Hall of Fame Weekend is drawing close — just seven weeks away — but few baseball fans seem to be excited.
Their apathy is understandable. This year’s two inductees, Fred McGriff and Scott Rolen, both had nice careers and impressive stats (McGriff’s 493 home runs, Rolen’s eight Gold Gloves), but neither was a superstar or a major box-office attraction.
Cooperstown, as a result, won’t be as crowded this year as it was for Cal Ripken Jr. and Tony Gwynn in 2007, Ken Griffey Jr. in 2016, or Mariano Rivera in 2019.
The Ripken/Gwynn crowd was especially large, with 82,000 fans jamming the ceremony, a throng roughly 40 times larger than Cooperstown’s listed population at the time (2,032).
Ripken entered the hall with a quality score of 64 points, slotting him in the excellent classification, while Gwynn’s QS of 49 put him in the good category. The average of 56.5 points for 2007’s inductees was the highest QS for any multi-player class in 15 years. Hence the crowd.
The Class of 2023 is considerably lower on the quality-score scale. McGriff (QS of 37) and Rolen (34) both sit near the bottom of the marginal category. Their average of 35.5 points is the lowest for any multi-player group of inductees since 2006.
Six other Hall of Fame classes were remarkably similar to 2023’s. Each featured at least two inductees, and each had an average QS within a single point of this year’s average. Scroll below to read their stories.
Cooperstown at the Crossroads
Read about the Hall of Fame’s checkered history (and uncertain future)
1961 (average QS: 36.5 points)
Nothing about Max Carey’s record stamped him as a Hall of Famer. Not his weak quality score of 24 points, not his pedestrian batting average of .285 (the equivalent of just .267 at 2011-2020 levels), and certainly not his complete lack of power (70 career home runs).
The Baseball Writers’ Association of America initially showed little interest in Carey, giving him less than 3 percent support in every election between 1937 and 1947. There was no minimum threshold of 5 percent in those days, so Carey’s bandwagon had ample time to gather momentum. He inexplicably clawed his way into the writers’ top 10 by 1954, then to seventh place in 1955 and 1956, and finally — miracle of miracles — all the way to first place (though far short of 75 percent) in 1958, his last year of BBWAA eligibility.
This phoenix-like rise virtually guaranteed Carey’s eventual induction, and the Veterans Committee did its duty in 1961, electing him on its first ballot, then adding 19th-century speedster Billy Hamilton (QS of 49) on its second pass.
1963 (35.5 points)
The BBWAA didn’t hold an election in 1963, so the full load again fell on the Veterans Committee, which responded with four inductions.
Pitcher John Clarkson, who had died in 1909, was clearly overdue with a QS of 56 points. The others — outfielders Elmer Flick and Sam Rice and pitcher Eppa Rixey — were debatable choices at best. Their quality scores ranged between 24 and 31 points, far below the average of 51.8 points for the 75 players already enshrined in Cooperstown.
The 71-year-old Rixey, who had retired 30 years earlier, joked about the obscurity into which he had descended by 1963. “They selected me to the hall?” he asked with a chuckle. “They’re really scraping the bottom of the barrel, aren’t they?” Rixey was reported to be in good health when elected, but he suffered a fatal heart attack just 32 days later.
1984 (36.0 points)
We’ve already discussed the strangest choice made by the Veterans Committee in 1984. Catcher Rick Ferrell had a quality score of just nine points, putting him far below the threshold of 30 points that would have made him a marginal selection and even farther from the 60-point line that defines excellence.
The controversy over the committee’s other selection was considerably more intense. Rumors had been swirling that a pair of postwar shortstops would be admitted simultaneously in 1984. Pee Wee Reese of the Brooklyn Dodgers received the expected call, but Phil Rizzuto of the New York Yankees was left outside.
Several indicators gave Reese a decided edge over Rizzuto, including quality score (33 vs. 15), All-Star Game appearances (10 vs. five), and peak support in a BBWAA election (47.9 percent vs. 38.4 percent). Yet the New York press showed no interest in facts, preferring to bellow its indignation.
The BBWAA chipped in with three choices in 1984 — Luis Aparicio (QS of 31), Harmon Killebrew (56), and Don Drysdale (51) — and all were safe and popular by comparison. But the year’s five inductees still had an unimpressive average score of 36.0, largely because of Ferrell’s inclusion.
1986 (35.7 points)
Ted Williams didn’t wait calmly for other people to take the lead. The self-proclaimed “greatest hitter who ever lived” once admitted (with considerable understatement) that “I have never been regarded especially as a man with great patience.”
Williams brought his take-charge attitude to the Veterans Committee in 1986, where his first self-appointed task was securing Bobby Doerr’s admission to the hall.
Doerr had joined the Boston Red Sox in 1937 — two years prior to Williams — and remained a fixture at second base up to 1951. His quality score of 29 points was uncompelling, but his teammate lobbied strenuously on his behalf. “We never had a captain [in Boston], but Bobby was the silent captain of the team,” Williams said emphatically. His fellow committee members acquiesced.
The panel’s other choice, catcher Ernie Lombardi, carried an even weaker score (19 points) despite having won National League batting titles in 1938 and 1942. That made 1986 the fifth year — and, up to now, the final year — in which the committee selected at least two candidates whose average QS was worse than 25 points.
No voices were raised against the BBWAA’s election of 1986 third inductee, powerful first baseman Willie McCovey (QS of 59), who cleared the 75 percent threshold with 27 votes to spare. He raised 1986’s average score to 35.7 points.
2001 (35.0 points)
Check back a couple of weeks for my discussion of the controversial induction of Bill Mazeroski (11 points).
The other members of the Class of 2001 came with quality scores that were considerably more impressive — Dave Winfield (49), Hilton Smith (also 49), and Kirby Puckett (31). But Maz pulled the average for the group down to 35.0.
2022 (35.2 points)
Seven honorees were added to the Hall of Fame in 2022: David Ortiz by the BBWAA; Bud Fowler, Gil Hodges, Jim Kaat, Minnie Minoso, Buck O’Neil, and Tony Oliva by two Era Committees. The class of 2022 was the largest since the admission of 17 Negro leaguers and Bruce Sutter in 2006.
Fowler and O’Neil were admitted in the “pioneer/executive” category, which lies beyond the bounds of the quality-score system. Ortiz posted the highest score of the other five honorees, 52 points, followed by Minoso at 47, Kaat at 36, Oliva at 26, and Hodges at 15.
Cooperstown’s stage was much more crowded two years ago than it will be next month, what with seven inductees in 2022, as opposed to just McGriff and Rolen in 2024. But the average scores were virtually identical — 35.2 points two years ago, 35.5 this year.