If you restarted the Hall of Fame...

External Since: Oct 03, 2003 Posts: 2088

....who would be the first five players you'd induct in the first class? Joe
Posnanski poses the question in his latest blog, and I think it's a good
one:

http://joeposnanski.com/JoeBlog/2008/06/28/first-class/

I must admit to being sold on his argument re: Jackie Robinson. So I'd
probably go with:
Jackie Robinson - for the reasons in the article
Babe Ruth - probably the game's biggest star, probably its best hitter
Walter Johnson - adjusting for era Pedro has been better, but the Big Train
has more than twice as many innings under his belt.
Honus Wagner - I wanted someone in the middle infield, and it was between
Wagner or Hornsby. Wagner played the tougher position and had a longer
productive career, so I gave him the nod.
Josh Gibson - seems to be the consensus best hitter in the Negro Leagues,
and at catcher too. Some might argue we don't know because we don't have the
stats; I decide not to penalize him for that, and give him the benefit of
the doubt.

I feel wrong leaving out guys like Mays, Mantle, Aaron, Williams and Musial,
but then I'd have a debut class entirely composed of outfielders.

Colin

---------------------
"Science is based on a fundamental insight - that the degree to which an
idea seems true has nothing to do with whether it is true"

External Since: Nov 14, 2005 Posts: 310

"Colin William" <colintwilliam.RemoveThis@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:6co8j1F3h9immU1@mid.individual.net...
> ...who would be the first five players you'd induct in the first class?
> Joe
> Posnanski poses the question in his latest blog, and I think it's a good
> one:
>
> http://joeposnanski.com/JoeBlog/2008/06/28/first-class/
>
> I must admit to being sold on his argument re: Jackie Robinson. So I'd
> probably go with:
> Jackie Robinson - for the reasons in the article
> Babe Ruth - probably the game's biggest star, probably its best hitter
> Walter Johnson - adjusting for era Pedro has been better, but the Big
> Train has more than twice as many innings under his belt.
> Honus Wagner - I wanted someone in the middle infield, and it was between
> Wagner or Hornsby. Wagner played the tougher position and had a longer
> productive career, so I gave him the nod.
> Josh Gibson - seems to be the consensus best hitter in the Negro Leagues,
> and at catcher too. Some might argue we don't know because we don't have
> the stats; I decide not to penalize him for that, and give him the benefit
> of the doubt.
>
> I feel wrong leaving out guys like Mays, Mantle, Aaron, Williams and
> Musial, but then I'd have a debut class entirely composed of outfielders.
>
> Colin
>
> ---------------------
> "Science is based on a fundamental insight - that the degree to which an
> idea seems true has nothing to do with whether it is true"
>
>

Can't argue with the ones you picked. Did you leave out Ty Cobb on purpose?

I'd go with:

Babe Ruth
Ty Cobb
Walter Johnson
Nolan Ryan
Stan Musial

Substitute any of the below for any of the above except for Ruth and I have
no complaint:

Hank Aaron
Willie Mays
Cy Young
Roberto Clemente
Honus Wagner