Question 7: An answer or two back, you mentioned Satchel Paige. Once we eliminate those 25 Hall of Fame hitters from consideration, most of what remains share a single attribute: they were enshrined for their pitching capabilities. May we eliminate players who were predominantly known as pitchers?
Answer: Absolutely and unequivocally not…which means by extension you can eliminate non-pitchers. In fact, our MLB hero was a pitcher.
That answer casts aside another large group of immortals, essentially every position player not already eliminated. Off the boards are such prominent names as Alan Trammell, Bill Mazeroski, Bobby Doerr, Ernie Lombardi, Joe Gordon, Lou Boudreau, Phil Rizzuto, and PeeWee Reese.
And this might be an appropriate place to note that when Phil Rizzuto and PeeWee Reese are eliminated as possibilities from a home-run related question, we are getting into especially funky territory.
We are left with 44 pitchers who we know spent their entire careers in the live ball era. I’ll make it easier for you: you can eliminate anybody who pitched prior to the advent of television as a common means for people to watch a game…that is, prior to 1950. That eliminates Dizzy Dean, Lefty Grove, Lefty Gomez, Red Ruffing, and a slew of other 1920s and 1930s mound stars.
That further reduces the field to just 32 names. Three questions left; the list is beginning to look manageable.