2011 Best of Baseball election thread

[jalbright]

I've enjoyed the run. I'm glad you did as well.

[TheMendozaLine]

I would also like to chime in about how much I enjoyed these elections. I did a lot of research when I was choosing my players/contributors and learned a lot about people of whom I had not heard of before. Specifically, the Nippon players and contributors. As a newer member to these forums, I appreciate the chance to have my voice heard over the folks who I feel are deserving of a special place in our national past-time's history, whether it be home or abroad.

Thanks, Jim!

[Captain Cold Nose]

I'm kind of sad we've reached this point of the project. I've been in it from the start, and may have missed one election along the way. I've learned quite a bit in the process.

[PVNICK]

Thanks for the project.

[jjpm74]

This was one of the more fun projects I've participated in and I think we collectively put together a great HOF.

[Jar of Flies]

A thanks to jalbright for re-igniting my interest in the Baseball-Fever website for his in-depth analysis of Japanese players, and to the electorate for worthy discussion board chatter. Please add Roger Clemens and George Steinbrenner to members section of the Best of Baseball.

I would like to ask a favor of the best of baseball voters. I recently joined the contributor ballot rankings and am trying to form a personal hall. Current, it consists of players enshrined from: The Cooperstown Hall of Fame, The Progressive Hall of Fame, the Baseball Fever Hall of Fame, and the Best of Baseball Hall of Fame. Any member who appeared in three or more of the halls or two of the Baseball-Fever halls was enshrined. This left me five slots shy of the total enshrined in the Best of Baseball Hall of Fame for what I considered to be primarily contributor enshrinees.

I have a subset of fifteen I was hoping everyone could rank in preference order - each of the fifteen has either been elected to two of the halls of fame or I have voted for them in this project:
Al Barlick
Buzzie Bavasi
Jocko Conlan
Al Munro Elias
Gus Greenlee
Vic Harris
Doug Harvey
Bill James
Shigeru Mizuhara
David Neft
Alex Pompez
John Schierholtz
Ben Shibe
Alfred Spink
George Steinbrenner

I have excluded contributors (John McGraw, George Wright, Al Spalding, etc.) who I deemed worthy of player selection.
The members of my tentative contributor hall of fame:
A. J. Reach
Al Lopez
Alexander Cartwright
Ban Johnson
Bill Klem
Bill McKechnie
Bill Veeck
Billy Evans
Billy Southworth
Bob Ferguson
Bobby Cox
Branch Rickey
Buck O’Neil
C. I. Taylor
Casey Stengel
Charles Comiskey
Charles Conlon
Connie Mack
Cum Posey
Dick Williams
Doc Adams
Earl Weaver
Ed Barrow
Ed Bolden
Ford Frick
Francis Richter
Frank Chance
Frank Selee
George Weiss
Harry Wright
Henry Chadwick
Iso Abe
J. L. Wilkinson
J.G. Taylor Spink
Jack Dunn
Jacob Ruppert
Jim Creighton
Joe McCarthy
Kazuto Tsuruoaka
Kenesaw Landis
Larry MacPhail
Leo Durocher
Marvin Miller
Matsutaro Shoriki
Mel Allen
Miller Huggins
Ned Hanlon
O. P. Caylor
Pat Gillick
Red Barber
Sol White
Sparky Anderson
Tetsuharu Kawakami
Tom Connolly
Tommy Lasorda
Tony LaRussa
Vin Scully
Walter Alston
Walter O'Malley
Whitey Herzog
William Hulbert

[jjpm74]

I don't know if you consider him a player or a contributor, but Dickey Pearce deserves to be somewhere. Out of the contributors you were unsure of, I would group them roughly like this, but don't feel comfortable doing a strict ranking:

Al Munro Elias
Bill James
David Neft
--------------------
Buzzie Bavasi
Gus Greenlee
Shigeru Mizuhara
George Steinbrenner
--------------------
Al Barlick
Jocko Conlan
Doug Harvey
Alfred Spink
----------------------
Vic Harris
Alex Pompez
John Schuerholtz
Ben Shibe

I would have to do more research on the bottom four to rank them.

[jalbright]

I'll start a few posts comparing Cooperstown to the results of this project.

First, we won't bother with the guys picked by both.

Next, we'll list the Japanese and Caribbean guys eligible for BOB that aren't for Cooperstown:

Iso Abe
Akira Bessho
Perucho Cepeda
Isao Harimoto
Kazuhisa Inao
Masaichi Kaneda
Tetsuharu Kawakami
Masaaki Koyama
Shigeo Nagashima
Katsuya Nomura
Hiromitsu Ochiai
Sadaharu Oh
Matsutaro Shoriki
Victor Starffin
Kazuto Tsuruoka

Then we'll list the press/writer types who can be in BOB but not Cooperstown:

Mel Allen
Red Barber
Charles Conlon
Al Munro Elias
Francis Richter
Vin Scully
Alfred Spink
J. G. T. Spink

We'll also note the guys who are ineligible for Cooperstown due to gambling issues:

Joe Jackson
Pete Rose

One last step before we go for a head to head comparison: listing the guys not yet eligible for the other project. Including Joe Torre on behalf of Cooperstown is a case of being nice.

Cooperstown
Roberto Alomar

Best of Baseball
Craig Biggio
Barry Bonds
Bobby Cox
Tom Glavine
Randy Johnson
Tony LaRussa
Greg Maddux
Curt Schilling
Joe Torre

[jalbright]

The head to head comparison of contributors:

Cooperstown		BOB  
Al Barlick		Doc Adams
Morgan Bulkeley		Buzzue Bavasi
Happy Chandler		Ed Bolden
Nestor Chylak		O. P. Caylor
Jocko Conlan		Jim Creighton
Candy Cummings		Jack Dunn
Warren Giles		Bob Ferguson
Will Harridge		Gus Greenlee
Bucky Harris		Vic Harris
Doug Harvey		Marvin Miller
Cal Hubbard		Buck O'Neill
Bowie Kuhn		A. J. Reach
Lee MacPhail		Jacob Ruppert
Effa Manley		Ben Shibe
Bill McGowan		C. I. Taylor
Alex Pompez		
Wilbert Robinson		
Tom Yawkey

I prefer the BOB list.

[jalbright]

Now for the most critical set of different picks, the players:

Cooperstown		BOB
Luis Aparicio		Dick Allen
Dave Bancroft		Ross Barnes
Jake Beckley		John Beckwith
Chief Bender		Charlie Bennett
Jim Bottomley		Ken Boyer
Orlando Cepeda		Bob Caruthers
Jack Chesbro		Cupid Childs
Earle Combs		Will Clark
Andy Cooper		Bill Dahlen
Kiki Cuyler		Dwight Evans
Ray Dandridge		Wes Ferrell
Leon Day		Bill Freehan
Hugh Duffy		Jack Glasscock
Johnny Evers		George Gore
Rick Ferrell		Bobby Grich
Rollie Fingers		Heinie Groh
Lefty Gomez		Stan Hack
Burleigh Grimes		Keith Hernandez
Chick Hafey		Paul Hines
Jesse Haines		Grant "Home Run"Johnson
Harry Hooper		Charlie Keller
Waite Hoyt		Barry Larkin
Catfish Hunter		Sherry Magee
Travis Jackson		Minnie Minoso
Judy Johnson		Dobie Moore
George Kell		Alejandro Oms
High Pockets Kelly	Dickey Pearce
Chuck Klein		Tim Raines
Tony Lazzeri		Rick Reuschel
Freddie Lindstrom	Ron Santo
Ernie Lombardi		Jimmy Sheckard
Heinie Manush		Ted Simmons
Rabbit Maranville	Reggie Smith
Rube Marquard		Joe Start
Bill Mazeroski		Harry Stovey
Tommy McCarthy		Ezra Sutton
Herb Pennock		Luis Tiant
Tony Perez		Alan Trammell
Kirby Puckett		Quincy Trouppe
Jim Rice		Lou Whitaker
Sam Rice		Deacon White
Eppa Rixey		
Ray Schalk		
Red Schoendienst		
Joe Sewell		
Bruce Sutter		
Ben Taylor		
Joe Tinker		
Lloyd Waner		
Mickey Welch		
Vic Willis		
Hack Wilson		
Ross Youngs

I know I prefer the BOB group, especially supplemented by the Japanese players.