Inns Cooperstown
What about Orel Hershiser and Hall of Fame?
I’m surprised that Orel Hershiser was eliminated from Hall of Fame eligibility after only his second year of voting. His first year he had 11.2% of the vote, but his second year he was down to 4.4% of the vote. He lost 34 votes between his first and second years of eligibility. Why would there be such a rapid decline from one year to the next? Did voters really decide their first vote for him was a mistake? I still find it remarkable that he was able to break Drysdale’s scoreless inning streak. What do you think? Was Hershiser just underrated? Would you have voted to enshrine him in Cooperstown?
Hershiser is not quite a Hall of Fame caliber pitcher. He showed great promise in his first five or six years, and he picked it up again in his later years, but there was a long stretch of his career (1990-1994) where he wasn’t one of the game’s top pitchers. To be in the HOF, a player has to dominate the game for a long stretch of time. Hershiser dominated in the late 80s (especially ’88), but other than that he was just an above average pitcher.
Baseball-Reference.com gives him a Hall of Fame Monitor score of 90. By their measurement, a player is likely to be a HOFer if his score is above 100. Hershiser comes close, but he does not make the cut. Really, if he had done anything at all in the early 90′s, I think he’d be in the Hall already.
The rapid decline in his vote could be due to the toughness of the Hall of Fame class. If there more good HOF candidates last year, the judges would have to split their votes. I don’t think they felt the first vote was a mistake; some of them might have just felt that Hershiser had no chance and decided to vote for somebody else.
The Meadowlark Inn, Cooperstown, NY