Gehrig and McGriff: lefty first basemen with 493 Home Runs. Should both be in Hall of Fame? Saturday, January 6, 2018
What, compare McGriff with Gehrig, the greatest hitting first baseman of all time? That's not fair.
Why? Shouldn't the performance of the candidate be of the highest level? A common sense perspective I've long advocated is to ask: among like players, what Hall of Famer players is the candidate better than? In other words, don't add to the bottom...
OK, Lou Gehrig was better than Fred McGriff. The purpose of this post was not to denigrate McGriff but to put into perspective the sometimes ridiculous reasons being presented for why a player should be given serious consideration as a candidate for the Hall of Fame based on performance on the field.
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Yesterday afternoon on MLB Network Brian Kenny and Bob Costas were talking about recent comments by Barry Bonds about his possibly getting elected ... some day ... to the Hall of Fame. They drifted to Fred McGriff and said that Bonds and other PED users detracted from what McGriff accomplished and that's why McGriff took so long to get elected by non writers.
But if Bonds was not getting votes, how did he directly impact McGriff? The 2010 ballot is McGriff's first and Bonds is not yet on; Bonds first appears in 2013. So Bonds was not even a direct competitor in 2010, 2011, 2012. Kenny and Costas should have known that or they ignored it to maintain their narrative.
539 total ballots (405 votes needed for election)
... qualified members of the BBWAA name no more than 10 eligible players ... a player must be named on at least 75% of the voters' ballots. Currently, players are removed from the ballot if they are named on fewer than 5% of ballots or have been on the ballot 15 times without election. Changed to 10 times prior to the 2015 election.
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When Bonds first appears in 2013 McGriff seems to be mired. Of the 12 players ahead of McGriff, all eventually get elected except Schilling, Clemens and Bonds. Box score:
| McGriff | McGriff | McGriff | | Bonds | Bonds | Bonds | chances |
| | rank | % | | | rank | % | |
| 2010 | 1 | 11 | 21.5% | 2010 | | | | 15 |
| 2011 | 2 | 12 | 17.9% | 2011 | | | | 15 |
| 2012 | 3 | 8 | 23.9% | 2012 | | | | 15 |
| 2013 | 4 | 13 | 20.7% | 2013 | 1 | 9 | 36.2% | 15 |
| 2014 | 5 | 17 | 11.7% | 2014 | 2 | 10 | 34.7% | 15 |
| 2015 | 6 | 16 | 12.9% | 2015 | 3 | 10 | 36.8% | 10 |
| 2016 | 7 | 13 | 20.9% | 2016 | 4 | 8 | 44.3% | 10 |
| 2017 | 8 | 14 | 21.7% | 2017 | 5 | 8 | 53.8% | 10 |
| 2018 | 9 | 12 | 23.2% | 2018 | 6 | 8 | 56.4% | 10 |
| 2019 | 10 | 10 | 39.8% | 2019 | 7 | 7 | 59.1% | 10 |
| 2020 | | X | | 2020 | 8 | 5 | 60.7% | 10 |
| 2021 | | X | | 2021 | 9 | 2 | 61.8% | 10 |
| 2022 | | X | | 2022 | 10 | 2 | 66.0% | 10 |
In 2022 David Ortiz was number 1 with 77.9% and elected to the Hall of Fame. David Ortiz, not Barry Bonds.
Fred McGriff is finally elected in 2023 by a special Contemporary Era committee:
Fred McGriff seems to have been treated fairly relative to his baseball credentials. Brian Kenny and Bob Costas should have known better.
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