New York Yankees: Jorge Posada Good, But Not Good Enough for Hall of Fame
Jorge Posada, the catcher for the New York Yankees during the run they had in the 1990s and 2000s, appears on the Baseball Hall of Fame ballot for the first time this year. His inclusion on the ballot gives members of the BBWAA another opportunity to make one of those borderline calls on who gets in and who doesn’t. In the case of Posada, however, the decision should be an easy call.
As a certified member of what became known as the New York Yankees‘ “Core Four” that swept baseball away with five World Series championships, including a three-peat in the in the late-90s and 2000, Jorge Posada was the one always listed last.
Often, his name would be the one on the tip of your tongue that you had to think about for a second after Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera and Andy Pettitte rolled out with ease. Yet he was there playing in a core position that any team must have in order to win big.
Jorge Posada: Does He Pass the Test?
And when we think about the Baseball Hall of Fame, generally we think about two kinds of qualifications, numbers and championships. There are the guys with the numbers and no championships, like a Ted Williams, who easily qualify due to the sheer force of their offensive output. In a few rare cases, you get the player who has both, as in the case of a Derek Jeter. And then occasionally you come across a name like Phil Rizzuto, who had nowhere near the numbers usually associated with the Hall of Fame. But what he does have are nine pennants and seven World Series titles that classify him as a “winner.”
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Jorge Posada has to fall into the latter category if he has any chance of receiving serious consideration for election to the HOF. A quick glance at his numbers tells you that in a matter of seconds. So the question then becomes whether or not the force of the “Yankees dynasty” is enough to get him elected.
Maybe, but then you have to consider that Jorge Posada was initially blocked by Joe Girardi and Jim Leyritz when he first joined the team in 1995. So he didn’t serve as a lineup regular during that first championship in 1996.
That could hurt him some, but the crux of the matter is that Jorge Posada was and always will be the “other guy” and not “the guy.” And that’s why he’ll be lucky to survive the first couple of ballots before being eliminated by the lack of a minimum percentage of votes to remain on the ballot.
Now, you’ll definitely get a different story if you ask his teammates and maybe some of the players he played against. But unfortunately for Posada and players like him – think for example, Jack Morris – the players don’t vote.
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The Hall of Fame is and always should be reserved for the players who dominated the game in the time that they played. And you just can’t say that about someone like Jorge Posada.