John From Albany – Rusty and Keith – No respect from Hall of Fame

On Monday, as per MLB.com: The National Baseball Hall of Fame announced 10 candidates under consideration for induction as part of the 2020 Modern Baseball Era ballot: Dwight Evans, Steve Garvey, Tommy John, Don Mattingly, Marvin Miller, Thurman Munson, Dale Murphy, Dave Parker, Ted Simmons and Lou Whitaker.

Sorry, that is wrong.  Very wrong.  Rusty Staub and Keith Hernandez both need to be there.  If not voted in, at least nominated. 

Keith especially and as Mack Mets’s own Tom Brennan detailed in his fine post about Mr. Staub, Rusty as well. 

Keith never seemed to get the respect he deserved while playing.  If it was Steve Garvey or Willie Stargell, there always seemed to be another First Baseman who got more accolades and attention.

When he was on St. Louis, he always killed the Mets, but it was not until he was traded to the Mets in 1983 that I saw his true value.  The 1983 team was one of the worst fielding infields I had ever seen.  Suddenly, when Keith arrived, they went from a poor infield to a good infield.  Having a Gold Glover at First (as opposed to Dave Kingman) made a tremendous difference.  Players knew they just had to get the throw near first and Keith would catch it.  The second baseman could shade more up the middle as Keith had tremendous range at first.  It made everybody better.

He also was a walking encyclopedia of baseball knowledge that he would impart to pitchers as tough batters came up.     Before Keith, the Mets were a last place laughing stock.  After he got there, they were legit.  Strawberry and Ron Darling arrived as well from Tidewater that year, Doc Gooden came up in 1984 and the rest is history. 

But make no mistake, Keith was a big reason, if not the biggest reason why they won in 1986 and why they became a winning baseball team in the mid to late 80’s.

Back to the Hall of Fame list. 

First, I am not going to compare Keith and Rusty to Marvin Miller and Tommy John just the other position players on the list.

Looking at Career WAR they stack up like this:  1. Lou Whitaker, 75.1; 2. Dwight Evans, 67.1; 3. Keith Hernandez, 60.4;  4. Ted Simmons, 50.3; 5. Dale Murphy, 46.5;  6. Thurman Munson, 46.1; 7. Rusty Staub, 45.8;  8. Don Mattingly, 42.4;  9. Dave Parker, 40.1;  10. Steve Garvey, 38.1.

The Career WAR clearly shows that Keith and Rusty belong in this list.  In Keith’s case, he blows away the other First Basemen being considered!

When you consider that Keith earned 11 Gold Gloves to Mattingly’s 10 Gold Gloves and Steve Garvey’s 4 Gold Gloves, Keith wins that category too.

What about base hits? Rusty wins that category: 1. Rusty Staub, 2,716; 2. Dave Parker, 2,712; 3. Steve Garvey, 2,599; 4. Ted Simmons, 2,472; 5. Dwight Evans, 2,446; 6. Lou Whitaker, 2,369; 7. Keith Hernandez, 2,182; 8. Don Mattingly, 2,153; 9. Dale Murphy 2,111; 10. Thurman Munson, 1,558.  Again, it shows that Rusty and Keith at least belong in the conversation.

As Tom mentioned the other day, Rusty had tremendous walk to strikeout ratio.  In fact, with 1,255 career walks to 888 career strikeouts, among these players, Rusty had the best:  1. Rusty Staub, 1.413; 2. Don Mattingly, 1.324; 3. Ted Simmons, 1.232; 4. Lou Whitaker, 1.089; 5. Keith Hernandez, 1.057; 6. Dwight Evans, 0.820; 7. Thurman Munson, 0.767; 8. Dale Murphy, 0.564; 9. Steve Garvey, 0.478; 10. Dave Parker, 0.444.

Rusty is also second in RBI's on this list and fourth in Home Runs!

Finally, amongst the position players being considered, only Dave Parker won as many World Series Championships as Keith, two.

Wasn’t that he helped the Yankees win seven World Series why Phil Rizzuto and his 1,588 hits are in the Hall of Fame and why Jose Reyes and his 2,138 hits will never get in? 

If so, then Keith’s role in two World Series wins has to at least get him considered as opposed to the ones on the list who never won. 

Keith and Rusty deserve to be in the Hall. Maybe one day the veterans committee will agree.