Baseball Hall-of-Famers By Team, 2019 Edition

Left to right: Edgar Martinez, Mike Mussina and Mariano Rivera

This year, I'm going to deviate from my usual routine, and wait until after the newly-elected Pro Football Hall of Fame members are announced the night before the Super Bowl, and do a post on living Hall of Famers in all sports for each metropolitan area. But I will still do Hall of Famers by team for both MLB and the NFL.

With the announcement of the elections of Mariano Rivera, Mike Mussina, Edgar Martinez, Lee Smith, Harold Baines, and the late Roy Halladay, it is time to update this list.

Ford Frick Award winner Al Helfer will not be added to this list, since he did not spend at least 4 seasons as a broadcaster for any single team.

A player is counted as a Hall-of-Famer with the team if he played at least 4 seasons with them. However, there will be the occasional exception. Teams are ranked in order of most HOFers.

If there is a tie, it will be broken by which team has more players, as opposed to those who were elected in other categories. If there is still a tie, then I go to which has more non-broadcasters. If it's still a tie, which has more players whose contributions were mostly with that club. If it's still a tie, which team has played fewer seasons will be ranked ahead -- since, for example, 5 HOFers is more impressive for a team that's been around since 1977 than it would be for one that's been around since 1961.

Teams that no longer exist in that form will be listed in italics, and in the position where they would be ranked if they still did.

Players are listed in chronological order of when they arrived at the club, then managers, then broadcasters.

1. New York Yankees, 41: It works out to just over 1 for every Pennant the team has won:

Clark Griffith (the team's first manager, elected as a pitcher and he was still a solid pitcher while he was their manager), Willie Keeler, Jack Chesbro, Frank "Home Run" Baker, Waite Hoyt, Herb Pennock, Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Tony Lazzeri, Earle Combs, Bill Dickey, Red Ruffing, Lefty Gomez, Joe DiMaggio, Joe Gordon, Phil Rizzuto, Yogi Berra, Johnny Mize, Whitey Ford, Mickey Mantle, Enos Slaughter, Jim "Catfish" Hunter, Reggie Jackson, Rich "Goose" Gossage, Dave Winfield, Rickey Henderson, Wade Boggs, Mariano Rivera and Mike Mussina.

Also, managers Miller Huggins, Joe McCarthy, Casey Stengel and Joe Torre; owner Jacob Ruppert; executives Ed Barrow and George Weiss; broadcasters Mel Allen, Red Barber, Joe Garagiola, Jerry Coleman (played for the Yankees but elected as a broadcaster, first for the Yankees, then for the Padres) and Tony Kubek (played for the Yankees but elected as a broadcaster).

Bucky Harris managed the Yankees to the 1947 World Championship, but was only their manager for 2 seasons (1947 & '48), so I'm not counting him with the Yankees. In this case, according to the rule I set, I have to count Rickey Henderson as a Yankee. If Lou Piniella is ever elected as a manager, I wouldn't be able to count him as a Yankee HOFer, since he wouldn't be elected as a player ,and only managed them for 3 seasons, none of them a title season.

Rizzuto was also a longtime broadcaster. Lee MacPhail was elected for what he did as American League President, not as Yankee general manager. Bernie Williams and Paul O'Neill have dropped off the writers' ballot. They, like Don Mattingly, will, in a few years, become eligible once again, through the Veterans' Committee -- but in all 3 cases, let's not kid ourselves.

And then there's Roger Clemens: Even if he does get in, would you want to count him as a Yankee? George Steinbrenner, now being dead, is now eligible through the Veterans' Committee.

Tim Raines was a Yankee for only 3 years, although 2 of them were title seasons. Ivan Rodriguez was a Yankee for about 3 minutes. So neither of them can be included here.

Andy Pettitte is eligible. Derek Jeter becomes eligible next year. Alex Rodriguez becomes eligible, in 2022 -- the same year as David Ortiz, who hit a lot fewer home runs, was not the runner or fielder that A-Rod was, and, unlike A-Rod, is known to have flunked a steroid test. Bet you any money you like, Ortiz gets in in his 1st year of eligibility, and A-Rod goes through his entire 10-year BBWAA eligibility without getting in.

At any rate, all 3 of those Yankees have the stats to get in. Derek will, the 1st time around. Andy and A-Rod are big question marks, but will probably, at least for a while, become victims of the Yankee Doodle Double Standard.

2. St. Louis Cardinals, 31: Charlie Comiskey (played for them before managing and owning teams elsewhere), Jake Beckley, Roger Bresnahan, Rogers Hornsby (won a World Series as their player-manager), Jesse Haines, Grover Cleveland Alexander, Jim Bottomley, Charles "Chick" Hafey, Burleigh Grimes, Frankie Frisch (elected as a player, won a World Series as their player-manager), Dizzy Dean, Joe Medwick, Johnny Mize, Enos Slaughter, Stan Musial, Red Schoendienst (elected as player, also managed them to a title), Bob Gibson, Lou Brock, Orlando Cepeda, Steve Carlton (7 seasons), Bruce Sutter, Ozzie Smith, Lee Smith (4 seasons, so he qualifies here).

Also, Miller Huggins (manager, also played several years for the Cards), Billy Southworth (manager, also played for them), Whitey Herzog (manager-executive), Tony LaRussa (manager), Branch Rickey (executive), Harry Caray (broadcaster), Jack Buck (broadcaster), Joe Garagiola (broadcaster).

Jesse Burkett won a batting title with the Cards, but only played 3 seasons with them, so he just misses qualifying. On the other hand, Cepeda didn't even play 3 full seasons with the Cards, but his tenure included the 1967 title and the 1968 Pennant, and he, as much as Gibson, was a symbol of that team, and he may be better remembered as a Cardinal than as a Giants, so I'm bending the rule for him. Leo Durocher was a good player for the Cards, but was elected as a manager and never managed them, so he doesn't qualify here.

Mark McGwire and Jim Edmonds did not qualify on enough ballots, and won't be eligible again until they qualify under the Veterans Committee. Surprisingly, longtime owner Gussie Busch has never been elected.

New York Giants, 26: Roger Connor, Buck Ewing, Tim Keefe, Mickey Welch, John Montgomery Ward, Roger Bresnahan, Christy Mathewson, Joe McGinnity, George Davis, Richard "Rube" Marquard, Dave Bancroft, Ross Youngs, Frankie Frisch, George "Highpockets" Kelly, Fred Lindstrom, Travis Jackson, Bill Terry, Mel Ott, Carl Hubbell, Johnny Mize, Monte Irvin, Willie Mays, Hoyt Wilhelm.

Also, John McGraw (manager, also played for them), Leo Durocher (manager), Russ Hodges (broadcaster).

Casey Stengel played for the Giants, but was elected as a manager, so I can't count him as a Giant HOFer.  

Counting all figures who played or managed at least one game for the Giants, in New York and San Francisco, they have 76, more than any other team; however, many of those were with the club only briefly. But even by my definitions, they are ahead of the arch-rival Dodgers.

3. Chicago Cubs, 28: Adrian "Cap" Anson, Mike "King" Kelly, Clark Griffith (elected as a pitcher for them, later a manager and owner elsewhere), Joe Tinker, Johnny Evers, Frank Chance (elected as a player but should have been elected as a manager instead), Mordecai "Three-Finger" Brown, Grover Cleveland Alexander, Hazen "Kiki" Cuyler, Lewis "Hack" Wilson, Charles "Gabby" Hartnett (also managed them to a Pennant), Rogers Hornsby, Billy Herman, Ernie Banks, Billy Williams, Ron Santo, Ferguson Jenkins, Bruce Sutter, Ryne Sandberg, Lee Smith, Andre Dawson, Greg Maddux (spent enough time with them).

Also, Al Spalding (elected as an executive but was also a great pitcher), Frank Selee (manager), Joe McCarthy (manager, managed them to a Pennant before going to the Yankees), Leo Durocher (manager), Jack Brickhouse (broadcaster), Harry Caray (broadcaster).

Sammy Sosa is eligible, but he's not getting in. If Lou Piniella is elected as a manager, I'll have to count him as a Cub HOFer, since he managed them for 4 seasons.

Lou Boudreau was a beloved broadcaster for the Cubs after his playing and managing career, but never played or managed for them, and so I can't count him as a Cub HOFer. Santo was also a longtime broadcaster. Surprisingly, longtime owner Phillip K. Wrigley is not in.

4. Chicago White Sox, 24: Ed Walsh, George Davis, Eddie Collins, Ray Schalk, Red Faber, Ted Lyons, Luke Appling, Nellie Fox, Luis Aparicio, Early Wynn, Hoyt Wilhelm, Goose Gossage (5 years with them), Carlton Fisk, Harold Baines, Frank Thomas, Tim Raines, Jim Thome, Al Lopez (manager), Tony LaRussa (manager), Charlie Comiskey (owner), Bill Veeck (owner), Jack Brickhouse (broadcaster), Bob Elson (broadcaster), Harry Caray (broadcaster).

Although Clark Griffith pitched for them in their 1st 2 seasons and won the 1st American League Pennant as their manager, those 2 seasons are not enough to qualify with the White Sox. Although Tom Seaver notched his 300th victory with the Pale Hose, he pitched for them in just 3 seasons, and can't be counted as one of their HOFers.

Thome was a White Sock for less than 4 full seasons, but did play for them in 4 seasons, so he counts with them.

5. Pittsburgh Pirates, 23: James "Pud" Galvin, Vic Willis, John "Honus" Wagner, Fred Clarke (elected as a player, also won Pennants as their manager), Jack Chesbro, Jake Beckley, Max Carey, Hazen "Kiki" Cuyler, Waite Hoyt (5 seasons with them), Harold "Pie" Traynor (also managed them), Paul Waner, Lloyd Waner ("Big Poison" and "Little Poison," though Lloyd was actually taller), Joseph "Arky" Vaughan, Al Lopez (elected as a manager but was an All-Star catcher for the Pirates), Ralph Kiner, Bill Mazeroski, Roberto Clemente, Willie Stargell, Bert Blyleven.

Also, Bill McKechnie (manager), Barney Dreyfuss (owner), Branch Rickey (executive), Bob Prince (broadcaster).

Blyleven was only a Pirate for 3 seasons, but I'm bending the rule because he was a key cog on their last World Championship team in 1979. Barry Bonds is eligible, but while the stance against steroid cheats is softening, he still, for the moment, falls under the category of, "Who's kidding who?"

Boston Braves, 22: Harry Wright (player and manager), George Wright, Al Spalding, Jim "Orator" O'Rourke, James "Deacon" White, Charlie "Old Hoss" Radbourne, Mike "King" Kelly, John Clarkson, Charles "Kid" Nichols, Cy Young, Hugh Duffy, Tommy McCarthy (he and Duffy were known as "the Heavenly Twins"), Billy Hamilton, Vic Willis, Jimmy Collins, Johnny Evers, Walter "Rabbit" Maranville, Dave Bancroft.

Also, Frank Selee (manager), Bill McKechnie (manager, though with no success with the Braves), Casey Stengel (ditto, also played for Braves), Billy Southworth (manager).

6. Boston Red Sox, 22: Jimmy Collins (elected as a player but also managed them to the 1st World Series title in 1903), Cy Young, Tris Speaker, Harry Hooper, Babe Ruth (6 seasons with Sox before going to Yanks), Herb Pennock (7 seasons before Yanks), Red Ruffing (also 7 seasons before Yanks), Joe Cronin (elected as a player, but also managed them to the 1946 Pennant, though unlike Collins had already retired as a player; was also longtime AL President), Rick Ferrell, Jimmie Foxx, Lefty Grove, Bobby Doerr, Ted Williams, Carl Yastrzemski, Carlton Fisk, Jim Rice, Dennis Eckersley, Wade Boggs, Pedro Martinez.

Also, Dick Williams (manager, no relation to Ted), Tom Yawkey (owner), Curt Gowdy (broadcaster).

I am bending the rule slightly for Dick Williams, who only managed 3 seasons for the Red Sox, but 1 of them, 1967, was the most important season in the club's modern history. Luis Aparicio played 3 seasons for the Red Sox, so by my rule he is not eligible to be counted with them. Eckersley, however, played 7 seasons with them, so I have to count him with them, and with their living HOFers for as long as he lives.

It was long suspected that owner Jean Yawkey would become the 1st woman elected to the Hall of Fame, but Effa Manley, who owned the Negro Leagues' Newark Eagles, is in, while Mrs. Yawkey is still out.

David Ortiz (500 Home Run Club but known steroid cheat) becomes eligible in 2022. Manny Ramirez (500 Home Run Club but known steroid cheat), Roger Clemens (300 Win and 3,000 Strikeout Clubs but suspected steroid cheat) and Curt Schilling (3,000 Strikeout Club but possible steroid cheat) are eligible, but not yet in.

Brooklyn Dodgers, 21: Willie Keeler, Joe Kelley, Richard "Rube" Marquard, Zack Wheat, Burleigh Grimes, Charles "Dazzy" Vance, Joseph "Arky" Vaughan, Billy Herman, Joe "Ducky" Medwick, Harold "Pee Wee" Reese, Jackie Robinson, Edwin "Duke" Snider, Roy Campanella, Ned Hanlon (manager), Wilbert Robinson (manager), Leo Durocher (elected as a manager but was also a good player), Walter Alston (manager), Branch Rickey (owner), Walter O'Malley (owner), Red Barber (broadcaster), Vin Scully (broadcaster).

Casey Stengel played 6 seasons for the Dodgers, and was good, but not Hall of Fame good.  He managed 3 seasons for them; in spite of their poor performance under him, had he managed them for 1 more season, he would still qualify as one of theirs under my rule.  Dick Williams played 5 seasons for them, but was elected as a manager, and never managed the Dodgers. Owner Charles Ebbets is not in.

7. Detroit Tigers, 18: Sam Crawford, Ty Cobb, Harry Heilmann, Henry "Heinie" Manush, Charlie Gehringer, Goose Goslin, Hank Greenberg (the last 3 nicknamed the "G-Men" in those early days of the FBI), Mickey Cochrane (elected as a player, also managed them to 2 Pennants), Hal Newhouser, George Kell, Al Kaline, Jim Bunning, Jack Morris, Alan Trammell, Ivan Rodriguez, Hughie Jennings (manager, also played for the team), Sparky Anderson (manager), Ernie Harwell (broadcaster).

With Trammell getting in through the Veterans Committee, Lou Whitaker's chances of also doing so increase. Kaline and Kell were also longtime broadcasters. Longtime owners Frank Navin, Walter Briggs and John Fetzer are not yet in. Former executive Will Harridge is in, but for what he did as President of the AL, so I can't count him as a Tiger HOFer.

8. Philadelphia Phillies, 18: Billy Hamilton, Ed Delahanty, Sam Thompson, Grover Cleveland Alexander, Eppa Rixey, Dave Bancroft, Chuck Klein, Richie Ashburn, Robin Roberts, Jim Bunning, Steve Carlton, Mike Schmidt, Jim Thome, Roy Halladay, Harry Wright (manager), Pat Gillick (executive), By Saam (broadcaster), Harry Kalas (broadcaster).

Thome spent 3 seasons with them, then left, then returned for a 4th, so he counts here. Ashburn was also a longtime broadcaster for the Phils. If Curt Schilling gets in, he can be counted with the Phillies. Pete Rose, of course, is ineligible.

9. Cincinnati Reds, 18: Bid McPhee, Jake Beckley, Joe Kelley, Sam Crawford, Edd Roush, Eppa Rixey, Ernie Lombardi, Frank Robinson, Johnny Bench, Tony Perez, Joe Morgan, Tom Seaver (6 seasons with Reds), Barry Larkin, Ken Griffey Jr., Bill McKechnie (manager), Sparky Anderson (manager), Red Barber (broadcaster), Marty Brennaman (broadcaster).

Pete Rose, of course, is ineligible. John Franco is not yet in, but if he gets in, he pitched enough seasons with the Reds to qualify for this list. If Lou Piniella is elected as a manager, I'll count him as a Reds HOFer: He only managed them for 3 seasons, but 1 was a World Championship season. Miller Huggins played several years for the Reds, but was elected as a Yankee manager.

Longtime owner Powel Crosley and GM Bob Howsam should be in, but they're not. Waite Hoyt broadcast for the Reds, and was beloved in that role, but has not been given the Ford Frick Award, so I can't count him with the Reds.

And while 2 members of the 1st openly professional baseball team, the 1869-70 Cincinnati Red Stockings, are in the Baseball Hall of Fame, Harry and George Wright -- the other Wright Brothers who "invented" something important in American life -- that team was not the same team as the current Reds franchise, which began in the old American Association of 1882 and joined the NL in 1892.

10. Cleveland Indians, 17: Napoleon "Nap" Lajoie, Elmer Flick, Addie Joss, Tris Speaker (elected as player but also managed them to a title), Stan Coveleski, Joe Sewell, Earl Averill, Bob Feller, Lou Boudreau, Bob Lemon, Larry Doby, Early Wynn, Gaylord Perry, Jim Thome, Al Lopez (manager), Bill Veeck (owner), Jimmy Dudley (broadcaster).

Barring a major shift in voters' attitudes, Manny Ramirez is probably out of luck. Satchel Paige reached the majors with the Indians, but only pitched 2 seasons for them. So, although I can count him with 3 different Negro League teams on this list, I can't count him with any major league team. Indeed, that fact is the reason I've included the Negro League teams on this list, along with moved and defunct major league teams.

11. Baltimore Orioles, 14: Brooks Robinson, Hoyt Wilhelm, Robin Roberts (4 seasons with O's), Luis Aparicio, Frank Robinson, Jim Palmer, Eddie Murray, Cal Ripken, Roberto Alomar, Harold Baines, Mike Mussina, Earl Weaver (manager), Chuck Thompson (broadcaster), Jon Miller (broadcaster).

Although he won his only World Series with the Orioles, we don't usually associate Aparicio with them, but he did play 5 seasons with them, so, by my own rule, I've got to count him here. Same with Robin Roberts, who played 4 seasons in Baltimore. Rafael Palmeiro is eligible, but he's not getting in.

Mike Mussina should be in. Frank Cashen should be in as an executive. Dick Williams played enough seasons with the O's to qualify, but was elected as a manager and never managed them, so he doesn't qualify as an O's HOFer.

Philadelphia Athletics, 13: Eddie Plank, Rube Waddell, Frank "Home Run" Baker, Chief Bender, Eddie Collins, Herb Pennock, Al Simmons, Mickey Cochrane, Jimmie Foxx, Lefty Grove, George Kell, Connie Mack (owner-manager), By Saam (broadcaster).

Washington Senators, 11: Walter Johnson, Bucky Harris (elected as a manager but was also a great player), Sam Rice, Henry "Heinie" Manush, Goose Goslin, Joe Cronin (elected as a player but also managed them to a Pennant), Rick Ferrell, Early Wynn, Clark Griffith (owner), Arch McDonald (broadcaster), Bob Wolff (broadcaster). 

No, you can't count Ted Williams as a manager.

12. New York Mets, 11: Nolan Ryan, Tom Seaver, Gary Carter, Mike Piazza, Tom Glavine (5 seasons), Pedro Martinez (4 seasons), Casey Stengel (manager, 4 seasons), Joe Torre (manager), Lindsey Nelson (broadcaster), Bob Murphy (broadcaster), Tim McCarver (broadcaster). So that's 3 broadcasters, 2 managers, and 6 players.

Still, you didn't realize the Mets had so many, did you? And that's without counting Ralph Kiner, who was elected as a Pirates' player, not as a Mets' broadcaster. Nor can you count Richie Ashburn, Duke Snider, Warren Spahn or Willie Mays -- and why would you want to count Eddie Murray, Rickey Henderson or Roberto Alomar as Mets?

I had not previously counted Ryan. However, he did appear in at least 1 game for 5 different seasons, including the 1969 World Championship season. So I have to count him here.

I had previously counted Yogi Berra, but while he managed them for 4 seasons, including winning a Pennant, he was elected to the Hall as a player, not as a manager, and so I can't count him as a Met HOFer.

As for Torre: Yes, he managed in 4 seasons for them. They were awful then, and there wasn't much he could do about it, but he counts as a Met Hall-of-Famer. Although I notice that, unlike Yogi and Willie, he wasn't invited to the farewell ceremony at Shea Stadium in 2008.

Frank Cashen should be in as an executive. If John Franco is ever elected, you can count him.

13. Atlanta Braves, 10: Hank Aaron, Phil Niekro, Tom Glavine, Greg Maddux, John Smoltz, Chipper Jones, Bobby Cox (manager), Joe Torre (managed them in between Cox's 2 tenures there, also a player), John Schuerholz (general manager), Milo Hamilton (broadcaster).

Fred McGriff and Andruw Jones will be listed with them if they are elected. Don Sutton broadcasts for the Braves, but can't be counted among their HOFers. Former owners Bill Bartholomay and Ted Turner are not in, nor do I ever expect them to be elected, but maybe they should be.

14. Los Angeles Dodgers, 10: Duke Snider (played 5 seasons for them in L.A.), Don Drysdale, Sandy Koufax, Don Sutton, Mike Piazza, Walter Alston (manager), Tommy Lasorda (manager), Walter O'Malley (owner), Vin Scully (broadcaster), Jamie Jarrin (broadcaster).

Steve Garvey is not getting in. Pedro Martinez started out with the Dodgers, but only played 2 seasons for them.

15. San Diego Padres, 9: Dave Winfield, Ozzie Smith, Rollie Fingers, Goose Gossage, Tony Gwynn, Trevor Hoffman, Dick Williams (manager), Jerry Coleman (broadcaster), Dick Enberg (broadcaster).

Yes, the Wizard and the Goose each played 4 seasons in Mission Valley. Considering how many they have in a comparatively short history, you shouldn't also count Willie McCovey, Gaylord Perry or Roberto Alomar. Longtime owner Ray Kroc, who saved the team from being moved to Washington in 1974, is not in. Steve Garvey, who is not my Padre, is not getting in.

16. Oakland Athletics, 9: Jim "Catfish" Hunter, Reggie Jackson, Rollie Fingers, Rickey Henderson, Dennis Eckersley, Dick Williams (manager), Tony LaRussa (manager), Lon Simmons (broadcaster), Bill King (broadcaster).

Mark McGwire is eligible, but he's not getting in. Owner Charlie Finley is eligible, but I don't think he'll ever get in, either. I am bending the rule slightly for Williams, who only managed 3 seasons for the A's, but got them into the postseason in all 3, including 2 World Championships.

Chicago American Giants (Negro Leagues), 8: Andrew "Rube" Foster (also manager and owner), Bill Foster (a.k.a. Willie Foster, Rube's brother), Cristobal Torriente, Pete Hill, George "Mule" Suttles, John Henry "Pop" Lloyd, Norman "Turkey" Stearnes, Willie Wells.

Kansas City Monarchs (Negro Leagues), 8: Jose Mendez, Leroy "Satchel" Paige, James "Cool Papa" Bell, Wilber "Bullet" Rogan, Norman "Turkey" Stearnes, Andy Cooper (also manager), Hilton Smith, J.L. Wilkinson (owner).

Bell played 3 seasons for them, but because Negro League players bounced around as much as international soccer players do, and also like club soccer there were often loan deals involved, I'll bend my 4-season rule. John "Buck" O'Neil, 1st baseman and manager, is not in the Hall of Fame, a terrible oversight, especially given that his contributions to the game include what he did in the last 15 or so years of a very long life.

Jackie Robinson played his first season in professional baseball, 1945, with the Monarchs. They were also the first pro team of Ernie Banks. But neither was elected on the basis of anything he did in Kansas City.

Homestead Grays (Negro Leagues), 7: Cumberland "Cum" Posey (pitcher, then manager, then owner), Smokey Joe Williams, Josh Gibson, Buck Leonard, James "Cool Papa" Bell, Jud Wilson, Ray Brown.

Oscar Charleston and Judy Johnson each played 2 seasons for them, but I'm not willing to bend the rules THAT much. Gibson was known as the Black Babe Ruth, Leonard as the Black Lou Gehrig, and together they were known as the Thunder Twins or the Dynamite Twins. Williams was sometimes known as Cyclone Joe, sometimes as Smokey Joe (but never as Smokin' Joe, like boxer Frazier).

As for Posey, "Cum" was short for "Cumberland," and it is possible that, like James "Pud" Galvin, his nickname was not considered sexually explicit in his time. As an athlete, he was probably better in football, and Wendell Smith, the leading black sportswriter of the between-the-wars years and a winner of the Hall's Taylor Spink Award for media work, called him "the smartest man in Negro baseball and certainly the most successful."

Newark Eagles (Negro Leagues), 7: George "Mule" Suttles, Ray Dandridge, Leon Day, James "Biz" Mackey (also manager), Monte Irvin, Larry Doby, Effa Manley (owner, the only woman in the Baseball Hall of Fame). Don Newcombe also played for the Eagles, and if his service there is counted, I believe that it makes him worthy of election to the Hall, but he hasn't been elected.

17. San Francisco Giants, 7: Willie Mays, Orlando Cepeda, Willie McCovey, Juan Marichal, Gaylord Perry, Lon Simmons (broadcaster), Jon Miller (broadcaster).

Barry Bonds is eligible, and his rising percentages suggest that he might get in despite his known cheating. And I'm surprised that longtime owner Horace Stoneham isn't in, and that neither is his son-in-law, Charles "Chub" Feeney, a Giant executive who became President of the NL.

Montreal Expos, 7: Gary Carter, Andre Dawson, Tim Raines, Pedro Martinez, Vladimir Guerrero, Dick Williams (manager), Dave Van Horne (broadcaster). If Larry Walker gets in, he can be counted with the Expos. Duke Snider could not, although he broadcast for the Expos and had played in Montreal for the Dodgers' farm team, the Montreal Royals. So did Tommy Lasorda.

18. Houston Astros, 7: Joe Morgan, Nolan Ryan, Craig Biggio, Jeff Bagwell, Gene Elston (broadcaster), Milo Hamilton (broadcaster), Harry Kalas (broadcast 6 seasons for them before joining the Phillies' broadcast team).

Roger Clemens is eligible, but only played 3 seasons with the Astros, and, even with his legal exoneration, it's not clear that he will ever get in.

19. Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, 6: Nolan Ryan, Rod Carew, Reggie Jackson, Bert Blyleven, Vladimir Guerrero. Dick Enberg (broadcaster). Jim Edmonds will have to wait for the Veterans Committee. Founder-owner Gene Autry is not in, but should be. All but Guerrero played for them under the "California Angels" name.

Baltimore Orioles, AA & NL 1882-1899, 6: John McGraw, Wilbert Robinson, Hughie Jennings, Willie Keeler, Joe Kelley, Ned Hanlon (manager).

While McGraw, Robinson and Jennings were all elected as managers, all could have been elected on the basis of their playing for the old Orioles. Indeed, to this day, McGraw has the highest lifetime batting average of any 3rd baseman, .334. Dan Brouthers played 2 seasons with them, the 1894 and '95 Pennant seasons, but can't be counted with them.

St. Louis Browns, 6: Bobby Wallace, George Sisler, Rogers Hornsby (also managed them), Rick Ferrell, Branch Rickey (executive), Bill Veeck (owner).

Rube Waddell, Goose Goslin, Heinie Manush and Satchel Paige just miss, each having played 3 seasons for the Browns. That was also the length of time that Veeck owned the team, but since he (and his one-at-bat midget Eddie Gaedel) are now the people most identified with this team, I'm bending the rule for him.

Pittsburgh Crawfords (Negro Leagues), 5: Oscar Charleston, Satchel Paige, Josh Gibson, James "Cool Papa" Bell, WIlliam "Judy" Johnson.

20. Texas Rangers, 5: Ferguson Jenkins, Gaylord Perry, Nolan Ryan, Ivan Rodrgiuez. Eric Nadel (broadcaster). Bert Blyleven pitched just 2 seasons for them. Rafael Palmeiro and Juan Gonzalez are eligible, but who's kidding who? No, you can't count Ted Williams as a manager. And I sure hope former owner George W. Bush is never elected; but, since the team won nothing while he was in control, that seems safe.

21. Minnesota Twins, 5: Harmon Killebrew, Rod Carew, Bert Blyleven, Kirby Puckett, Herb Carneal (broadcaster).

Tom Kelly could be elected as a manager, but Tony Oliva seems unlikely to ever be elected as a player, having missed in a recent Vets' Committee election by a single vote.

No, you can't count Dave Winfield, Paul Molitor, or, if he ever gets in, Jack Morris: Although hometown heroes, none played 4 seasons with the Twins. Jim Thome played only 2 seasons with them. Founder Calvin Griffith is not in, nor should he be.

22. Milwaukee Brewers, 5: Robin Yount, Paul Molitor, Rollie Fingers, Bud Selig (owner), Bob Uecker (broadcaster). No, you can't count Hank Aaron, because, while he played 14 seasons in Milwaukee, only 2 of those were for the Brewers.

23. Toronto Blue Jays, 5: Roberto Alomar, Roy Halladay, Pat Gillick (executive), Tom Cheek (broadcaster), Tony Kubek (broadcaster). No, you can't count Dave Winfield, Rickey Henderson, Paul Molitor or Frank Thomas. Or Roger Clemens, if he ever gets in.

Milwaukee Braves, 4: Warren Spahn, Eddie Matthews, Hank Aaron, Red Schoendienst. Joe Torre began his playing career with them, but can't be counted here.

Buffalo Bisons (NL 1879-1885), 4: Dan Brouthers, Jim "Orator" O'Rourke, James "Deacon" White, James "Pud" Galvin.

24. Seattle Mariners, 4: Edgar Martinez, Randy Johnson, Ken Griffey Jr., Pat Gillick (executive). If Lou Piniella is elected as a manager, I'll have to count him as a Mariner HOFer.

25. Kansas City Royals, 4: George Brett, Whitey Herzog (manager), John Schuerholz (executive), Denny Matthews (broadcaster). Founder-owner Ewing Kauffman, surprisingly, is not in.

Lincoln Giants/Brooklyn Royal Giants (Negro Leagues), 3: Louis Santop, Smokey Joe Williams, John Henry "Pop" Lloyd. Imagine that, a Brooklyn team called the Giants. What the heck, from 1944 to 1948, the NFL had a Boston Yanks (defunct); and, in the 1961-62 season, the NBA had a Chicago team called the Packers (today's Washington Wizards).

Cuban Giants (Negro Leagues, based in New York), 3: Frank Grant, Sol White, Pete Hill. Unlike the later Cuban Stars and New York Cubans, both also based in New York, this 1880s-90s team had no Cubans: They were called "Cuban" so their all-black roster would be better accepted. Grant has been called the best black player of the 19th Century.

Detroit Stars (Negro Leagues), 3: Pete Hill, Andy Cooper, Norman "Turkey" Stearnes. Stearnes now has a statue at Comerica Park, alongside several Tiger greats.

Indianapolis ABCs (Negro Leagues), 3: Oscar Charleston, Ben Taylor, James "Biz" Mackey (also managed them). A later team, the Indianapolis Clowns, was the first professional team of Hank Aaron.

Philadelphia Giants (Negro Leagues), 3: Sol White, Pete Hill, John Henry "Pop" Lloyd.

Philadelphila Hilldale (Negro Leagues), 3: Martin DiHigo, James "Biz" Mackey (also managed them), William "Judy" Johnson.

St. Louis Stars (Negro Leagues), 3: George "Mule" Suttles, James "Cool Papa" Bell, Willie Wells.

Cuban Stars (Negro Leagues, based in New York), 3: Jose Mendez, Martin Dihigo, Alex Pompez (owner).

Providence Grays (NL 1878-1885), 2: John Montgomery Ward, Charlie "Old Hoss" Radbourn. Their 1879 Pennant was managed by original 1869 Cincinnati Red Stocking George Wright, but he only played with them for 2 seasons.

Cleveland Spiders (NL, 1887-1899), 2: Cy Young and Jesse Burkett.

Detroit Wolverines (NL, 1881-1888), 2: Sam Thompson, Ned Hanlon (elected as a manager but played 8 seasons for them). Dan Brouthers and Deacon White played 3 seasons for them.

26. Miami Marlins, 2: Felo Ramirez and Dave Van Horne (both broadcasters). Ivan Rodriguez was only a Marlin for 1 season, although it was a World Championship season. If Gary Sheffield gets in, he can be counted as a Marlin, but I don't think he's getting in. No, you can't count Miami native Andre Dawson, although he did close his career with the club and is now working in their front office. So is Tony Perez, who briefly managed the team, but you can't count him, either.

Baltimore Black Sox (Negro Leagues), 2: Jud Wilson, Ben Taylor. This team is not to be confused with the Elite Giants.

Washington/Baltimore Elite Giants (Negro Leagues), 2: James "Biz" Mackey (also manager), Roy Campanella. And that's pronounced EE-light, not the usual Eh-LEET.

Birmingham Black Barons (Negro Leagues), 2: George "Mule" Suttles, Satchel Paige. Willie Mays played his first professional season, 1948, for the Black Barons, but only that 1 season, so he can't be counted here.

Kansas City Stars (Negro Leagues), 2: James "Cool Papa" Bell, Willard Brown.

New York Cubans (Negro Leagues), 2: Martin DiHigo, Alex Pompez. Although DiHigo and Pompez were also involved with the Cuban Stars, and that team was also based in New York, it was not the same team as the New York Cubans. Like several of the Negro League owners, Pompez got some funding from the black organized crime bosses of the era, and eventually turned state's evidence to avoid prison. He later worked as an unofficial scout for the New York/San Francisco Giants, helping to sign Hispanic stars like Orlando Cepeda, Juan Marichal, and the Alou brothers.

Philadelphia Stars (Negro Leagues), 2: James "Biz" Mackey (also manager), Jud Wilson.

27. Arizona Diamondbacks, 1: Randy Johnson. If Curt Schilling gets in, he can be counted with them.

28. Washington Nationals, 1: Frank Robinson, their 1st manager, was already in the Hall long before MLB returned to D.C., but he did manage for them for 5 years, 1 more than my rules require. But you can't count the HOFers from this franchise's previous incarnation, the Montreal Expos.

Bacharach Giants (Negro Leagues), 1: John Henry "Pop" Lloyd.  This team played its home games in Atlantic City, and were named for Harry Bacharach, who was that city's Mayor on and off from 1912 to 1935. He was played by John Rue on the TV series "Boardwalk Empire." Lloyd stayed in Atlantic City after he retired, died there, and a youth baseball facility there is named for him.

Harrisburg Giants (Negro Leagues), 1: Oscar Charleston.

San Antonio Black Bronchos (Negro Leagues, pronounced like Broncos), 1: Smokey Joe Williams.

29. Tampa Bay Rays, none: If Fred McGriff gets in, he can be counted with them. Wade Boggs cannot. Nor, if he is ever elected as a manager, can Lou Piniella.

30. Colorado Rockies, none: If Larry Walker gets in, he can be counted with them.

Kansas City Athletics, none: No player in the Hall of Fame was with the A's in their K.C. tenure for at least 4 seasons.

Analyzing the 2019 Baseball Hall of Fame Vote

Yesterday, there were 4 new players elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame by the Baseball Writers Association of America:

* Mariano Rivera, a.k.a. Mo, the Sandman or the Hammer of God, pitcher, New York Yankees, an all-time record 652 saves, 13-time All-Star, 5-time World Champion. The 1st unanimous Hall-of-Famer ever: In his 1st year of eligibility, he received 100.0 percent of the vote. Babe Ruth didn't get every available vote when he was elected. Nor did Cy Young, nor did Ted Williams, nor did Willie Mays, nor did any other player you can think of.

* Harry Leroy Halladay III, a.k.a. Roy Halladay or Doc, pitcher, Toronto Blue Jays and Philadelphia Phillies, a 203-105 career record, an 8-time All-Star, a Cy Young Award winner in both Leagues, the American League in 2003 and the National League in 2010. In his 1st year of eligibility, he received 85.4 percent.

* Edgar Martinez, designated hitter, Seattle Mariners, .312 lifetime batting average, a 7-time All-Star, led the AL in batting in 1992 and 1995, and in runs batted in in 2000. In his 10th and last year in the writer's ballot, he also received 85.4 percent. And...

* Michael Cole Mussina, a.k.a. Mike or Moose, pitcher, Baltimore Orioles and New York Yankees, 270 wins, 2,813 strikeouts, a 5-time All-Star and a 7-time Gold Glove winner (admittedly, less of a big deal for a pitcher than for any other position), reached the postseason 9 times, winning 2 AL Pennants. In his 6th year on the ballot, he received 76.7 percent.

These men got the necessary 75 percent of the vote. They will join the Veterans Committee honorees: Chicago White Sox outfielder Harold Baines; Rivera's predecessor as the all-time saves leader, Lee Smith, who pitched for several teams, mostly for the Chicago Cubs, and also briefly for the Yankees; the winner of the Ford Frick Award for broadcasters, Al Helfer, who broadcast for Mutual Broadcasting in the 1940s and '50s; and the winner of the J.G. Taylor Spink Award for sportswriters, Jayson Stark of The Athletic, formerly of The Philadelphia Inquirer, as inductees into the Hall of Fame this coming July.

It seems churlish to say, so soon after these men have been elected, that any of them is unworthy of the honor. I was never convinced that Edgar Martinez belongs. To me, he seemed like the classic example of how to decide the status of a borderline guy who is not yet in: "If you have to ask, the answer is, 'No.'"

But, as befitting his borderline status, I can't honestly give a definitive reason why he shouldn't be in. The fact that he spent most of his career as a designated hitter is the kind of argument that only a purist, or an ignorant Mets fan, might make.

As for Halladay, when he was killed in a plane crash after the 2017 season, I guessed that he might receive a sympathy vote, and get in sooner than he otherwise would have. But, having gotten over 85 percent of the vote on the 1st try suggests that he would have gotten in this time even if he had lived.

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There were 5 players who got between 40 and 75 percent of the vote, all of them with a higher percentage than they got last year, missing this time, but suggesting that they will eventually get in through the writers' ballot: Curt Schilling, 60.9 percent; Roger Clemens, 59.5 percent; Barry Bonds, 59.1 percent; Larry Walker, 54.6 percent; and Omar Vizquel, 42.8 percent.

For Schilling, Clemens, and Bonds, this was the 7th year on the ballot. For Walker, it was the 9th, making next year's the 10th and last, and if he doesn't make it, he'll have to get in through the Veterans Committee, or not at all. For Vizquel, it was the 2nd try.

Schilling has over 3,000 career strikeouts and an enviable postseason pitching record, but he might not be in yet because of all the feathers he's ruffled. If character truly counts, he goes from a good choice to a borderline choice.

And speaking of character and for how much it counts, Clemens and Bonds are still under the steroid cloud, despite Clemens' acquittal in a court of law. The fact that Clemens and Bonds, both of whom have overwhelming career statistics, are getting closer to the magic 75 suggests that maybe, just maybe, the writers believe they have been punished enough for whatever cheating they may have done, and are getting closer to being willing to overlook it.

Or maybe they're just warming up for the election of 2022, when both Alex Rodriguez and David Ortiz will become eligible. But, based on how the baseball world reacted to each of these men, we can guess that Big Papi will be elected that year, and A-Rod will not.

This is despite the facts that, when he got caught, A-Rod came clean, and Big Papi got caught, and continues to lie about it to this day. People hate the Yankees, and, as the Yankees' biggest rivals, they love the Red Sox, and they want to believe that the Yankees' achievements are illegitimate, while their opponents' achievements are worthy of admiration, and not of suspicion. The truth is, it shouldn't work that way, given the evidence that we have.

If you are wondering about the other major known or suspected steroid cheats: Mark McGwire and Rafael Palmeiro have failed to get 5 percent of the votes on a ballot, and thus have dropped off the ballot completely, and are waiting to become eligible through the Veterans Committee. Manny Ramirez, Gary Sheffield and Sammy Sosa are hanging on, and I'll get to them shortly.

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The following players got between 5 and 40 percent of the vote, making it unlikely that they will ever get in through the writers' ballot:

* Fred McGriff, 39.8 percent in his 10th and final year on the ballot. This guy hit 493 home runs, was never seriously suspected of cheating, was on winning teams, and is liked by nearly everybody who watched him and played with him. He has been robbed. I suspect that the Veterans Committee will elect him on his 1st try with them.

* Manny Ramirez, 22.8 percent in his 3rd year. He only gained 0.8 percent over last year. Here's a guy who, like Clemens and Bonds, was good enough that he didn't have to cheat, but he did anyway. And he proved himself to be someone of a very low character. In spite of over 500 home runs, I don't think he'll ever get in.

* Jeff Kent, 18.1 percent in his 6th year. Being the all-time home run leader at the position of 2nd base has helped his Hall of Fame chances about as much as a degree in ancient astrology has helped someone go from barista to manager at Starbucks.

* Scott Rolen, 17.2 percent in his 2nd year. The Hall doesn't have many 3rd basemen, and this may work to Rolen's advantage. After all, for most of his career, the only 3rd baseman with notably better stats and a comparable fielding acumen was A-Rod.

* Billy Wagner, 16.7 percent in his 4th year. Among left-handed pitchers, only John Franco has more career saves (barely, 424 to 422). What hurts Wagner is the statistics that make him, arguably, the worst relief pitcher in postseason history, even worse than Armando Benitez.

* Todd Helton, 16.5 percent in his 1st year. Being a hitter for the Colorado Rockies, in the high elevation of Denver, hurts him, as it has Larry Walker. But being a contact hitter, a hitter for average, first and a power hitter second may actually help him.

* Gary Sheffield, 13.6 percent in his 5th year. Over 500 home runs, but that asterisk likely means it's the Veterans Committee or bust.

* Andy Pettitte, 9.9 percent in his 1st year. He was far more honest about what he did (very briefly) than some others we've mentioned. He won 256 games in the 5-man rotation era, and a record 19 more in postseason play. It was probably asking too much to have the writers elect 3 Yankee pitchers at the same time. I'd be very surprised if the Hooded Hawk doesn't gain significantly next year, and I think the writers will let him in before his eligibility with them runs out.

* Sammy Sosa, 8.5 percent in his 7th year. With steroids, he hit 609 career home runs. Without them, he might have had half as many. He's not getting in unless the Veterans Committee is really lenient about performance-enhancing drugs.

* Andruw Jones, 7.5 percent in his 2nd year. Here's a guy who played 17 major league seasons, reached the postseason in 13 of them, hit 434 home runs and won 10 Gold Gloves. How could he not even get 8 percent of the Hall of Fame vote? He's going to rise in the coming years.

These players, all in their 1st year of eligibility, got very few votes, and thus fell off the ballot completely: Michael Young, 9 votes for 2.1 percent; Lance Berkman and the steroid-tainted Miguel Tejada, 5 years votes for 1.2 percent; Roy Oswalt, 4 votes for 0.9 percent; and Placido Polanco, 2 voted for 0.5 percent.

These players, all in their 1st year of eligibility, got no votes at all, and thus fell off the ballot completely: Rick Ankiel, Jason Bay, Freddy Garcia, Jon Garland, Travis Hafner, Ted Lilly, Derek Lowe, Darren Oliver, Juan Pierre, Vernon Wells, and Kevin Youkilis.

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Based on the preceding, who is likely to be elected next year? Among the first-time hitters are Derek Jeter (3,465 hits), Adam Dunn (462 home runs), Jason Giambi (440), Paul Konerko (439), Alfonso Soriano (412), and Bobby Abreu (doesn't have a standout career stat). Among the first-time pitchers are Cliff Lee and Josh Beckett. Of these, the only one under a legitimate steroid cloud is Giambi.

Usually, 3 or 4 guys get in via the writers, but I don't see that happening next year. Of the first-timers, Jeter is the only clear "Yes." The only holdover who has a serious chance is Schilling, unless the writers are finally willing to say that Clemens and Bonds have been punished enough, or are willing to let Larry Walker in on his final try.

We are in for some interesting Baseball Hall of Fame elections in the early 2020s. Not just because of the various controversies, during and after his career, that have overshadowed Schilling's on-field achievements, but because the steroid question is going to be forced in 2022 with the eligibility of A-Rod and Papi.

Three years from now, give or take a few days, we will know whether the writers are willing to overlook PED use for all, some, or none. Given what we have seen, about their feelings for the Yankees and the Red Sox, I'm still thinking it will be Clemens and Ortiz in, and Rodriguez out. After all, it is widely presumed that Clemens wasn't cheating while with the Red Sox.

Is that true? We may never know for sure.

Roy Halladay, 1977-2017

For those of us who are Yankee Fans, and old enough to remember 1979, when it happened to Thurman Munson, we can appreciate the shock of what happened with Roy Halladay.

It even came over the wire at around the same time of day, about 4:30 PM. The difference is, Halladay was already retired, while Munson was still an active player. That does not make it any less of a tragedy.

Harry Leroy Halladay III was born on May 14, 1977, in Denver. He grew up in the suburb of Arvada, and was drafted by the Toronto Blue Jays in 1995. He made his major league debut on September 20, 1998, at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg. Wearing Number 52, he pitched the 1st 5 innings against the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, in a game the Jays won 7-5 in 12 innings.

Over the next 11 seasons, wearing Number 32 for the Jays, he drove the American League, and particularly the Yankees, crazy, building a 148-76 record. He used a four-seam fastball, a two-seam sinking fastball, a nasty breaking curveball, and a cut fastball that ranked with Mariano Rivera's as the best in the major leagues in that era. By the time he reached the Phillies, he had also developed a very tough pitch that was a cross between a split-fingered fastball and a changeup, which he called a split-change.

Blue Jays broadcaster Tom Cheek nicknamed him Doc Halladay, after John Henry "Doc" Holliday, a dentist who became one of the Wild West's most famous gunslingers despite years of suffering from tuberculosis.

Despite what the TV show Wynonna Earp may say, the real Doc Holliday died even younger than Roy Halladay, just 36, in 1887 -- and while Halladay was born in Colorado, Holliday died there, as, before the common use of antibiotics, TB patients often went there, because the mountain air was said to be good for their lungs.

He won 22 games and the American League Cy Young Award in 2003, but the Jays never got close to a Pennant race. This was the era of the Yankee-Red Sox stranglehold on the AL Eastern Division, and only in 2006 did the Jays even finish 2nd, and a distant one at that. There were times when Halladay was the only reason to watch the Jays.

*

On December 16, 2009, looking to bolster their starting rotation after winning back-to-back National League Pennants, the Philadelphia Phillies traded Travis d'Arnaud, Kyle Drabek and Michael Taylor to the  Blue Jays for Halladay.

It was a brilliant trade. Having to switch from 32, which the Phils had retired for Hall-of-Famer Steve Carlton, to 34, Halladay became the 1st Phils' pitcher since Carlton himself in 1982 to win at least 20 games in a season. This included a perfect game against the Florida Marlins at Sun Life (now Hard Rock) Stadium in the Miami suburbs on May 29, won 1-0 thanks to a Chase Utley line drive.

His 21st and last win of the regular season, on September 27, clinched the NL East. For the Phils, it was their 4th straight title; for Halladay, it was his 1st trip to the postseason.

And he made the most of it: On October 6, 2010, in Game 1 of the NL Division Series at Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati, he pitched a no-hitter against the Cincinnati Reds. Shane Victorino scored a run and drove in 2 others, and the Phillies won 4-0.

It was only the 2nd no-hitter in postseason history, after Don Larsen's perfect game in the 1956 World Series. If you had told someone then that 81-year-old Don Larsen would still be alive on November 8, 2017, and 33-year-old Roy Halladay wouldn't, no one would have believed you.

It also made Halladay the 5th pitcher to throw 2 no-hitters in 1 season, the 1st to do it since Nolan Ryan in 1973, and the 1st ever to pitch 1 in the regular season and 1 in the postseason. He also hit an infield single in the game, making him the 1st pitcher in postseason history ever to get more hits in a game than he allowed.

The Phillies swept the Reds in 3 straight. But Halladay was outpitched by Tim Lincecum in Game 1 of the NL Championship Series. He reversed that outcome in Game 5, but it wasn't enough, as the San Francisco Giants won the Pennant in 6 games. Still, Halladay became only the 5th pitcher to win the Cy Young Award in both Leagues, joining Gaylord Perry, Pedro Martinez, Randy Johnson and Roger Clemens. Max Scherzer has since become the 6th.

Despite appearing in 8 All-Star Games, that 2010 performance would be the closest that Halladay would ever get to a Pennant. The Phillies won the NL East again in 2011, but lost the NLCS to the St. Louis Cardinals in 6 games. Then, in 2012, the ceiling fell in on the Phils, as they followed the 1965 Yankees' pattern of everybody getting old or hurt, or both, at once, falling to .500, and below .500 the next.

Halladay was not immune: Having already missed the 2nd half of the 2005 season with the Jays, including being chosen to start for the AL in the All-Star Game, after his leg was broken by a line drive off the bat of Kevin Mench of the Texas Rangers, with the Phils he missed a quarter of the 2012 season with an injury, and 2/3rds of 2013 with another.

He last appeared in a major league game on September 23, 2013 -- away to the team now named the Miami Marlins, the same setup as his perfect game, albeit at Marlins Park in Miami proper. He was in so much pain that he couldn't get out of the 1st inning, and the Phils lost 4-0.

It was an unfortunate way to end his career. In December, his contract with the Phils up, he signed a 1-day contract with the Jays, and retired as a member of their organization. He was only 36 years old.

*

The injuries meant that his career statistics weren't as big as they could have been. He finished 203-105, for a .659 winning percentage. His ERA was 3.38, his ERA+ 131, his WHIP 1.178. He had 2,117 strikeouts against only 592 walks.

During the off-season, he, his wife Brandy, and their 2 children lived in Tarpon Springs, Florida, outside St. Petersburg. And, like Thurman Munson, he took up flying. Unlike with Munson -- or Roberto Clemente, Ken Hubbs or Cory Lidle -- it was a family tradition: His father was a commercial pilot. His Twitter header showed his plane, an ICON A5 amphibious aircraft (a.k.a. a "flying boat"), and his profile picture showed him at its controls.

Yesterday, November 7, 2017, at around 12:00 noon, his plane crashed about 10 miles off St. Petersburg, in the Gulf of Mexico. He was the only one aboard, and it took until around 4:30 PM for the police to confirm that he was dead. He was only 40 years old.

He becomes eligible for the Baseball Hall of Fame in the election whose results will be announced in January 2019, a distinction also held by Mariano Rivera, Andy Pettitte, Todd Helton, Lance Berkman and Roy Oswalt. He may now get a sympathy vote.

Would he have gotten in anyway? Baseball-Reference.com, a website which is your friend whether you know it or not, has a "Hall of Fame Monitor," for which it says a "Likely HOFer" has a rating of 100, and Halladay's was 126, suggesting he should easily get in.

But they also have "Hall of Fame Standards," which is geared more toward career achievement, and for which the "Average HOFer" has a rating of 50. Roy's is 45, suggesting that he falls a little short.

Among starting pitchers in the post-1920 Lively Ball Era, with as many seasons as he had, 16, only Whitey Ford, Pedro Martinez, Lefty Grove and Christy Mathewson had higher winning percentages. Only Pedro, Juan Marichal, Tom Seaver, Curt Schilling, Bret Saberhagen, Fergie Jenkins, Don Sutton, Greg Maddux, Carl Hubbell, Robin Roberts, Randy Johnson, Roger Clemens and John Smoltz had a lower WHIP. Of those pitchers, only Schilling, Saberhagen and Clemens are not in the Hall of Fame. Schilling and Clemens have steroid clouds over them, and Saberhagen only won 167 games, as opposed to Halladay's 203.

Baseball-Reference also uses "Similarity Scores," to determine a player's top 10 most statistically similar players, usually weighted by position, so that players who played the same position usually make up most, if not all, of the top 10.

Of Halladay's top 10, Zack Greinke and Justin Verlander are still active, and the former is a close call, while the latter will probably get in; Oswalt and Tim Hudson are not yet eligible, and both are borderline cases, probably falling a little short; Dazzy Vance, a borderline case, is the only one in; and Saberhagen, Dwight Gooden, Ron Guidry, Jimmy Key, and 1930s pitcher Lon Warneke are eligible but not in, and it's tough to make a case for any of them.

Given the goodwill that Roy Halladay built up, in Toronto, in Philadelphia, and in all of baseball, he may well have gotten in, even without this tragedy.

I'd hate to think he wouldn't have gotten in without it. But now, we'll never know.

UPDATE: His final resting place is not publicly known. He was elected to the Hall of Fame in 2019. The Blue Jays retired his Number 32. The Phillies have not retired his Number 34, but when they signed Bryce Harper, who had worn that number with the Washington Nationals, he said, "Roy Halladay should be the last one to wear it," and switched to Number 3.

Colorado's All-Time Baseball Team

Continuing with my updated version of this series. As I said, I'm going through the teams in ascending order of past success. Hence, the Colorado Rockies, having won a Pennant, are ahead of the Washington Nationals and Seattle Mariners, who have not.

28. Colorado's All-Time Baseball Team

For these players, their hometowns are in the State of Colorado unless otherwise stated. But the Rockies' region also includes the entire States of Utah and Wyoming, most of Montana, and the westernmost parts of North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska and Kansas.

I had to cast such a wide net, over the Rockies' already vast, albeit sparsely-populated, territory, and make it a little wider, simply because, aside from the pitching, this team isn't nearly as talented as most of the others I'll be posting.

1B Chris Shelton of Salt Lake City, Utah. Picking a player for this position was tough. Out of the 86 men born in Colorado who reached the majors, only 1 played more 1st base than anything else: Buddy Gremp. No, I'd never heard of him, either. He played 113 games for the Boston Braves before World War II intervened, and aside from a year with Hartford he never appeared in pro ball again, done at 27.

There are 14 men born in Wyoming who've reached the majors, but, again, only one 1st baseman: Bucky Jacobsen, who played 42 games, all with the 2004 Mariners, and he grew up in Oregon anyway. So scratch him. There are 38 men born in Utah who've reached the majors, and 2 played more at 1st than anywhere else. Doug Howard was an early 1970s utility man, and then there was Shelton.

In 2005, Shelton hit .299 with 18 home runs and 59 RBIs for the Detroit Tigers. In 2006, he got off to a great start, hitting 9 home runs in his 1st 13 games. He looked like a star in the making. But he dropped off the planet after that: He only hit 7 the rest of the season, got sent down to the minors, was called up in September, did not appear on the postseason roster as the Tigers won the Pennant, spent all of 2007 in the minors, and then bounced around to the Texas Rangers, the Mariners, and the Mets, for whom he never reached the majors, getting cut before the 2011 season began.

Think about that: Only 30 years old, should have been in his prime, a man who had once hit 34 home runs in 2 years, and he wasn't good enough to make the Madoff-era Mets. He's been playing in "independent leagues" ever since.

But he's the best I've got for this position on this team. If I don't go with Shelton, my best choice would be Ed Bouchee, born in Livingston, Montana. But he's an unacceptable choice, because he grew up, and therefore was trained to play baseball, in Spokane, Washington, putting him in the Mariners' region.

And while he finished 2nd in the National League's Rookie of the Year voting in 1957, he soon did time in a psych facility after pleading guilty what would then have been quaintly called "morals charges." Apparently, he'd exposed himself to underage girls. After that, he was never the same player, and was so bad, he was cut in midseason. The 1962 season. By the Mets. That's right: At the age of 29, when he should have been in his prime, he was not good enough to play for the 1962 Mets.

2B Mike Lansing of Rawlins, Wyoming. Not that long ago, the Montreal Expos not only existed, but were a contending team playing to good crowds at that flying saucer they called Le Stade Olympique. Lansing was a good fielder who hit 165 doubles and drove in 265 runs for them in 5 seasons, before they decided they couldn't afford him anymore, and traded him to his "home" team, the Rockies.

But injuries took their toll, and he was out of the game at the age of 34. He last played in the majors for the 2001 Boston Red Sox. In 2007, he was one of the few past or present Red Sox to have appeared in the Mitchell Report, because his name appeared in Kirk Radomski's address book.

Nevertheless, I can't consider that enough evidence to disqualify him from this team. The ballpark of his hometown's minor league team, the Casper Ghosts (I don't know if they're friendly ghosts), is named Mike Lansing Field.

SS Herman Long of Denver. I had to go way back to find him (and cheat slightly, as he was born in Chicago, and I can't be sure he grew up in Denver, but he appears to have lived his entire off-season adult life there), but he is a find.

He was a star on the powerful Boston Beaneaters (forerunners of the Braves) of the 1890s, winning NL Pennants in 1891, '92, '93, '97 and '98. He was an original New York Highlander (Yankee) in 1903, although he was 37 and played only 22 games with them, and just 70 more before retiring. He had 4 .300 seasons and led the NL in runs scored in 1893 and in home runs in 1900.

He also holds a dubious record: Most career errors, 1,096, in 17 years -- 64 1/2 per season! However, considering the pathetic gloves and awful fields of the time, and the fact that he plays the most error-ridden position, I think he can be excused.

3B Roy Hartzell of Golden. I could also have put him at right field. Not a sensational player, but he did bat .296 for the 1911 New York Highlanders (Yankees) and appears to have been a pretty good player for them, and before that with the St. Louis Browns.

LF Dave Collins of Rapid City, South Dakota. Rapid City, the nearest city of any consequence to Mount Rushmore, is 600 miles from Minneapolis, less than 400 miles from Denver, so he qualifies here geographically.

In 1982, George Steinbrenner had suddenly become enamored of speed (and this without having had Billy Martin as manager for over 2 years), and Collins had stolen 209 bases in what amounted to 6 full seasons, including a whopping 79 for the Cincinnati Reds in 1980. So he showed Collins the money: $2.6 million over 3 years. It became one of his biggest mistakes: Collins batted only .253, and stole only 13 bases. The Yankee Stadium boo-birds ripped him mercilessly.

Then George compounded the mistake: After that 1 disastrous season, he traded Collins, Fred McGriff, Mike Morgan and cash to the Toronto Blue Jays for Dale Murray and Tom Dodd. Murray, formerly a good pitcher, was hurt, and won exactly 3 games for the Yankees; Dodd never made the big club, and his entire big-league experience was 2 weeks with the 1986 Baltimore Orioles.

McGriff? Well, you could argue he was only 19 and only in A-ball at the time, and that the Yanks had Don Mattingly coming up. But, as late as 2001, 19 years later, he was still belting out home runs, and Morgan helped the Arizona Diamondbacks beat the Yankees in the World Series. So getting Dave Collins was a big mistake, and getting rid of him may have been a bigger one.

Collins bounced around a bit after that, but in 1984, with the Jays, he led the AL with 15 triples. Three times, he batted over .300, and he stole 395 bases in his career, including 60 with the 1984 Jays, also hitting 15 triples to lead the American League.

CF Mike Devereaux of Casper, Wyoming. Called up to the Los Angeles Dodgers late in their 1988 World Championship season, he didn't play in the postseason, although he won a ring with the 1995 Atlanta Braves and reached the ALCS the next season with the Orioles. He had his best season in 1992 with the Orioles, batting .276 with 29 doubles, 11 triples, 24 homers and 107 runs batted in – the only time he topped .260, 19 homers or 75 ribbies.

RF Darnell McDonald of Greenwood Village. Another position where pickings are slim for this region. I considered moving Collins over to right and putting John Lowenstein in left, as Lowenstein was born in Montana, but he grew up in California, and I felt I'd already cheated too much on this list.

McDonald is currently active, under contract with the Chicago Cubs. The closest he's come to a full season was 2010 with the Red Sox, batting .270 with 9 homers and 34 RBIs. He played 4 games with the Yankees in 2012, coming to the plate 4 times without reaching base. He's 35, so don't expect a resurgence at Wrigley Field.

If I don't go with McDonald, and don't move Collins over, my next-best bet is Denver native Johnny Frederick, who would also be a cheat because he played more center field. He starred in the Pacific Coast League with the Salt Lake City Bees (today's Salt Lake Buzz are named after them) and the Hollywood Stars before reaching the Brooklyn Dodgers at the relatively advanced age of 27, and although the Dodgers were terrible then, he made up for lost time. 

He batted .328 with 24 homers, 75 RBIs and a league-leading 52 doubles in his rookie season of 1929, and was even better the next season with a .334, 44 doubles, 11 triples, 17 homers and 76 RBIs. He dropped off a bit by 1933, and after '34 the Dodgers traded him back to the PCL, where he played for the Sacramento Senators and Portland Beavers, still hitting .306 in 1940, his last season of organized ball at age 38. He is a member of the PCL's Hall of Fame. He died on June 18, 1977, the day of the Reggie-Billy shoutfest in the Fenway dugout.

C John Stearns of Denver. A 4-time All-Star with the Mets, not an easy thing to be between 1977 and 1982 when the NL also had Johnny Bench in Cincinnati, Ted Simmons in St. Louis and Gary Carter in Montreal.

Met broadcasters, including Hall-of-Famer Ralph Kiner, used the damning-with-faint-praise phrase "a good runner for a catcher" to describe Stearns, which drove their broadcast partner, former All-Star catcher Tim McCarver, up the wall. But 4 times, Stearns stole at least 12 bases in a season. He was also a very good defensive catcher with an accurate arm. Offensively, his best season was 1978 – not one of his All-Star seasons – when he batted .264 with 24 doubles, 15 homers, 73 RBIs and 25 steals.

Injuries cut short his career, but he went into coaching, including with the Yankees in 1989. He managed the Double-A Knoxville Blue Jays to the postseason in 1991, and both the Rookie League Princeton Reds of West Virginia and the Arizona Fall League’' Peoria Javelinas to Pennants in 1994. He went home to become part of the Rockies' 1st coaching staff in 1993, and was a Met coach in their Pennant season of 2000. Hooked up to a Fox microphone during Game 1 of the 2000 NLCS, he saw Mike Piazza hit a home run and yelled, "The monster is out of the cage!" He is currently a scout for the Mariners.

SP Howard Ellsworth "Smoky Joe" Wood of Ouray. In 1911, just 21 years old, he went 23-17 for the Red Sox. In 1912, 22, he went 34-5... 37-6 if you count the World Series. He had an ERA of 1.91 and 10 shutouts, including a much-hyped 1-0 victory over Walter Johnson and the Washington Senators on September 6 at then-brand-new Fenway Park. Asked who threw harder, the famously speedy (but equally famously gracious) Johnson said, "Mister, no man alive can throw a ball harder than Joe Wood." Johnson had just had a streak of 16 straight wins stopped, and this was the 14th of Wood's own 16 straight. He helped the Sox win the World Series, and seemed to have a limitless future.

But he was injured in spring training in 1913, and he went "just" 11-5, then 10-3, then 15-5 with a league-leading 1.49 ERA in 1915 as the Red Sox won another World Series. But that was it: Injury kept him from pitching at all in 1916, and in 1917, his former Boston teammate Tris Speaker bought him for the Cleveland Indians. He only pitched 7 games for Cleveland, but became an outfielder, and helped the Indians win a World Series in 1920. He finished with a lifetime batting average of .283. Still, in 1922, at age 32, he was done.

His son Joe Wood Jr. pitched in 3 games for the Red Sox in 1944 -- probably desperation for healthy bodies during World War II as much as a favor for an old friend of the team. Smoky Joe went on to be the head coach at Yale University, and in 1982, in celebration of Fenway's 70th Anniversary, he was invited to throw out the ceremonial first pitch on Opening Day. He died in 1985 at age 95. He is enshrined in the Red Sox Hall of Fame, but there could have been so much more.

In 1981, baseball historians Lawrence S. Ritter, who'd interviewed Wood for his 1966 book The Glory of Their Times, and Donald Honig included him in their book The 100 Greatest Baseball Players of All Time. They explained what they called "the Smoky Joe Wood Syndrome," where a player of truly exceptional talent but a career curtailed by injury should still, in spite of not having had career statistics that would quantitatively rank him with the all-time greats, be included on their list of the 100 greatest players.

They also included Pete Reiser and Herb Score for that reason -- but not Tony Conigliaro or Vida Blue. As another historian, Allen Barra, might put it, it wasn't about who had the 100 best careers, it's about who were the 100 greatest players. If such a book were to be done now (Ritter is dead but Honig is still alive), no doubt it would include Dwight Gooden, and possibly Kerry Wood.

SP Dave McNally of Billings, Montana. Without question, the best player ever to come from Big Sky Country thus far. The lefty was 184-119 lifetime, nearly all for the Orioles, but retired due to injury at age 32. Had he been able to pitch until 40, he could have had 300 wins and gone to the Hall of Fame.  He went the distance in shutting out the Dodgers in Game 4 to sweep the 1966 World Series. He won 87 games for the O's from 1968 to '71, winning Pennants the last 3 seasons. This included a 15-0 start in 1969 and going all the way in a 24-9 season in 1970, 26-9 counting the postseason. One of 3 pitchers to hit 2 home runs in World Series play, and the only one to hit a grand slam in the Series.

He played the 1975 season, his last, without a contract, as he and Andy Messersmith became the test cases to strike down the reserve clause. (He already knew he was in too much pain to pitch again in '76, so he had little to lose.) He's in the Orioles' Hall of Fame, but unfortunately developed cancer and died on his Montana ranch in 2002.

SP Bruce Hurst of St. George, Utah. He won 145 games, all but 2 for either the Red Sox or the San Diego Padres. In 1986, the scoreboard at Shea Stadium congratulated the Sox on winning the World Series and Hurst for being named Series MVP, for winning Games 2 and 5. You know what happened next, but a rain delay allowed Hurst to start Game 7, and he had the lead in the 5th...

He was 14-9 for the 1992 Padres, just 34 years old, but injuries struck him down and he pitched just 13 more games in the majors. He is now working in the Sox' front office, and, like Wood, is a member of their team Hall of Fame.

SP Tom Browning of Casper, Wyoming. This lefty was good. On September 16, 1988, he was perfect, pitching a perfect game for the Cincinnati Reds against the Dodgers. He was 18-5 that season. In 1990, he went 15-9 and won a game in both the NLCS and the World Series as the Reds became World Champions. On May 9, 1994, he broke his arm in mid-pitch. He was only 34, and only pitched 2 more games before realizing he couldn't go on. (I'm sensing a pattern here.) His 123 wins were, however, good enough to get him into the Reds' Hall of Fame.

SP Harry Leroy Halladay III of Arvada. This is what Roy -- or "Doc," a play on Wild West gunfighter and dentist John "Doc" Holliday, who lived much of his life in Colorado -- did for the Blue Jays: 148-76, 133 ERA+, 1.198 WHIP, had 2 20-win seasons and just missed a 3rd.

Can you imagine if the Jays had been any good, and could have backed him up with the kind of hitting that the Yankees and Red Sox had at the time? Only once during his time there did they manage to even come close to cracking the AL East's New York-Boston buzzsaw, finishing 2nd in 2006 -- and while they were ahead of the Sox, they were nowhere near the Yankees.

After the 2009 season, short on cash, the Jays traded him to the Phillies, where he went 40-17 for them the next 2 years, including a perfect game in the 2010 regular season and a no-hitter in the NL Division Series against the Reds -- only the 2nd postseason no-hitter ever.

But, like Wood, McNally, Hurst and Browning, the injury bug struck. He retired at the end of last season, only 36, and what could have been a Hall of Fame career ended with him having a record of 203-105, an ERA+ of 131, and a WHIP of 1.178. He was an 8-time All-Star, won a Cy Young Award in each league, and finished in the top 3 in the Cy voting 6 times.

Honorable Mention to Elden Auker of Norcatur, Kansas. Until Halladay started racking up achievements, he would have been a good choice for this rotation. He had a "submarine delivery" (think Kent Tekulve or Dan Quisenberry) that enabled him to win 130 games in just 10 seasons, including 33 for the Tiger Pennant-winners of 1934 and '35.

However, unlike Wood, McNally, Hurst, Browning and McNally, he didn't quit when he did due to injury: He "retired" at age 31 due to World War II, and found a better-paying civilian job in a defense-necessary industry. Today, that would never happen: Never mind that there's little chance of there being another World War anytime soon, but a civilian job that pays more than playing baseball?

As one of the last surviving players from the 1930s, he gave an interview for Major League Baseball Productions that was used for the official All-Century Team video, the American League 100th Anniversary TV special, and a few YES Network Yankeeographies. In 1999, he participated in the closing ceremonies of Tiger Stadium. In 2001, he published a memoir, Sleeper Cars and Flannel Uniforms. He died in 2006, age 95, the same age as Smoky Joe, and like him he was sharp to the end.

RP Richard Michael Gossage of Colorado Springs. Of all the amazing things about the Goose, this might be the most amazing: When he reached the majors in April 1972, the MLB Players Association had just ended its 1st strike; when he last pitched in the majors in August 1994, the most recent strike was about to begin; so he is the only player to be involved in every MLB work stoppage. I hope there's never another one, with his involvement being the least of the reasons.

A 9-time All-Star, he had 310 saves, 3 times leading the AL. The Chicago White Sox tried to make him a starter in 1976, but he went 9-17 for a bad Pale Hose team. The White Sox traded him to the Pittsburgh Pirates, and he had a terrific season, leading the Yankees to sign him as a free agent for the 1978 season, and the rest is history. That season, he became the 1st man ever to nail down the final outs of a Division title clincher, an LCS and a World Series.

He returned to the Series with the Yankees in 1981 and the San Diego Padres in 1984, although he didn't win either time. After a bit of a wait, he has been elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame, although the Yankees have not yet honored him with a Monument Park Plaque or the retirement of his Number 54. Another strange thing about the Goose: Although he pitched for 9 different teams, he never wore any other number.

The Rockies were not among the teams for whom he pitched. I hoped that they would pick him up in 1994, and let him pitch the final inning at Mile High Stadium, which, including its beginnings as Bears Stadium, was the home of professional baseball in Denver since 1948. Alas, the strike prevented that from happening. I did find a picture of him wearing a Rockies uniform -- not sure when, or in what role -- but I decided that he was the best player ever to come from Colorado, and that the best picture to post of him was a typical shot of him looking fearsome as he completed his delivery.

Honorable Mention to Felix "Tippy" Martinez of La Junta. The lefthander helped the Orioles win the 1979 Pennant and the 1983 World Series. He's best known for picking off 3 runners in one inning, and as far as I know he is the only man to do that.

He is no relation to his Oriole teammate, the Nicaraguan-born righthander Dennis Martinez, although they did both have typically annoying 1970s-style hair, and Dennis started and Tippy finished the Thurman Munson Memorial Game against the Yankees on August 6, 1979. That game was all the more poignant because the Orioles' catcher was Rick Dempsey, and he and Tippy were among the players the Yankees traded to the O's in 1976 to get the pitchers that ensured that year's Pennant: Ken Holtzman, Doyle Alexander and Grant Jackson.

MGR Herman Franks of Price, Utah. There's not a lot to choose from in the Rocky Mountain States-born managers, but Franks did guide the San Francisco Giants to 4 straight 2nd-place finishes from 1965 to '68 -- 2 games out in '65 and a game and a half out in '66. He even kept the Cubs in the race for most of the '77 season before tailing off and finishing at .500, and got them to 3rd in '78 although they finished below .500.

But, thanks to the publication of Josuha Prager's book The Echoing Green, he's probably best known as the Giants' coach who, in 1951, while still in New York, sat in the "blockhouse" that housed the Giants' offices and the clubhouses in center field of the Polo Grounds, and looked through a window and a telescope to steal opposing catchers' signs, and relayed them back to the hitter, thus helping the Jints "cheat" and "steal" the Pennant from the arch-rival Brooklyn Dodgers.

R.I.P. Addie Joss & Eddie Joost, and A.J. Goes to 3-0

There was a scary moment in last night's game between the Philadelphia Phillies and the Washington Nationals at Nationals Park.

Roy Halladay was pitching for the Phils, normally a fear-reducer for Delaware Valley baseball fans. In the bottom of the 4th, Danny Espinosa hit a grounder up the middle, breaking his bat. The bat flew toward Halladay, and he was just able to deflect it with his glove.

He finished the game, beating the Nats 3-2, but he could have been killed.

Imagine that. A man who is arguably the best pitcher in baseball, going down while still in his prime. Not like Roberto Clemente, who was 38 and already showing a slight sign of decline when his plane crashed. Not like Thurman Munson, who was 32 but constantly injured with few tomorrows and lot of yesterdays even if he'd landed safely. Not like Lyman Bostock, who was 27 and just beginning to show what he could do when he was shot and killed.

The best pitcher in baseball? A man who had never won a Pennant but was expected to lead his team to one soon? A man who had pitched a perfect game? A man almost universally admired? Dying at this point in his career?

ESPN would have flogged the story for days. The Internet would be inundated with posts.

It actually happened. Not to Halladay, but exactly 100 years ago today. And it's chilling that what almost happened to Halladay came almost on the anniversary.

On April 14, 1911, Adrian "Addie" Joss of Woodland, Wisconsin, died of tubercular meningitis, a disease that had already been misdiagnosed as pleurisy, and untreatable by the medicine of the time. He had just turned 31.

How good was Addie Joss? He had pitched 9 seasons in the major leagues, all for the team then known as the Cleveland Naps, in honor of their 2nd baseman/manager, Napoleon Lajoie, nicknamed Nap (for short), the Frenchman (for his ancestry) or Larry (I don't know why). In 1915, they would become the Indians, probably in reference to the defending World Champions, the Boston Braves, rather than to the Native Americans who once lived on the shores of Lake Erie, or 1890s Cleveland Spiders star Louis Sockalexis, a Penobscot who was (probably) the first indigenous American to play in the majors.

Joss, a righthander of Scandinavian descent and a graduate of the University of Wisconsin, was 6-foot-3, really tall for the time (at 6-foot-1, Christy Mathewson was nicknamed "Big Six"), and at 185 pounds, was thin for that height. This combined with his whiplash pitching motion, got him a great nickname: The Human Hairpin. A century later, some idiot would have tagged him "A-Jo."

His last minor-league season was in Toledo, Ohio, and he continued to make his home there in the off-season, a good move since it was just 115 miles from Cleveland and a relatively quick and easy train trip. He even wrote a sports column for a local newspaper, the Toledo News-Bee. (Don't laugh: Sacramento's main paper is called the Bee, and the current only daily paper in Toledo is called the Blade.)

When Joss debuted in 1902, he was 22 and went 17-13. Not a bad debut in the Dead Ball Era. In 1904, he led the American League in ERA for the first time, at 1.59. In 1905, he won 20 for the first time. In 1907, he went 27-11 with a 1.83 ERA.

In 1908, he had an annus mirabilis, going 24-11, his ERA just 1.16, his ERA+ was 206 (making him 106 percent better than the average pitcher, so he wasn't just taking advantage of the conditions of the time), and on October 2, 1908, he won what is probably the greatest pitchers' duel ever, tossing a perfect game to defeat the Chicago White Sox, in spite of Big Ed Walsh striking out 15, an AL record that would stand for 26 years. This came in a hard-fought 3-way Pennant race, although both the Naps and the ChiSox were edged by the Detroit Tigers. In 1910, he pitched a 2nd no-hitter, also against the White Sox, making him the 1st, and still the only, pitcher to no-hit the same team twice.

But something was wrong. In 1909, he fell to 14-13, and his ERA rose to 1.76. In 1910, he only appeared in 13 games, going 5-5 with a 2.26 -- still a 115 ERA+, not that anybody would have been aware of the statistic of ERA+ at the time, but a significant downgrade. Was it the illness, already manifesting itself? Doesn't look like it; the only reference I can find to the cause of his comparatively poor season is at BaseballLibrary.com (yes, that's 3 straight L's, sort of like a typical Met homestand), which says, "he was plagued by arm injuries."

On April 7, 1911, shortly before the season began, he was already sick. According to Wikipedia, press reports speculated about "ptomaine poisoning" or "nervous indigestion." Indigestion? Maybe. Nervous? Addie Joss? Not a chance. But a week later, on April 14, he died. With modern antibiotics, tubercular meningitis could be treated and cured. In 1911? He never had a chance.

On July 24, 1911, a benefit game was played at League Park in Cleveland, for the Joss family. This is not counted as an official All-Star Game, and it was only American Leaguers, no National Leaguers -- the Indians hosting players from the other 7 teams then in the AL -- but it was the first real all-star gathering in the game's history. (Correction: There was a similar gathering in Pittsburgh in 1902.)

There were 2 New York Highlanders (Yankees) in the game: The shady 1st baseman/manager Hal Chase, and pitcher Russ Ford (no relation to Whitey). Despite threats from AL President Ban Johnson and the team owners, who didn't want money going to families of ballplayers even if that money did not already belong to the owners, the game was played, and the All-Stars won, 5-3.

The game raised $12,914 -- and that, as sports historian Bert Randolph Sugar would say, was in Taft dollars. It would be about $300,000 in today's money. Baseball-Almanac.com has a link to this historic contest.

Overall, Joss went 160-97. His ERA of 1.89 is the 2nd-lowest in baseball history, given enough innings to qualify, trailing only his 1908 co-duelist, Ed Walsh, at 1.82. His ERA+ is 142 -- meaning, for 9 full seasons, he was, on the average, 42 percent better at preventing earned runs than the average pitcher. His career WHIP (Walks & Hits, divided by Innings Pitched) is 0.968, and that's the all-time record, not that anybody knew about that stat in 1911, either. He pitched 45 shutouts in those 9 seasons.

And therein lay a problem: When the Baseball Hall of Fame was established, once pioneers like Harry & George Wright and Al Spalding were taken care of, they had a rule that a player had to have played 10 seasons in order to qualify for election. Joss died on the eve of his 10th season. If he had lived just a few more days, and had thrown so much as 1 pitch in an official 1911 game, he would have qualified.

In 1978, the Hall's Committee on Veterans decided that it wasn't his fault that he didn't get into a game in his 10th season, and bent the rule this one time, and elected Joss.

Could he have pitched in today's game? I don't see why not: His home field, League Park, had a right field wall whose foul pole was just 290 feet from home plate. It was topped with a 50-foot wall, but that didn't stop a lot of homers (Babe Ruth's 500th would go over that wall in 1929), and it certainly didn't stop a lot of hits caroming off it for extra bases. He walked 364 batters -- in his entire 9-year career. Coupled with 1,888 hits and just 58 hit batsmen in 2,327 innings, he averaged under 1 baserunner per inning (.9927).

That, ladies and gentlemen and combinations thereof, is control. And, as his contemporary, Philadelphia Athletics pitcher Albert "Chief" Bender (a Chippewa who nonetheless did not pitch for the Indians), taught, "A pitcher who hasn't control hasn't anything."

There is almost certainly no one left alive who saw Addie Joss pitch. But 100 years later, he deserves to be remembered.

*

The similarly-named Eddie Joost died on Tuesday. A shortstop, and a member of that amazing generation of ballplayers produced by San Francisco in the 1920s and '30s, including the DiMaggio brothers, he won an NL Pennant in 1939 and a World Series in 1940 with the Cincinnati Reds, before becoming a 1952 All-Star, the last leadoff hitter, and the last manager of the Philadelphia Athletics before their move to Kansas City after the 1954 season, his only season as a big-league manager.

In 2003, when the Oakland version of the A's came to play the Phillies in their 1st series in Philadelphia in 49 years, I was on hand to see the 1st game. Prior to that game, a few surviving A's were there, including Joost, Gus Zernial (who died this past January), Bobby Schantz (1952 AL MVP), Joe Astroth and Spook Jacobs. The Phillies fans, not generally known for their hospitality, and a few old guys who remembered the A's not just in the early Fifties when those guys played but even in their 1929-31 mini-dynasty, gave them a good hand.

Eddie Joost, Philadelphia's other Number 1, along with Richie Ashburn, was the last living player who had played at Baker Bowl, where the Phillies played from 1887 to 1938 before moving to share Shibe Park (later renamed Connie Mack Stadium) with the A's. He was also the last survivor of the 1940 World Champion Reds. He was 94 years old.

Currently, the oldest living former major leaguer is, as far as can be determined, Connie Marrero, part of the 1950s Washington Senators' Cuban connection, who will turn 100 if he makes it to August 11 of this year. Clarence "Ace" Parker, who played both Major League Baseball and in the NFL with the football version of the Brooklyn Dodgers, and is the oldest living member of any sport's Hall of Fame (Pro Football), is 98.

I think -- if I'm wrong, feel free to correct me -- the earliest World Champion, with the death of 1940's Eddie Joost and last year of Tommy Henrich (1937, '38, '39, '41, '47, '49 and '50), is Stan "the Man" Musial, whose first full season was with the 1942 World Champion St. Louis Cardinals.

*

Back to the present, or at least the immediate past. Last night, the Yankees beat the Baltimore Orioles, 7-4. A.J. Burnett (3-0) pitched shutout ball for 6 innings, but got into trouble in the 7th, allowing 4 runs, before David Robertson, who has wisely chosen to stop driving me crazy, bailed him out. Rafael Soriano pitched a scoreless 8th, and Mariano Rivera did the same in the 9th for his 5th save of the season, the 564th of his career, leaving him just 37 short of Trevor Hoffman's career record. His ERA for the season is still 0.00.

Alex Rodriguez hit a 3-run opposite-field blast, his 617th career home run. Jorge Posada also homered, his 265th. Derek Jeter went 2-for-4, bringing his career hit total to 2,935. Chris Tillman was the losing pitcher for Baltimore (0-1).

As suggested (not promised) last night, I intend, later today, to post the Top 10 New York Postseason Wins Over Boston.

Way to go, Washington Capitals. Alexander Semin scored the overtime winner for them last night, in Game 1 of their NHL Eastern Conference Quarterfinal matchup with The Scum at the Verizon Center in D.C. The assist? Former Devils Stanley Cup hero Jason Arnott. He still hates the Rangers.

As do I. Have I ever mentioned that the Rangers suck?

Yanks Keep It Alive, and Still Shouldn't Fear Lee

Yankees 7, Rangers 2. The Yankees keep it going, and Game 6 will be tomorrow night in Arlington, Texas.

CC Sabathia pitched out of trouble, and Nick Swisher and Robinson Cano hit back-to-back homers.

Here's the key: In his 1st 5 1/3 innings, before getting the last 2 outs in the top of the 6th, CC allowed 11 hits -- but no walks. Add 2 innings of Kerry Wood (who has really rebounded nicely from injury oblivion with the Cubs, first as a Cleveland Indian and now as a Yankee) and 1 of Mariano Rivera, and the Yankees allowed a turbulent 13 hits, but no walks, and just 2 runs (in a hitter's park). In other words, CC bent but didn't break, and the bullpen was masterful. In contrast, the Ranger pitchers allowed 9 hits and 6 walks, and the Yankees made the most of it.

The Yankees still need to win 2 games on the road to win their 41st Pennant. The Rangers only need to win 1 out of 2 at home to win their 1st Pennant.

Game 6's starting pitchers will be Phil Hughes against Colby Lewis. If the Yanks keep it going, Game 7 will be Andy Pettitte against Sandy Koufax. Excuse me, Cliff Lee.

The media is already turning Lee into this generation's Koufax. Even though tonight, in Game 5 of the NLCS, there's a dandy matchup, a rematch of Game 1, as Tim Lincecum hopes to close it out for the San Francisco Giants, against Roy Halladay trying to keep it alive for the 2-time defending NL Champion Philadelphia Phillies.

Both the Freak and Doc have had better careers than Lee. Check this out:

* Harry Leroy Halladay. Hometown, Arvada, Colorado, outside Denver. Current age, 33 years old. Career won-lost record, 169-86. Winning percentage, .663. ERA+, 136. WHIP, 1.181. Strikeouts, 1,714. 7 All-Star berths. 1 Cy Young Award, just missed another, could get another this season. Baseball-Reference.com's Hall of Fame Monitor, where a "Likely HOFer" is at 100, he's already at 101. B-R's Hall of Fame Standards, which is more geared toward career totals, and the "Average HOFer" is at 50, he's at 39. Already sounds likely to make the Hall, barring an ethical calamity. Nor should we hope for a medical calamity.

* Timothy LeRoy Lincecum. (Same middle name, just about.) Renton, Washington, outside Seattle. Age, 26. Record only 56-27, but a .675 percentage. ERA+, 142. WHIP, 1.182. Strikeouts, 907. 3 All-Star berths. 2 Cy Young Awards. HOF Monitor, 44. HOF Standards, 28. Far from making it, but at the rate he's going, I wouldn't bet against him.

* Clifton Phifer Lee. Benton, Arkansas, outside Little Rock. Age, 32. 102-61, 46 wins behind Halladay at the same age. Percentage, .626 -- really good, but nowhere near Halladay or Lincecum. ERA+, 112, good but well below the other 2. WHIP, 1.256, ibid. Strikeouts, 1,085, ibid. 2 All-Star berths, 1 Cy Young but no other top-3 finishes yet. HOF Monitor, 42. HOF Standards, 19. Both lower than Lincecum despite being 6 years older.

And let's not forget: This season, Halladay was 21-10, 2.44 -- despite pitching in a hitter's park. Lincecum was 16-10, 3.43, though that ERA is a bit high in a pitcher's park, but it was in the NL. Lee? Between Seattle (pitcher's park) and Texas (hitter's park), was 12-9, 3.18 -- and since he joined Texas, 4-6, 3.98.

Suddenly, Lee doesn't look so superhuman, does he?

In all fairness, career stats don't tell a full story. (Ironically.) From age 25 to 33 (currently), Halladay has been one of the best pitchers in the game. Lincecum became a star at 24 and at 26 is fabulous. Lee had his 1st full season at 25 and was good, was sensational at 26, was awful at 27 (ironically, his 1st trip to the postseason, and did not appear in the ALDS against the Yankees or the ALCS against the Red Sox), then was great at 29, but at 30 and 31 (turned 32 this August), was good -- not great, not even very good, just good.

Over his last 2 regular seasons, he's been 26-22. His ERA, 3.20. So he's probably been a better pitcher than his record suggests (especially since the Indians and Mariners currently stink), but he's also pitched for the Phils and Rangers, and is only a combined 11-10 and 2.72 with them. Good, but not great.

So what gives? Lee's postseason numbers. He's 7-0, 1.26. Compare that to Whitey Ford, 10-8, 2.71. Sandy Koufax, 4-3 (nothing special there), 0.95 (well beyond special -- only Mariano's is better). Bob Gibson, 7-2, 1.89. Catfish Hunter, 9-6, 3.26. Ron Guidry, 5-2. 3.02. Randy Johnson, 7-9, 3.50. (Yikes.) And Curt Schilling, arguably the greatest Yankee Killer ever to take a mound, 11-2, 2.23.

Then there is Lee's prospective Game 7 opponent. Andrew Eugene Pettitte. Deer Park, Texas, outside Houston. Age, 38. 240-138, .635, higher than Lee's. ERA+, 117, higher than Lee's. WHIP, 1.357, significantly higher than Lee's. Strikeouts, 2,251, though that's not especially relevant, since he hasn't specialized in them. No Cy Young Awards (1 2nd-place), but 3 All-Star berths, which is 1 more than Lee, and look at the ages when he got those berths: 24, 29 and 38. Pretty impressive. HOF Monitor, 122, almost 3 times Lee's. HOF Standards, 42, equal to Lee's HOF Monitor score. Chances are pretty good he'll go to the Hall of Fame, regardless of whether he ever throws another pitch -- and, if the Yanks lose Game 6, he might not, as many people think he'll retire after this season.

Which brings me to the key point that the Yankees still have to get to Game 7 first, by winning Game 6. If Lee wins Game 7, then he becomes one of the all-time big names in baseball, regardless of his career record. But if Pettitte wins Game 7, they'd better get his Monument Park Plaque ready, because he could very well retire a Pennant winner (and maybe also a World Champion).

Anyway, this series has already been very interesting. And it could turn into an epic.

Halladay vs. Lincecum wasn't all that good a match in Game 1. It could be a great one tonight in Game 5, and if the Phils win it, then the next 2 are in Philly and I think they'll take it, and add another chapter to Giant fans' misery. But if the Phils can't touch Lincecum, then the Giants win only their 4th Pennant since moving to San Francisco, and they just might get that Team of Destiny aura around them and believe they can go all the way for the first time since Willie made The Catch early in the Ike Age.

Wow, that last Giant crown was so long ago, the Phillies weren't the only MLB team in Philadelphia. Not to mention the fact that the Series, and the season, ended on October 2. Today is October 21, and, for the moment, neither Pennant has been won.