Torre, La Rusa & Cox get the call.....

Originally Posted by the 'stache

I cannot logically come to any conclusion as to why Ted Simmons did not at least gain enough votes to remain on the ballot beyond his first year of eligibility.

Well, I think you're doing way more analysis than any of the voters would ever do. We're talking about a Hall of Fame - if you're sorely lacking in the fame department, it's much harder to get in.

Carter started 7 All-Star games and was named to 11 AS squads. He won 3 Gold Gloves. He won 5 Silver Sluggers. He was a fiery team leader who was the Mets team captain. He played some of his peak seasons in NY, and he had a lot to do with his team winning the 1986 WS, leading the Mets with 2 HR and 9 RBI. Gary was pretty famous for quite a few years, and accomplished a number of notable achievements.

Fisk started 7 All-Star games and was named to 11 AS squads. He won a Gold Glove. He won 3 Silver Sluggers. He was a ROY. He was a fiery team leader. He'll forever be known as the guy who waved that WS home run fair. He finished his career having caught more games than any one in history, and having hit more HR than any catcher in history. Carlton was famous for quite a few years, and accomplished a number of notable achievements.

Simmons started 2 All-Star games and was named to 8 AS squads. He never won a Gold Glove. He won only 1 Silver Slugger. He was not a fiery team leader. He didn't win any WS and didn't hit well in the post season. He never led the league in anything. He was never very famous for anything. Deserved or not, his reputation was good hit-no field. In 1,771 games caught, Simmons had a whopping 821 combined errors/wild pitches/passed balls. Fisk had 100 fewer in nearly 500 more games; Carter had 150 fewer in nearly 300 more games.

Simmons also didn't catch much his last 5-6 seasons, and played only 70% of his career games at catcher; Fisk and Carter caught in about 90% of the games they appeared in. I don't think Simmons is as strongly identified as a catcher as are the other guys.

All that said, I think Simmons is HOF-worthy if you base the argument on him being as good as some other catchers already in there. I'm one of those guys, however, who thinks the HOF already has 50+ guys that shouldn't be in there.