Should Bill James be inducted to the HoF as a "pioneer"?

[Honus Wagner Rules]

What say you Baseball Fever?

[abacab]

I enjoy James's work as much as anybody, but no. He's not in a class with Alexander Cartwright, Ban Johnson, and Connie Mack.

I hope that James wins the Spink award, but I don't see him as a Hall of Famer.

[The Commissioner]

Absolutely not!!!!!! Before that day comes, I'd rather see Barry Bonds awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

[Bothrops Atrox]

As far as I'm concerned, James is just a baseball fan with strong opinions, based on some facts and a lot of bias. Well, he is just like all of us. The only difference is, he has the means to tell a lot of people his opinions.

[cubbieinexile]

As much as I like Bill James, no. He is really not a pioneer. He has been given way too much credit for things he never actually did. Then again practically everybody who is in the hall as a pioneer got way too much credit for things they did and did not do but were given credit for.

At best he wins a cooperstown HOF writers award.

[Chadwick]

James has done more to inspire, encourage and facilitate the study of the game than any one since Henry Chadwick. He is the single-most influential baseball writer of the last quarter-century. His ideas have become the bedrock of successful major league front offices from the West Coast (Oakland) to the East Coast (Boston), where the Red Sox broke their 86-year old curse less than two years after hiring James as a senior advisor on baseball operations. He's certainly more worthy than Tom Yawkey, Morgan Bulkeley or Lee MacPhail.

James should at least receive the Spink Award one of these years.

[mac195]

Absolutely not!!!!!! Before that day comes, I'd rather see Barry Bonds awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Why? What have you got against James?

[Honus Wagner Rules]

As far as I'm concerned, James is just a baseball fan with strong opinions, based on some facts and a lot of bias. Well, he is just like all of us. The only difference is, he has the means to tell a lot of people his opinions.

And that makes James different from the rest of us, how?

[julusnc]

A Spink award for Bill James yes and maybe look into others that have advanced our knowledge through SABR.

[Honus Wagner Rules]

A Spink award for Bill James yes and maybe look into others that have advanced our knowledge through SABR.

This may be a dumb question but what is the "Spink" Award?

[abacab]

The Spink award is the Hall of Fame's honor for baseball writers, awarded once a year at the induction ceremony. Peter Gammons is getting it this year.

[Freakshow]

This may be a dumb question but what is the "Spink" Award?

The complete list of all recipients is here

http://baseballhalloffame.com/hofers_and_honorees/spink_bios/index.htm

[AG2004]

I don't think James is eligible as long as he's working for the Red Sox. We'd have to wait until then to be on the safe side.

That said, he looks highly deserving of a place in the HoF. I see that several people here see him as worthy of the Spink Award. Here's my first question: is there anything in James' record that sets him apart from the typical Spink recipient? Yes, there is; I can see two important things.

First, James has created various statistics. Runs Created would be the most famous, but he's also credited with producing the Pythagorean W-L record, the Ink Tests and HOF Standards tests, and the power/speed number. The latest edition of Total Baseball includes Win Shares for each player, a recent James invention. As STLCards2 noted above, he has a lot of opinions, and anybody can come up with them. But very few people can come up with statistics and formulas that get included in standard baseball reference books, which is one thing that sets James (and Pete Palmer) apart.

Chancellor refers to the second thing that sets James apart from the rest. Oakland was the first club to use sabermetric principles to a significant degree, and the result was a success. James' opinions are, more and more, becoming part of the conventional wisdom within baseball front offices themselves. If this trend continues, it would be a significant shift, and James, as the popularizer of sabermetrics (and one of its pioneers), would deserve a lot of the credit for it.

There's a profile of James at:

http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/mlb/news/mlb_news.jsp?ymd=20040316&content_id=651156&vkey=spt2004news&fext=.jsp

[Cougar]

I'd support James as a contributor. He's changing the way the game is played and viewed. That's a major contribution to me.

[cubbieinexile]

Yes Oakland was one of the first but they did it back in the early 1980's before Bill was even commonly known in the baseball world. Then of course you have Branch Rickey and his Dodgers doing it long before James was even born. If somebody is going in because of statistical work and its importance then it should be Branch's number cruncher and not the 6th or 7th guy in line.