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View Full Version : Joe Gordon Goes into Hall of Fame



Bob Borkowski
12-08-2008, 06:47 PM
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D94UQ3KG0&show_article=1&catnum=0 NEW YORK (AP) - Joe Gordon joined former teammates Joe DiMaggio, Lou Gehrig and Bob Feller in the Hall of Fame. For the likes of Joe Torre, Jim Kaat and Ron Santo, it was another shutout. Gordon was elected Monday by a 12-member Veterans Committee composed of Hall members and historians that studied pre-1943 players. A nine-time All-Star, the late second baseman won five World Series titles with the New York Yankees and Cleveland.
But another panel made up of the living 64 Hall of Famers didn't come close to picking anyone who started after World War II. Santo fell short, followed by Kaat, Tony Oliva, Gil Hodges and Torre.

This marked the fourth straight time that nobody was chosen from the newer group.

"It's not our job to vote someone in," Hall of Fame manager Dick Williams said by phone from Las Vegas, where the results were announced at baseball's winter meetings. "It's our job to consider the candidates."

"I thought Kaat would get in. I voted for him. And I think Joe Torre will, too, when he's done managing," he said. "I missed quite a few times before I got in. I know what that's like."

It took 75 percent—48 votes—for election and Santo did the best with 39. The former Cubs slugger led Kaat (38), Oliva (33), Hodges (28) and Torre (19).

All 64 Hall voters sent a ballot. They were allowed to pick four players, and they listed an average of 3.3 names.

"We just didn't have them lined up, I guess," Williams said.

Rickey Henderson is the leading candidate in the upcoming Hall election by the Baseball Writers' Association of America. Results will be announced Jan. 12.

Induction ceremonies in Cooperstown, N.Y., are July 26.

Gordon got 10 votes, one more than needed. He began his career in 1938 with a championship Yankees team that included future Hall members DiMaggio, Gehrig, Bill Dickey, Red Ruffing and Lefty Gomez.

"Flash" Gordon played in 1948 with the last Indians team to win the World Series. He finished in 1950 alongside future Hall of Famers Larry Doby, Lou Boudreau, Bob Lemon, Early Wynn and Feller.

Gordon was the 1942 AL MVP, beating out Triple Crown winner Ted Williams, and hit .268 overall with 253 home runs and 975 RBIs, big power numbers for second basemen in that era. He died in 1978.

"To me, he was a major Hall of Famer," Feller said by telephone from Las Vegas. "He'll probably go in as a Yankee because that's where he had most of his success. But he did well for us in Cleveland.

"He was a wild swinger at the plate, a free swinger with power," he said. "He was an acrobat around the bag, he was all over the place in the field."

Pitcher Allie Reynolds, traded from Cleveland to the Yankees for Gordon after the 1946 season, fell one vote short of election.

The Veterans Committee format has been changed twice since 2001, when charges of cronyism followed the election of Bill Mazeroski. The 15-member panel was broadened to include every living Hall member, but it didn't pick anyone in three elections.

"When our board of directors restructured the Veterans Committee after the 2007 election, it did so with the goal of ensuring the voters the living Hall of Famers would review their peers," Hall chairman Jane Forbes Clark said Monday. "The process was not redesigned with the goal of necessarily electing someone."

The veterans panels will next vote on players in 2010. Managers, umpires and executives will be considered in 2009.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Bob Borkowski
12-08-2008, 06:58 PM
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D94UQ3KG0&show_article=1&catnum=0 NEW YORK (AP) -

The Veterans Committee format has been changed twice since 2001, when charges of cronyism followed the election of Bill Mazeroski. The 15-member panel was broadened to include every living Hall member, but it didn't pick anyone in three elections.

"When our board of directors restructured the Veterans Committee after the 2007 election, it did so with the goal of ensuring the voters the living Hall of Famers would review their peers," Hall chairman Jane Forbes Clark said Monday. "The process was not redesigned with the goal of necessarily electing someone."

The veterans panels will next vote on players in 2010. Managers, umpires and executives will be considered in 2009.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Gordon deserves to be in the Hall, I think. But I feel vindicated by the first paragraph listed above. Ever since he went in, I have preached loud and long that Bill Mazeroski does NOT belong in the Hall of Fame. When it happened I remember that the opinion of several people here on this board was that it was his defense that made him legitimate. Baloney.

I hadn't heard that the decision had been a point of controversy but it certainly deserved to be. Mazeroski was a good second baseman, but Hall of Fame? No Way.

BoydsOfSummer
12-09-2008, 08:31 AM
Dude could rake a little.




JOE GORDON

GIVEN NAME: Joseph Lowell Gordon
BORN: 2/18/1915 Los Angeles, California DIED: 4/14/1978 Sacramento, California
BAT: R THROW: R HEIGHT: 5'10" WEIGHT: 180 MLB DEBUT: 4/18/1938
CAREER GAMES BY POSITION: 1B: 30 2B: 1519 SS: 2

YEAR TEAM AGE G AB R H 2B 3B HR HR% RBI BB SO SB CS AVG SLG OBA OPS
1938 Yankees 23 127 458 83 117 24 7 25 5.46 97 56 72 11 3 .255 .502 .340 .843
1939 Yankees 24 151 567 92 161 32 5 28 4.94 111 75 57 11 10 .284 .506 .370 .876
1940 Yankees 25 155 616 112 173 32 10 30 4.87 103 52 57 18 8 .281 .511 .340 .851
1941 Yankees 26 156 588 104 162 26 7 24 4.08 87 72 80 10 9 .276 .466 .358 .824
1942 Yankees 27 147 538 88 173 29 4 18 3.35 103 79 95 12 6 .322 .491 .409 .900
1943 Yankees 28 152 543 82 135 28 5 17 3.13 69 98 75 4 7 .249 .413 .365 .778
1946 Yankees 31 112 376 35 79 15 0 11 2.93 47 49 72 2 5 .210 .338 .308 .645
1947 Indians 32 155 562 89 153 27 6 29 5.16 93 62 49 7 3 .272 .496 .346 .842
1948 Indians 33 144 550 96 154 21 4 32 5.82 124 77 68 5 2 .280 .507 .371 .879
1949 Indians 34 148 541 74 136 18 3 20 3.70 84 83 33 5 6 .251 .407 .355 .762
1950 Indians 35 119 368 59 87 12 1 19 5.16 57 56 44 4 1 .236 .429 .340 .770
TOTALS 1566 5707 914 1530 264 52 253 4.43 975 759 702 89 60 .268 .466 .357 .822
LG AVERAGE 5755 810 1571 271 64 106 1.85 754 679 537 69 49 .273 .398 .352 .750
POS AVERAGE 5638 750 1482 260 54 93 1.65 696 619 553 67 49 .263 .378 .338 .715

YEAR TEAM RC RCAA RCAP OWP RC/G TB EBH ISO SEC BPA IBB HBP SAC SF GIDP OUTS PA POS
1938 Yankees 82 -1 4 .496 6.14 230 56 .247 .393 .574 0 3 3 0 0 347 520 2B
1939 Yankees 107 28 36 .636 6.64 287 65 .222 .374 .543 0 2 4 0 15 435 648 2B
1940 Yankees 107 15 26 .570 6.16 315 72 .231 .344 .548 0 3 6 0 12 469 677 2B
1941 Yankees 98 13 31 .566 5.85 274 57 .190 .330 .505 0 4 1 0 16 452 665 2B
1942 Yankees 108 43 50 .716 7.29 264 51 .169 .338 .531 0 1 7 0 22 400 625 2B
1943 Yankees 84 21 29 .627 5.15 224 50 .164 .352 .471 0 2 7 0 18 440 650 2B
1946 Yankees 38 -15 -4 .349 3.23 127 26 .128 .263 .380 0 4 2 0 14 318 431 2B
1947 Indians 96 27 38 .645 6.04 279 62 .224 .347 .528 0 1 1 0 16 429 626 2B
1948 Indians 106 30 35 .648 6.86 279 57 .227 .376 .549 0 3 3 0 16 417 633 2B
1949 Indians 79 1 5 .505 4.90 220 41 .155 .318 .455 0 4 4 0 20 435 632 2B
1950 Indians 56 -1 9 .489 5.13 158 32 .193 .356 .491 0 2 3 0 10 295 429 2B
TOTALS 961 161 259 .583 5.83 2657 569 .197 .346 .510 0 29 41 0 159 4437 6536
LG AVERAGE 849 0 0 .500 5.15 2288 441 .125 .255 .447 0 23 78 0 125 4437 6536
POS AVERAGE 744 -107 0 .438 4.51 2129 407 .115 .237 .422 0 19 92 0 140 4437 6369


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