CKL 1981 Hall of Fame Ballot

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--Welcome to the 1981 CKL Hall of Fame voting. Voting is open to active CKL owners and 75% of eligible votes is required for election.
--Willie McCovey makes his debut on this ballot. He is joined by holdovers Norm Cash, Dick McAuliffe and Jimmy Wynn, eachof whom received 44% of the vote last year.

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--Willie McCovey joined the Legends in the CKL's first season and starred for Lew for 11 seasons. He put up four 40 HR seasons and five 100 RBI seasons and was a key player in their three championships. Strech finished 3rd in the MVP in both 1968 and 69. When the Legends went into rebuilding mode McCovey was traded to the Spikes. Willie added some punch to the Spikes attack, they quickly rose into contention and McCovey picked up a 4th ring in his 3 years there. Age and injuries took their toll after that and McCovey bounced around the league playing for 3 teams in 5 years and missing one year completely.
--McCovey retires having played more games at 1B (almost 2,000) than anyone else in CKL history. He finishes 4th all time in HR, 7th in RBI and 8th in runs. Complete batting record is attached.

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--Norm Cash is the #2 man in games played at 1B, about 300 behind McCovey. He won 3 rings to MCovey's four.
McCovey 270/371/500 443 HR, 1456 RBI, 1351 runs
Cash 288/374/487 310 HR, 1195 RBI, 1088 runs
--I suppose its no shame to trail McCovey, but he is far enough behind that this won't be the year he makes my ballot. Maybe next year if he is still around.

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--Dick McAuliffe is second in almost every category on the Knights leaderboards and helped them to 2 championships. He was runnerup in the MVP voting in 67 and had one other top 10 finish. You can make a pretty good argument he is the best retired middle IFer in CKL history. Here is how he compares to 1980 inductee Maury Wills.
McAuliffe 274/360/439 145 Hr 710 RBI 821 runs
Wills 292/352/356 44 HR 518 RBI 1006 runs
--McAuliffe was pretty clearly the better hitter and had a much higher peak. Wills does have his advantages though. He adds 537 steals, retiring as single season and career leader (both since broken). He was also a very good defensive SS, while McAuliffe was a below average SS turned above average 2B. I've been supported McAuliffe since he hit the ballot.

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--Jimmy Wynn perhaps deserves more credit than I've given him in the past. He definately wouldn't be the worst Ofer we've elected.
Wynn 258/363/467 330 HR 1081 RBI 1166 runs
Kaline 300/372/460 184 HR 892 RBI 945 runs
--Of course I didn't support Kaline and would like to set the line a little higher for our Hall. I'm inclined to pass on Wynn again, but I'm open to an arguement stronger than "he wouldn't be the worst we've elected" .

[Windy City Fan]

One thing you might want to look for Wynn is his MVP points ranking. He's in the top 20 all time and everyone ahead of him is a HOFer or a likely future HOFer with the possible exception of Fred Lynn (who seems to be building a strong case of his own). Wynn never won the award, but he appeared among the top vote getters several times and is probably the third best CFer in the history of the league (behind Mays and Mantle).

He won two rings ('73 and '75 Spikes), and was the centerpiece of several other fine teams: '65 Cannons (90 wins and a WC slot), '68 Gold Sox (103 wins and the Robinson pennant winner), '69 Hard Cider (114 wins and Cartwright division winner), '72 Gamblers (99 wins and a WC spot), and '74 Spikes (101 wins and Chadwick division winner). So if championships and winning teams give any extra credit, Wynn definately qualifies. His teams won two Classic rings, 3 pennants, 5 division titles, and 3 more WC slots and usually he was one of the leading players, if not THE leading player, on those clubs.

EDIT: I will also add, if you voted Kaline in, you should probably be backing Wynn and Cash. You can argue for them in any order I think, but they're all close enough that I'd have trouble saying one is over the line, but not the other two.

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--The problem with the "Kaline Line" is lots of guys can or will be able to build an arguement based on being around that level. I didn't vote for him and will regard him as a mistake not a measuring stick, at least until/unless we elect more guys of his caliber. I think Cash, Wynn and McAuliffe are all better CKL stories than Kaline.
--I'd agree Wynn is our third best retired CF and Freddy Lynn is the only guy on the way to passing him amoung active players. Actually I'd say Lynn has already had a better peak. We really don't have enough history to say if the 3rd/4th best player at a position over a 20 year period is a strong claim to be in the CKL Hall. We definately have a chance this election to swing towards a big hall though. I'm holding off on my vote for now.

[J W]

All four get my vote, though I anticipate it being a one player class. I would point out that McCovey was a pretty poor defender at 1B at times while Cash held his own -- that should narrow the gap some though McCovey is still ahead overall.

Are we doing caps? McCovey if elected would definitely be one of Lew's. Some of the others are much harder to determine.

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Three of the 4 on this ballot would be easy;
McCovey = Legends
Cash - Hard Cider
McAuliffe - Knights
Wynn would have some options
--The Knights would have three guys wearing their cap so far. Mays played his entire career with us while Marichal and Williams played their best years with us. Three other players join them in the Knights Hall of Honor; McAuliffe, Jim Gentile and Camilio Pascaul. Original Manager Pop Oldfarte also has a plaque and GM Smokey Braithwaite will be honored this summer for his 20 years of service.

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--Wynn, McAuliffe and Cash all have another year of serious consideration in 1982. The best newly eligible players are Bobby Bonds and Sal Bando. Both had fine CKL careers, but neither exactly blow the returning trio out of the water. In fact I'm inclined to think all three hold overs have better cases. I'll get the ballot up in a few days, but feel free to discuss them here in the meantime.