
1982 StL 139 827 279 535 13 101 .984
1983 StL 158 844 304 519 21 100 .975
1984 StL 124 682 233 437 12 94 .982
1985 StL 158 827 264 549 14 111 .983
1986 StL 144 697 229 453 15 96 .978
1987 StL 158 771 245 516 10 111 .987
1988 StL 150 775 234 519 22 79 .972
1989 StL 153 709 209 483 17 73 .976
1990 StL 140 602 212 378 12 66 .980
1991 StL 150 639 244 387 8 79 .987
1992 StL 132 662 232 420 10 82 .985
1993 StL 134 721 251 451 19 98 .974
1994 StL 96 434 135 291 8 67 .982
1995 StL 41 196 60 129 7 28 .964
1996 StL 52 260 90 162 8 36 .969
Totals 2511 12905 4249 8375 281 1590 .978
%%
CAREER HIGHLIGHTS
– Career assist leader for shortstops.
– Tied Honus Wagner with 16 straight 20-steal seasons (modern era record for a shortstop).
– Major League record for most years with 500 or more assists by a shortstop (8).
– Major League single-season record for most assists by a shortstop (621, 1980).
– NL single-season record for fewest errors by a shortstop, 150 or more games (8, 1991).
– NL record for most years leading league in fielding percentage by a shortstop, 100 or more games (7).
– Shares NL records for highest fielding percentage by a shortstop, 150 or more games (.987, 1987, 1991).
– Won 13 Gold Gloves at shortstop (1980-92).
