Baseball Hall of Fame: Best of the one-vote guys since 1988

Baseball Hall of Fame: Catcher

Best—Gene Tenace, 45.0 fWAR, 16^th among catchers

5525 PA, .241/.388/.429, 653 R, 201 HR, 674 RBI

Many of these one-vote guys are well below the standard for the Baseball Hall of Fame and probably shouldn’t have received even the one vote they got. Gene Tenace is not in that category. He comes closer than any other player on this list to the standards for the Baseball Hall of Fame at his position.

According to FanGraphs WAR, Tenace is the 16^th best catcher in history. He’s tied with Mike Piazza for the highest wRC+ among all catchers (140, meaning he was 40 percent better than league average on offense after league and ballpark are taken into account). He wasn’t good on the bases and not much behind the plate, but he could hit.

Unfortunately, Tenace played in the wrong era to be fully appreciated. His career went from 1969 to 1983 and included an outstanding eight-year peak from 1973 to 1980, during which he averaged almost 4.7 WAR per season. That’s essentially the seasonal value that Buster Posey has provided the Giants over the last five years (average of 4.8 WAR). Gene Tenace had an eight-year stretch during which he was as good as the previous five years of Buster Posey’s career.

Tenace was an on-base machine who didn’t hit for average at a time when batting average was king. In the middle of his career, he had six seasons in a seven-year stretch in which he walked more than 100 times. He also had five seasons with 20 or more home runs. The brightest moment of his career was winning the MVP Award in the 1972 World Series when he hit .348/.400/.913 and hit four home runs for the Oakland A’s. He also drove in nine of the team’s 16 runs in their seven-game victory.

With just 5525 plate appearances in his career, Tenace didn’t get the playing time to reach the Hall of Fame level in WAR, but he came close. If you divide his WAR by his plate appearances, he was more valuable on a per plate appearances basis than Bill Dickey, Roy Campanella, Gary Carter, and Yogi Berra.

Others—Jim Sundberg (29^th), Javy Lopez (39^th), Benito Santiago (45^th), Terry Steinbach (49^th), Rick Dempsey (52^nd), Darren Daulton (58^th), Terry Kennedy (62^nd)

Darren Dalton didn’t get established in the big leagues until he was 28 years old in 1990. He was part of the “No Fear” 1993 Philadelphia Phillies squad that looked like a beer league softball team. That season, he hit 24 homers and drove in 105 runs as the Phillies made it to the World Series, which they lost to the Toronto Blue Jays in six games. He got his World Series ring four years later as a member of the Florida Marlins when they beat Cleveland in seven games. Then he retired.

In retirement, Dalton hosted the “Talking Baseball with Dutch” radio show on WPEN in Philadelphia from 2010 to 2016. In the middle of this stretch, he underwent surgery on two brain tumors and believed he was cancer-free. Sadly, the disease returned early last season, and he died in August at the age of 55.

Baseball Hall of Fame: First Base

Best—Mike Hargrove, 31.0 fWAR, 88^th among first basemen

In his playing days, Mike Hargrove was best known for his lengthy between-pitch ritual. His repeated adjustments of his batting gloves were a precursor to Nomar Garciaparra years later. Hargrove had such an elaborate ritual that he became known as “The Human Rain Delay.”

Hargrove’s best asset as a player was his ability to get on base. He had a .396 career on-base percentage. He wasn’t a good fielder and didn’t hit for the power that you’d expect from a first baseman. In 1982, he played in 160 games, had 705 plate appearances and hit just four home runs. Despite his lack of power, he still had seven above average seasons, including a 5.7-WAR season in 1977.

Others—John Kruk (111^th), Cecil Fielder (157^th), David Segui (219^th), Mike Jorgensen (230^th)

In one of those quirky and fun baseball oddities, Cecil and Prince Fielder each finished with exactly 319 career home runs. They were also within 20 career RBI of each other, with the younger Fielder knocking in 1028 and his father driving in 1008. Cecil got one Hall of Fame vote. Will Prince outdo his dad in Hall of Fame voting?

Mike Jorgensen was one of seven players to get a single vote for the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1991. That’s the most players on one ballot getting just one vote in the last 30 years. Mike Hargrove was also a one-vote guy on the 1991 ballot, as were Richie Hebner, Ellis Valentine, Jeff Burroughs, John Lowenstein, and Burt Hooton. Maybe the writers had a side bet going on who would give a Hall of Fame vote to the most obscure player.

Second Base

Best—Tony Phillips, 46.6 fWAR, 26^th among second basemen

If utility player was a position of its own, Tony Phillips might be a first-ballot Baseball Hall of Famer. In his 18 big league seasons, he played at least 97 games at six different positions and more than a season’s worth of games at five different positions. He gets the nod here because he played more games and innings at second base than any other position.

Phillips spent the first eight years of his career with the Oakland A’s and hit .251/.338/.350 while averaging 376 plate appearances per season. When the A’s made the playoffs in 1988, Phillips played every position except for catcher. He played in 143 games the next season and helped the A’s win the World Series. He even made the play on defense that closed out the A’s four-game sweep in a World Series that was interrupted by the 6.9 magnitude Loma Prieta earthquake.

That offseason, Phillips signed a free agent deal with the Detroit Tigers, and his career took off. He was slotted into the lineup on a regular basis and began reeling off high on-base percentage seasons thanks to a great batting eye. Over the last 10 years of his career, Phillips hit .273/.392/.409. He scored over 100 runs four times and had more than 100 walks five times. In 1995, he launched a career-high 27 homers. Even his final year was impressive. As a 40-year-old back with Oakland in 1999, Phillips hit .244/.362/.433, with 15 homers and 11 steals in 106 games.

Years after his major league career ended, Phillips played with the Yuma Scorpions of the independent North American League. In 2011, he got into a fight with his manager, Mike Marshall (the former MLB outfielder). Four years later, at the age of 56, Phillips played for the Pittsburg Mettle in the Pacific Association of Professional Baseball Clubs. Sadly, Phillips died of an apparent heart attack in February of 2016.

Others—Chuck Knoblauch (38^th), Bret Boone (89^th), Eric Young (103^rd), Jerry Remy (202^nd)

Bret Boone was worth 23.0 WAR in his career and 19.1 of that total came in the three seasons from 2001 to 2003. He wasn’t very good before that stretch and wasn’t very good after, but he was a monster for three years in Seattle at the turn of the century.

I’ve been listening to Jerry Remy broadcast Red Sox games for so long that I forgot he played for the Angels the first three years of his career. I also thought he was better than he apparently was (just three average or better seasons in 10 years). He didn’t deserve a Baseball Hall of Fame vote for his playing career, but his call during the 2007 Fenway Park pizza incident is legendary.

Baseball Hall of Fame: Shortstop

Best—Chris Speier, 31.3 fWAR, 64^th among shortstops

Only three shortstops in the last 30 years received just one vote for the Baseball Hall of Fame. Chris Speier was the best of the three. He played 19 seasons in the major leagues and was a three-time All-Star who provided much of his value with his defense. His best season was in 1972 with the Giants when he hit .269/.361/.400 and was worth 6.0 WAR.

Speier was traded to the Montreal Expos for Tim Foli in the early part of the 1977 season. He continued to flash a good glove, but his bat was consistently well below average in his time with the Expos. In the 1981 NLDS, Speier hit .400/.526/.533 and helped the team beat the Phillies in five games, but he didn’t do much in the team’s five-game loss to the Dodgers in the NCLS.

In his mid-30s, Speier bounced around a bit from the Expos to the Cardinals to the Twins to the Cubs. He closed out his career with three final seasons with the Giants. His career was bookended by an NLCS loss to the Pirates in 1971 and an NLCS loss to the Cardinals in 1987, with both series losses coming as a member of the Giants.

Others—Walt Weiss (158^th), Shawon Dunston (235^th)

It’s incredible that Dunston played in 1814 games over 18 seasons in the major leagues and was worth a grand total of seven wins above replacement. He somehow made two All-Star teams and got a Hall of Fame vote despite never having an average season, not even when he hit 17 homers in 1986 (.278 OBP). He had a helluva throwing arm, though.

Baseball Hall of Fame: Third Base

Best—Toby Harrah, 45.8 fWAR, 35^th among third basemen

Toby Harrah has a couple of interesting items on his resume. He once played an entire doubleheader at shortstop without recording a single chance. In those two games, his double-play partner at second base, Lenny Randle, had 11 assists. Harrah may not have done much in the field, but he had a great day at the dish. In the two games, he was 6- 8 with two runs, eight RBI, and two walks.

He was also the last active major league to have played for the Washington Senators franchise (the one that began in 1961 and became the Texas Rangers). In his career, Harrah was consistently good at getting on base and providing impressive pop for a guy who played more than 800 games at both shortstop and third base (and 244 games at second base). He made the All-Star team four times and received MVP votes in 1975. He was named to the Texas Rangers Hall of Fame in 2009.

The video above shows one bright moment in Harrah’s career, which was a diving catch in the stands he made to preserve a perfect game pitched by Len Barker. If you were asked to list all the pitchers who threw a perfect game, Barker would be one of the more difficult ones to remember, right there with Dallas Braden.

Others—Tim Wallach (50^th), Richie Hebner (61^st), Don Money (78^th), Terry Pendleton (95^th), Ray Knight (192^nd)

Wallach had the misfortune of being a good NL third baseman whose career overlapped with possibly the greatest third baseman of them all, Mike Schmidt. In 1985, Wallach broke the stranglehold that Schmidt had on the Gold Glove Award, which he’d won nine straight years. Wallach won the award in 1985 and 1987, the only two times in twelve seasons that Schmidt didn’t win it.

Richie Hebner was famously known as “Digger” which was short for “Gravedigger” which was the offseason job he had for much of his major league career. Since then, everyone writing about him is contractually obligated to mention it, so there it is. Hebner was at his best with the Pittsburgh Pirates from 1969 to 1974. His best year was 1972 when he hit .300/.378/.508 and was worth 5.6 WAR.

Baseball Hall of Fame: Left Field

Best—Lonnie Smith, 35.0 fWAR, 67^th among left fielders

Some MLB players have the misfortune of having their entire careers whittled down to a single mistake. Bill Buckner and the ball through his legs. Fred Merkle‘s failing to touch second base. Snodgrass’ muff. Lonnie Smith is one of these guys. He made a baserunning blunder in the eighth inning of Game 7 of the 1991 World Series that may have ultimately allowed Jack Morris to make the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Smith’s failure to score on Terry Pendleton’s double in the gap kept the game scoreless. The Twins would go on to win in 10 innings, and Jack Morris would be considered the gutsiest pitcher who ever lived by tossing a complete game victory. Even with that victory, it took a veterans committee to vote Morris into the Hall of Fame. Without that success, he might still be waiting.

Smith was heavily criticized by announcer Tim McCarver in that clip, but he claimed he didn’t fall for the fake by Knoblauch. He said he lost the ball in the Metrodome ceiling. He pointed out that if he had fallen for the fake, he would have slid into second and not gone in standing up.

Baseball fans never let the facts get in the way of a good story, so Smith being faked out by Knoblauch will live long in baseball lore. In one of those baseball quirks, both Smith and Knoblauch each received a single vote for the Hall of Fame. They also finished within five wins of each other based on Fangraphs WAR (Knoblauch—39.8, Smith—35.0)

It’s a shame Smith is mostly remembered for one play because he had some outstanding years in the big leagues. He started his career by finishing third in Rookie of the Year voting in 1980. Two years later he was an All-Star and finished second in NL MVP voting to Dale Murphy. That season, he hit .307/.381/.434 and led the league with 120 runs while also stealing 68 bases.

The Pittsburgh Drug Trials put Smith in a negative spotlight and cost him part of the 1986 season with a suspension. Three years later, he had his best big league season when he hit .315/.415/.533 with 21 homers and 25 steals for the 1989 Atlanta Braves. Those 21 home runs were astonishing for a guy who never hit more than nine in any other season.

Others—Greg Luzinski (78^th), Garret Anderson (123^rd), Jacque Jones (256^th), John Lowenstein (305^th)

Jacque Jones got one Hall of Fame vote despite having just one above-average season in his career. In 2002, he hit .300/.341/.511 and launched 27 big flies. That season accounted for 40 percent of his career WAR. He was in the news at the end of last season when he was suspended by the Nationals from his job as their hitting coach while being investigated for revenge porn on an ex-girlfriend. It’s an ugly story that includes the words “the full tiddies,” which is probably the only time you’ll see that in print.

Baseball Hall of Fame: Center Field

Best—Chet Lemon, 52.0 fWAR, 24^th among center fielders

Chet Lemon became well known in Chicago and Detroit for his hard-nosed play in center field, but he came up as an infielder. Legend has it that he once ranged so far to his left on a ground ball from his position at third base that he ended up at the second base position. The next day, White Sox manager Chuck Tanner told him he would be moving to the outfield because “if you stay an infielder you’re gonna kill somebody.” It would prove to be a right decision.

With the White Sox in 1978 and 1979, Lemon was a two-time All-Star. He made a third All-Star game as a member of the Detroit Tigers in their World Series-winning year in 1984. That team is being recognized this year with the induction of Jack Morris and Alan Trammel to the Hall of Fame through the veterans committee. Another 1984 Tiger, Lou Whitaker, has a strong case for the Baseball Hall of Fame as well.

Lemon doesn’t have the Baseball Hall of Fame case that Whitaker does, but he was a good center fielder for a long time. Based on FanGraphs WAR, he’s within a few wins above replacement of Jimmy Wynn, Mike Cameron, and Cesar Cedeno. They could win all battle it out for center fielder of a mythical “Hall of Very Good” team.

Others—Lenny Dysktra (59^th), Darin Erstad (93^rd)

Dykstra was part of two iconic World Series teams in the late 1980s and early 1990s. He was a bright-eyed, second-year center fielder with the 1986 New York Mets team that beat the Red Sox in an epic World Series that turned on a ground ball between Bill Buckner’s legs. He hit .296/.345/.519, with four runs scored and two home runs in the series.

Seven years later, he was the tough-as-nails veteran on the 1993 “No Fear” Philadelphia Phillies. That team lost the World Series in six games when Mitch Williams gave up a walk-off home run to dancing Joe Carter. Dykstra hit .348/.500/.913, with nine runs, four homers, and eight RBI in that series.

After having a tremendous success that year, including finishing second in NL MVP voting, he was out of baseball after just three more seasons. His post-career life has been a wild mix of drug use, prison, financial losses, and a quest for redemption and forgiveness from the people he burned along the way.

Baseball Hall of Fame: Right Field

Best—David Justice, 40.4 fWAR, 58^th among right fielders

David Justice played 14 years in the big leagues, and his team made the playoffs in 10 of them. He first came up for a partial season with the Atlanta Braves in 1989, when they won 63 games. They would win just 65 the next season, as Justice won the NL Rookie of the Year Award. In his third season, the Braves went from last to first before losing an epic World Series to the Minnesota Twins.

From 1991 to the end of his career in 2002, Justice’s teams made the postseason every year there was a postseason. The only year his team didn’t make the playoffs was 1994 when the strike prevented a postseason from happening. That was also the only year the team he ended the season with did not finish in first place. Despite getting to the playoffs so often, he only won two World Series rings in six attempts. One came with the 1995 Atlanta Braves, and the other was with the 2000 New York Yankees.

Along the way, Justice was an All-Star three times and received MVP votes five times. Other than the 16-game stretch he played in 1989, he was an above-average hitter each season of his career. According to FanGraphs WAR, he had similar career value among right fielders as Dave Parker, Paul O’Neill, Reggie Sanders, and Jesse Barfield.

Others—Terry Puhl (110^th), Danny Tartabull (139^th), Jay Buhner (143^rd), Jeff Burroughs (171^st), Ellis Valentine (188^th)

Before being traded by the New York Yankees in a now legendary trade, Buhner was traded in December of 1984 by the Pittsburgh Pirates, along with Dale Berra, for Tim Foli and Steve Kemp. Three-and-a-half years later, in July of 1988, the famous Buhner for Ken Phelps trade was made. It would become famous because of Frank Costanza’s rant on the TV show Seinfeld. In 2015, Phelps and Buhner talked about the deal while in the broadcast booth together.

After the trade, Phelps hit .224/.339/.551 in 45 games with the Yankees, but his career was nearing its end. He only played two more seasons. Buhner’s career was just getting started. It would be another five years before he was an average MLB player, but he would eventually have three straight 40-homer seasons and be part of the first Mariners team to ever make the playoffs (in 1995).

Baseball Hall of Fame: Starting Pitcher

 Best—Chuck Finley, 55.7 fWAR, 61^st among starting pitchers

Chuck Finley is right there with a few of these one-vote guys who could be in a “Hall of Very Good.” He pitched a similar number of innings and had similar career value to David Wells, Whitey Ford, and Billy Pierce. Wells received five Baseball Hall of Fame votes in his one year on the ballot. Pierce got seven votes. Ford made the Hall in his second year of eligibility. Pitching on so many successful Yankees teams gave Ford a spotlight the others did not have.

Finley pitched most of his career with the Angels before closing out his career with Cleveland and a final partial season with St. Louis. He’s the Angels franchise leader in wins; games started, innings pitched and WAR. He was an all-star five times and finished seventh in Cy Young voting in 1990 when he was 18-9 with a 2.40 ERA in 236 innings.

After a tumultuous five-year marriage to actress Tawny Kitaen, Finley was mocked when he took the mound in Chicago for a game in 2002. The stadium’s musical director played the song “Here I Go Again” by the band Whitesnake. This was in reference to the video that starred Kitaen that every teenage boy who grew up in the 1980s watched hundreds of times. The musical director was fired.

Others—Kevin Appier (85^th), Burt Hooton (145^th), Kenny Rogers (159^th), Bob Welch (169^th), John Candelaria (171^st), Jose Rijo (176^th), Bruce Hurst (192^nd), Dennis Leonard (232^nd), Aaron Sele (311^th), Bill Gullickson (319^th), Mike Krukow (324^th), Todd Stottlemyer (334^th), Mike Torrez (347^th), Tim Wakefield (382^nd), Pat Hentgen (437^th), Ron Darling (474^th), Jim Bibby (574^th), Tom Browning (681^st), Jim Deshaies (1189^th)

Jim Deshaies had one above average season in his career when he was 15-10 with a 2.91 ERA for the 1989 Houston Astros. His career record was 84-95, and he had an ERA over 4.00. How did he get a Hall of Fame vote? He lobbied for one.

When he appeared on the Baseball Hall of Fame ballot five years after he retired, he launched a “One Man, One Vote” campaign that included a website: www.putjdinthehall.com. His campaign was done with tongue firmly planted in cheek. He knew he wasn’t Hall-worthy, but he did interviews pushing to get that vote anyway.

His efforts paid off when a Houston Chronicle columnist, John Lopez, voted for Deshaies. Lopez said, “It was a vote for the good old-fashioned guy that loved playing baseball, the regular guy.”

Baseball Hall of Fame: Relief Pitcher

Best—Randy Myers, 13.6 fWAR, 38^th among relief pitchers

Randy Myers was a starting pitcher for most of his time in the minor leagues but was moved to the bullpen in 1986 because the Mets had a solid big league rotation that Myers was not going to crack. He only pitched in 10 games with the 1986 team that won the World Series but would become the team’s primary closer within a couple of years. In 1988, he saved 26 games and had a 1.72 ERA.

More from Call to the Pen

• Philadelphia Phillies, ready for a stretch run, bomb St. Louis Cardinals
• Philadelphia Phillies: The 4 players on the franchise’s Mount Rushmore
• Boston Red Sox fans should be upset over Mookie Betts’ comment
• Analyzing the Boston Red Sox trade for Dave Henderson and Spike Owen
• 2023 MLB postseason likely to have a strange look without Yankees, Red Sox, Cardinals

Before the 1990 season, Myers was traded by the Mets to the Reds for John Franco (with other players also involved). He teamed with Norm Charlton and Rob Dibble to form Cincy’s shutdown bullpen that was known as “The Nasty Boys.” The bullpen was an essential factor in the Reds division title and postseason success. They beat the Pirates in the NLCS and swept the A’s in the World Series.

After the 1992 season, Myers signed with the Cubs as a free agent and saved 53 games in his first season in Chicago, which set the NL record at the time (since broken by John Smoltz and Eric Gagne, both with 55). He later pitched for the Orioles, Blue Jays, and Padres. He finished his career with 347 saves, which is 12^th on the all-time list.

Others—Bill Campbell (46^th), Jesse Orosco (50^th), Armando Benitez (84^th), Steve Bedrosian (138^th), Al Hrabosky (155^th), Mark Davis (157^th)

No pitcher has pitched more games in the Major Leagues than Jesse Orosco. He was most well known for his time with the New York Mets, which included two all-star seasons and a World Series championship, but he also pitched for eight other teams in his 24-year career. Pitching the most games in baseball history is a nice thing to hang your hat on, but it’s not necessarily worthy of a Baseball Hall of Fame vote.

Next: 25 Most Memorable MLB Postseason Moments

The least accomplished Baseball Hall of Fame one-vote guy in the last 30 years is Mark Davis. Heading into the 1988 season, Davis had been in the big leagues for eight seasons and had a 4.29 ERA in 284 games. He suddenly blossomed into an all-star in 1988 and 1989. He saved 72 games with a 1.93 ERA across those two seasons. Then he went back to being bad again, finishing out his career with a 5.37 ERA over his final six seasons.