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August 10, 2005

An Objective Hall of Fame

Part Two, 1937-1940

by Clay Davenport

Let's jump right back into our attempt to construct an Objective Hall of Fame. Be sure to check out the first part of this series for more information. The information presented below is the player's name, position, Career MVP WARP3, (year elected by real HOF).

Objective Hall Class of 1937:

• Pete Alexander, Pitcher, 763.5 (1938)
• Tris Speaker, Center field, 753.8 (1937)
• Nap Lajoie, Second base, 741.1 (1937)
• Christy Mathewson, Pitcher, 703.1 (1936)
• Amos Rusie, Pitcher, 648.7 (1977)

Alexander, Speaker, Lajoie, and Mathewson were all players that the real Hall recognized within its first three years, so it is no surprise to find them here. The outlier is Amos Rusie, who had to wait until 1977 for the real Hall to recognize his performance. He barely qualified; without an ill-fated comeback attempt in 1901, he wouldn't have had the ten seasons required for Hall of Fame consideration. As if the short career wasn't enough of a handicap, he had his best years in 1893 and 1894, the two biggest years for offense that the major leagues have ever known. As was the practice in the day, he was worked long and hard from a young age, and his arm was shot by the time he was 28.

You can get a good idea about his workload by looking at his translated pitching stats. Normal pitching loads have varied wildly over time. The translations have been set up so that the top five pitchers in the league (in innings pitched) will have 275 innings--a tad high by recent standards, but in keeping with most of the twentieth century. Rusie's translated IP are over 289 every year from age 19 to 23. He had a great fastball--legend has it that his fastball was responsible for moving the mound back in 1893, lest he kill somebody--and his 362 translated strikeouts in 1893 set a record that stood until the 1920s, and is still the ninth-best mark. His career has a lot in common with other O-type stars who burned brightly and briefly, like Dizzy Dean and Dwight Gooden.