MLB Showdown Obsession

Some players in baseball get called up for a mere cup of coffee and are never seen or heard from ever again...others have lengthy careers but are otherwise anonymous and the answer to some obscure trivia question...and then there are guys like Don Zimmer, who showed up in 1954 and stuck around as a player, manager or a coach for pretty much every season until 2014, coming to a grand total of 66 years in the game. The only thing that stopped him was death, and those 66 years were so impressive that the Tampa Bay Rays (the final team he coached for) retired the number in his honor. He was best known as a manager, manning the helm for the Chicago Cubs, Boston Red Sox, San Diego Padres and the Texas Rangers, with the Red Sox acknowledging his efforts by putting him in the team Hall of Fame. In addition to that, he found the time in other years to coach in various roles for the [Devil] Rays, Cubs, Red Sox, Padres, Montreal Expos, Colorado Rockies, San Francisco Giants, and of course the New...

Life is hard for a defending champion. No matter how you got there last year, you are the toast of the town and the last team standing as you hold your championship trophy high...but now there's no escaping the fate for next year. Everyone is gunning for you, and you have the biggest of targets on your back. And the only question anyone has for you next year is the timeless: think you can repeat? And if the pressure of defending a championship wasn't bad enough, try defending a championship after having an all-time great season. After sweeping their way to the title in '27, Miller Huggins and the Murderers Row Yankees were for the most part back in 1928. On the American League side, the only hope of resistance was coming from the Philadelphia Athletics, and while they put up quite a fight and the Yankees did regress from their legendary win total, the 101-53 record was sufficient enough to claim their third straight AL flag. In the World Series, the last hope left to stop ...

 No Old-Timers Committee in 1952, so the only hope for inductions were in the BBWAA vote, which thankfully submitted two men for enshrinement. Paul "Big Poison" Waner wasn't the only member of his family on the ballot in 1952. His brother Lloyd "Little Poison" Waner only received once vote and would go on to need the help of the Veterans Committee to follow his brother into the Hall of Fame.

 1950 sucked. No one got the needed amount of votes to receive enshrinement, the Old-Timers Committee didn't meet and they didn't allow any run-off election for any second look vote. No one got into the Hall of Fame. It was clear that easy options were no longer on the table, but 1951 was a bounce back year where the BBWAA gave the green light to two men. Mel Ott and Jimmie Foxx (the second X is for eXtreme) joined the fraternity.

 As I continue this arduous task of mine to chronicle every member of the Baseball Hall of Fame, I take a moment to reflect on where I am at and what is to come. At publishing, it is almost time for my annual special where I highlight everyone on the 2025 ballot, and I realize I have about 75 years worth of HoF classes to run through. If I were to dedicate this blog to just HoF classes in an attempt to catch up, ignoring all other themes and series I am running, then one year from now I would still be playing catch up. At least I have a supply of content for the next while... Anyway, the 1949 class gave us another first when it came to the voting. In the last update, I mentioned how the voters have the option for a run-off election if their first vote did not result in anyone getting the required 75%. This situation came about in 1949, with the highest percentage going to Charlie Gehringer at 66.7%. The top 20 losers all advanced to the run-off round, where only Gehringer received ...

 The Mets are like a Chinese knock-off toy. You know, when you go to a 99cent city in the basement level of a sketchy mall where they have that weird toy section in the back where you find a Spider-Man figure painted to look like Batman and the package is labeled as "Super Team Force" or something that can't be sued over...yeah, that's the Mets. When you take a NY Giants figure, paint it to look like the Brooklyn Dodgers, add Yankees pinstripes for good measure and label the package "New York Baseball Team" or "New York Metropolitan Players" Anyway, all kidding aside, here are the famous New York Metropolitan players. #14 - Gil Hodges Gil Hodges was another Brooklyn Dodger great who came "home" in 1962 when the Mets franchise was born. At the tail end of his career, there wasn't much we has able to accomplish. Right as his playing days concluded, he switched to managing, In 1968, he took control of the Mets and was the man in charge w...