MLB Showdown Obsession

 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...

 It's always interesting to read up on some history and notice how things were different back in the day. For example: Today if the Hall of Fame vote happens and nobody gets elected, then the baseball world awkwardly shrugs and waits to try again next year. Once upon a time, however, that wouldn't be good enough, as there were suggestions to create a run-off round of voting if no one gained 75% on the first try. As for voting like the Old-Timers Committee, there was no schedule and they met whenever they felt like it to nominate a player from long ago for immortalization. Such rules were in place around 1948. Thankfully, the regular vote only needed one try to find worthy players to make plaques for, so Herb Pennock and Pie Traynor didn't need a re-do. It's funny when you see how strict and rigid the scheduling and standards are for voting today, then gaze into the past and see that there was a period where baseball was still ironing out the kinks in the process. Fun fa...

 The Chicago White Sox have dealt with their fair share of problems, yet suffered mostly in silence. In Chicago, their title drought was overshadowed by the longer drought of the Cubs. They can't even get attention as the most tortured item of laundry, for even though the White and Red Sox both had pretty much the same inability to win the World Series after their respective 1917 and 1918 titles, the Red Sox got the attention. It's all about branding, I guess. Blaming your failures on a goat or the single worst trade in baseball history is good for marketing, while Shoeless Joe Jackson and the Black Sox scandal...not so much. So while the South Siders couldn't bank on victory for the better part of 90 years between titles, they still had a solid assortment of men to represent them. 11 players in total, which is a surprising number for some, were deemed legendary enough to be remembered by the team that actually wears black socks (and red for a while) as their uniform... #2 ...

 1947 brought in 4 new entries to the hallowed hall. Two elite pitchers, a catcher and a player/manager. Philadelphia and Giants fans will be pleased with the entries. First set of HoF cards an update to the bot  (but not the most recent update), so if you were hoping for continuity between all my sets, I've got bad news for you...

The Texas Rangers began life in 1961 as the Washington Senators. In 11 years in the nations capital, they had exactly 0 jerseys to retire. The Senators weren't exactly known for being good. For that matter, the Rangers before the late 1990's were pretty bad too. The franchise finally won a World Series in 2023, so there's no one here that was apart of that accomplishment. The aforementioned 90's, however, have a couple notable names. #7 - Ivan Rodriguez Pudge debuted in 1991 where he made a run at the Rookie of the Year award. He came up short, but that wasn't a trend for his Rangers career. From 1992-2001 he went to every all star game and won every Gold Glove award. From '94-'99 he won every Silver Slugger. In 1999 (covered by the original Showdown set) he was the MVP. If there was one guy you absolutely NEEDED behind the plate to throw out the fastest runners trying to steal, it was Rodriguez and no one else compared. 7 times in his Rangers career he led ...

 The official 2025 Hall of Fame ballot is dropping soon, but by time the vote happens, we'll already know who the initial members of the 20205 class might be. When the winter meetings go down, there will be a vote from the Classic Baseball Committee. 8 names were put forth for consideration, with 6 of them playing Major League Baseball and the other 2 (Vic Harris and John Donaldson) featured from the Negro Leagues.

 The Philadelphia Phillies have been around for quite a long time. In that time, however, despite numerous pennants, they only have 2 World Series titles to their name. And despite how old they are, it wasn't until 1980 that they finally got it done for the first time. The fact is, the Phillies were generally never very good. When the A's called Philly home, they brought some titles home, but once they left for Kansas City, the Phillies couldn't pick up the slack.. That being said, the Phillies had their fair share of forever players in the Phillie-red uniform. #1 - Richie Ashburn A 4 time all star, Richie Ashburn had the unenviable task of competing in the National League in the same position as Willie Mays and Duke Snider. Despite the challenge, Richie found a way to lead the league in hitting in '55 and '58 and still make a bit of a name for himself. In an era where the Dodgers and Giants were constantly trading the pennant between each other, Ashburn managed to ...

 Darryl Kile has a dubious distinction. He is the first player depicted in the MLB Showdown series to have died. I remember when I heard about his passing, I immediately retired his card from use out of respect. He had a pretty solid 2001 Showdown card, too, so it wasn't like I was looking for an excuse to ignore him. Kile is far from the only Showdown player to have passed on, and as we pass a quarter century since the game debuted that list will only get longer (not to mention all the Cooperstown Collection throwback players depicted along with the other active players at the time). But there was something crazy about turning on SportsCenter and learning that an active MLB player was gone. It's one thing to find out that a former player died, it's another thing entirely to see how much more disruptive it is to their current teammates losing a brother. So as today is All Souls Day, let us take the time to reflect on the career of Darryl Kile (1968-2002) Rookie Darryl. Not ...