[Archive]

Posted By: sean

Now im the first to admit that hal chase doesnt deserve to be in the hall due to his throwing games. However, his lower fielding percentage (so Ive read) has a lot to do with actually being a good first baseman. A lot of players from the pre 1920 era have lower fielding percentages due to trying for impossible plays that a lot of other players wouldn't of even gotten close to. Player averages during the deadball era are deceiving as smaller gloves and wirey (spell check?) players (Johnny Evers, Hal Chase, Frank Baker, Solly Hofman, etc.) made for more errors that probably shouldn't have been counted as errors. Another factor in determining who should be in the hall is the people who saw them play that give them recognition i.e. Babe Ruth naming hal chase the best first player he ever saw or nearly everyone (including Ty Cobb, Mordecai Brown, Honus Wagner, etc.) from the deadball era picking Johnny Kling as the best catcher they ever saw.
My picks would be:
1. Johnny Kling
2. Ed Reulbach
3. Deacon Phillipe
4. Mike Donlin