You could make a stronger Hall of Fame case for Wes Ferrell than for his older brother. Not a great case, mind you, but definitely a better one.
Wes pitched 15 seasons (1927-1941) for six clubs, primarily the Cleveland Indians. Rick caught for three teams between 1929 and 1947, spending eight years apiece with the St. Louis Browns and Washington Senators. Here’s how they stacked up:
Wes was a workhorse who topped the American League in complete games four times and innings pitched three times. His 25 wins in 1935 also led the league. Rick never ranked first in the AL in any offensive category.
Wes placed eighth in balloting for 1934’s Most Valuable Player Award, then finished second to Hank Greenberg in the subsequent MVP contest. The latter trophy rightfully should have been his. Wes piled up 10.6 wins above replacement in 1935. No other AL player exceeded 8.8 WAR, and Greenberg ranked sixth at 7.5. Rick never landed among the top 10 vote-getters in any season.
Wes ranked in the top 20 percent of all American League pitchers between 1931 and 1935, as determined by my five-year statistical rankings. Rick didn’t even make it as high as the top 60 percent of the league’s batters in any half-decade.
The Baseball Writers’ Association of America wasn’t overly impressed with either sibling, though it gave an edge to the younger brother. Wes picked up a grand total of 27 Hall of Fame votes from the writers between 1948 and 1962. Rick received three votes in all — single tallies in 1956, 1958, and 1960.
So what did the hall’s Veterans Committee do in 1984? It ignored Wes and elected Rick Ferrell to Cooperstown.
Sportswriters were stunned by the announcement. “He had not been rumored as a strong candidate,” wrote Jack Lang in the Sporting News. “But he is a man who exudes class, and his inclusion in the Cooperstown shrine will be greeted warmly by everyone in baseball.”
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Did Rick Ferrell deserve such an effusive welcome in Cooperstown? Of course not. His quality score of nine points was obviously insufficient. Anybody with a QS lower than 30 is a poor candidate for induction.
Yet the Veterans Committee — 12 old guys in a tiny room — ignored reams of statistics, the BBWAA’s previous verdicts, and common sense. Its election of Ferrell was the latest in its string of bizarre choices.
But let’s not stop there.
Rick Ferrell isn’t the only catcher with a microscopic QS to be enshrined in the Hall of Fame’s plaque gallery. Nor was he the first.
The latter distinction belongs to Roger Bresnahan, who played from 1897 to 1915 for five clubs, primarily the New York Giants.
Bresnahan wasn’t the most durable player — he appeared in more than 120 games only twice in his career — nor was he particularly effective at the plate. He led the National League in just two offensive categories, one season apiece for walks and being hit by pitches. His QS was 12 points.
Sympathy played a role in his induction. The Old-Timers Committee — the equally inept predecessor to the Veterans Committee — met just four months after Bresnahan died in December 1944. The hall has always had a soft spot for the recently deceased.
Unusual factors also proved to be instrumental. The first thing mentioned on Bresnahan’s plaque was that he caught the immortal Christy Mathewson. (John Roseboro caught a pair of Hall of Famers, Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale, yet he never received a vote from the BBWAA. The Bresnahan precedent suggests that he deserves another chance.) Committee members also made much of Bresnahan’s 1907 invention of shinguards for catchers, whatever that was worth.
And then there’s the case of Ray Schalk.
Schalk hit only .253 in his 18-year career as a catcher, mostly with the Chicago White Sox. His batting average was the lowest for any position player in the hall — then or now — and his quality score of 10 points was second-lowest at the time of his induction to Tommy McCarthy’s single point.
Cynics suggested that Schalk was chosen in 1955 as a reward for being one of the Clean Sox who steered clear of the fixing of the 1919 World Series. Could that possibly have been the reason? Nobody on the Veterans Committee ever explained.
Schalk was gratified, yet he acknowledged the incongruity of his election. He reacted in shock when he received the phone call of notification, uttering a single sentence. “You’ve taken my breath away,” he said.
HOF box score: Rick Ferrell
Career: 1929-1947
Teams: Boston (American League), St. Louis (AL), Washington (AL)
Primary position: C
Career stats: G 1,884, HR 28, RBI 734, BA .281
League leader: (none)
Quality score: 9 points (poor)
Selected to HOF: 1984
Selected by: Veterans Committee
HOF box score: Roger Bresnahan
Career: 1897-1915
Teams: Baltimore (American League), Chicago (National League), New York (NL), St. Louis (NL), Washington (NL)
Primary position: C
Career stats: G 1,446, HR 26, RBI 530, BA .279
League leader: BB once, HBP once
Quality score: 12 points (poor)
Selected to HOF: 1945
Selected by: Old-Timers Committee
HOF box score: Ray Schalk
Career: 1912-1929
Teams: Chicago (American League), New York (National League)
Primary position: C
Career stats: G 1,762, HR 11, RBI 593, BA .253
League leader: (none)
Quality score: 10 points (poor)
Selected to HOF: 1955
Selected by: Veterans Committee