Gil McDougald for the Hall of Fame. Hey, higher WAR than Harold Baines in half the time.

Gil McDougald is a good test case for those who want to elect all sorts of former players to the Hall of Fame. Cooperstown justice as they say on MLB Network.

McDougald played exactly ten seasons 1951-1960, all for the New York Yankees. All but the tenth were full and even in 1960 McDougald played in 119 games with 387 plate appearances (PA). Remember, they played only 154 games in those years, not the 162 that began in 1961. So 477 PA was about equivalent to the 502 now required to qualify for leading the league in an average statistic.

McDougald was an all star at three infield positions:
3B 1952
2B 1955, 1958, 1959
SS 1956, 1957

In 1956 McDougald replaced retiring Hall of Fame shortstop Phil Rizzuto. Without McDougald the Yankees probably would not have won the championship in 1956 even with the triple crown season by Mickey Mantle.

OPS+:
Gil McDougald 111
Derek Jeter 115 OK, Jeter had 12,602 PA to McDougald's 5,398.

For those of you into WAR (Wins Above Replacement) McDougald had 40.7, an average of four wins per season. McDougald had a positive number all ten seasons for:
WAR
oWAR
dWAR

WAR tops:
1955 5.1
1956 5.1
1957 5.8

McDougald career WAR 40.7 was higher than recently elected Harold Baines (38.7) in 11,092 PA.  It's also higher than several other Hall of Fame players and almost dead even with Rizzuto. WAR is a total and most of those others played much more than McDougald. Hall of Fame, PA at least 4,800 since 1903:

k	Player	WAR/pos	PA	From	To	Age	G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	IBB	SO	HBP	SH	SF	GDP	SB	CS	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	Pos	Tm
1	Phil Rizzuto	40.8	6719	1941	1956	23-38	1661	5816	877	1588	239	62	38	563	651	1	398	49	193	2	107	149	58	.273	.351	.355	.706	*6/H4	NYY
2	Hack Wilson	38.9	5556	1923	1934	23-34	1348	4760	884	1461	266	67	244	1063	674		713	20	102		15	52	5	.307	.395	.545	.940	*879/H4	NYG-CHC-BRO-PHI
3	Harold Baines	38.7	11092	1980	2001	21-42	2830	9908	1299	2866	488	49	384	1628	1062	187	1441	14	9	99	298	34	34	.289	.356	.465	.820	*D9H/87	CHW-TEX-OAK-BAL-CLE
4	George Kell	37.4	7529	1943	1957	20-34	1795	6702	880	2054	385	50	78	870	621	7	287	36	149	20	188	51	36	.306	.367	.414	.781	*5/3H749	PHA-DET-BOS-CHW-BAL
5	Bill Mazeroski	36.5	8379	1956	1972	19-35	2163	7755	769	2016	294	62	138	853	447	110	706	20	87	70	194	27	23	.260	.299	.367	.667	*4/H5	PIT
6	Pie Traynor	36.3	8297	1920	1937	21-38	1941	7559	1183	2416	371	164	58	1273	472		278	31	231		47	158	46	.320	.362	.435	.797	*5/6H3	PIT
7	Jim Bottomley	35.3	8354	1922	1937	22-37	1991	7471	1177	2313	465	151	219	1422	664		591	43	177		33	58	15	.310	.369	.500	.869	*3H/4	STL-CIN-SLB
8	Roy Campanella	34.1	4815	1948	1957	26-35	1215	4205	627	1161	178	18	242	856	533	30	501	30	30	18	143	25	15	.276	.360	.500	.860	*2/H	BRO
9	Ross Youngs	32.2	5336	1917	1926	20-29	1211	4627	812	1491	236	93	42	592	550		390	37	119			153	83	.322	.399	.441	.839	*9/4H87	NYG
10	Chick Hafey	30.1	5115	1924	1937	21-34	1283	4625	777	1466	341	67	164	833	372		477	33	83		28	70	7	.317	.372	.526	.898	*789H	STL-CIN
11	Rick Ferrell	29.8	7076	1929	1947	23-41	1884	6028	687	1692	324	45	28	734	931		277	10	103		55	29	35	.281	.378	.363	.741	*2/H	BOS-SLB-WSH
12	Ray Schalk	28.6	6239	1912	1929	19-36	1762	5306	579	1345	199	49	11	593	638		358	59	214			177	69	.253	.340	.316	.656	*2/H	CHW-NYG
13	Freddie Lindstrom	28.4	6108	1924	1936	18-30	1438	5611	895	1747	301	81	103	779	334		276	13	146		35	84	10	.311	.351	.449	.800	*587/9H46	NYG-PIT-CHC-BRO
14	High Pockets Kelly	25.3	6570	1915	1932	19-36	1622	5993	819	1778	337	76	148	1020	386		694	28	158			65	43	.297	.342	.452	.794	*34/H79851	NYG-PIT-CIN-CHC-BRO
15	Lloyd Waner	24.1	8334	1927	1945	21-39	1993	7772	1201	2459	281	118	27	598	420		173	26	108		57	67		.316	.353	.393	.747	*8H7/945	PIT-CIN-BSN-PHI-BRO

Not reflected in his numbers is the fact that McDougald changed fielding positions as the team needed.

McDougald hit 7 home runs in 190 at bats in the 8 World Series in which he played. The Yankees won 5 of those 8. McDougald contributed to the 1955 game seven loss to the Brooklyn Dodgers in Yankee Stadium. In the 6th inning with Billy Martin on second, Yanks trailing 2-0 McDougald was doubled off first base when Dodger Sandy Amoros robbed Yogi Berra of an opposite field hit in the left field corner.  McDougald had 3 of the 8 Yankee hits batting third. Berra batted fourth. Mantle did not start due to injury. McDougald career: 45 SB, 44 CS. Base running was not a strength for McDougald.

Black ink (leading the league) in batting:
McDougald: 1957 3B, SH
Berra: none and Yogi was MVP in 1951, 1954, 1955.

And remember, on January 22, 2019 Mariano Rivera will be elected to the Hall of Fame with fewer than 1,300 innings, only 62 more than Babe Ruth.

Innings pitched by Babe Ruth: reasonable minimum for Hall of Fame. Friday, January 26, 2018

Geez, is that too much to expect, that a pitcher at least surpass the number of innings pitched by Babe Ruth who hit 714 Home Runs?
________________________________

So why not add Gil McDougald to the never ending list of distinguished players being twisted and squeezed into various and oddly shaped Hall of Fame holes?