COG 1911 Results: Voters Fill Hankering for Greenberg |

There may be no Hall of Famer who lost a higher percentage of his potential career value as a result of World War II than Hank Greenberg. But COG voters did not let Greenberg’s lost baseball years stand in the way of making him a quick, clear choice as the 76th player inducted into the High Heat Stats Circle of Greats. More on Hank, and the voting, after the jump.

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It’s now been 76 seasons completed since 1938, yet Hank Greenberg still leads the following list, and given current trends it may likely be a long time before his first-place spot is taken:

Most Home Runs Hit in a Home Park, During One Season
1. Hank Greenberg (1938) 39
2. Mark McGwire (1998) 38
T3. Barry Bonds (2001) and Mark McGwire (1999) 37
T5. Jimmie Foxx (1938) and Sammy Sosa (1998) 35

In his prime, Greenberg was the greatest home-field hitter of the period, but he was also a great hitter on the road:

OPS in Home Games, 1934-1941 (min. 1,000 PAs)
1. Hank Greenberg 1.182
2. Jimmie Foxx 1.136
3. Ted Williams 1.122
4. Lou Gehrig 1.121
5. Johnny Mize 1.070
6. Joe DiMaggio 1.108

OPS in Road Games, 1934-1941 (min. 1,000 PAs)
1. Joe DiMaggio 1.050
2. Lou Gehrig 1.047
3. Jimmie Foxx .979
4. Johnny Mize .965
5. Hank Greenberg .952
6. Mel Ott .946
(Ted Williams had a 1.105 OPS during this period, but just misses the PA minimum for this list with 935 road PAs through 1941– he debuted in 1939)

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Most World Series Games Played for a Single AL Franchise, Other Than the Yankees:
Harry Hooper (Red Sox) 24 games
Hank Greenberg (Tigers) 23 games
Mark Belanger (Orioles) 22 games
Frank and Brooks Robinson, Boog Powell and Davey Johnson (Orioles) 21 games
Eddie Collins, Frank Baker and Jack Barry (A’s) and Charlie Gehringer (Tigers) 20 games

158 players have accumulated at least 70 World Series plate appearances. Among those players, here are the top career World Series OPS numbers:
T1. Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig 1.214 each
3. Reggie Jackson 1.212
4. Lou Brock 1.079
5. Hank Greenberg 1.044

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Fewest Career Games Played (Major Leagues and Negro Leagues Combined) by a Hall of Famer Debuting Since 1900:
1. Ross Youngs 1,211
2. Chick Hafey 1,283
3. Hack Wilson 1,348
4. Hank Greenberg 1,394
5. Freddie Lindstrom 1,439

Most WAR (baseball-reference version) in Final Season in the Majors, NL Everyday Players Since 1900:
1. Roberto Clemente 4.8
2. Jackie Robinson 4.5
3. Jim Doyle 3.5
T4. Hank Greenberg and Barry Bonds 3.4

(WAR has Jim Doyle in 1911, at age 29, as the top third baseman in the NL and the top rookie in the NL besides Pete Alexander. Unfortunately, Doyle died in the aftermath of appendicitis in February, 1912.)

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Hank Greenberg’s legacy continues to reverberate in baseball. His son Steve has been one of the most influential figures in the media and financial side of sports, especially baseball, for years now. Media reports suggested Steve was the first choice of both Bud Selig and the powers-that-be to succeed Selig as Commissioner, but he apparently declined the offer.

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Notes on this round’s voting:

–Roberto Alomar topped the 25% level for the second time in three rounds, giving him some breathing room in terms of future ballot eligibility.

–Joe Medwick easily received enough support to join the holdovers, but not enough to avoid sitting on the bubble.

–Everyone else on the holdover list received support in a relatively narrow range between 7 and 13 votes. With Medwick added to the holdover list, that group increases to fourteen players, with five of these guys now on the bubble, at immediate risk of losing eligibility for the ballot should they fall below the 10% support level.

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The full spreadsheet showing this round’s vote tally is here: COG 1911 Vote Tally.

The vote summary for recent Circle of Greats voting rounds is here: COG Vote Summary 2 . An archive with details of the 1968 through 1939 rounds is here: COG 1968-1939 Vote Summary . In both cases, raw vote totals for each past round appear on Sheet 1 and the percentage totals for each past round appear on Sheet 2.

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A spreadsheet listing the full membership to date of the Circle of Greats, along with some of their stats, is here: Circle of Greats Membership . You can also find that same link any time by clicking on “Circle of Greats” at the top of the High Heats Stats home page.

Another COG data spreadsheet showing each season a COG member played in the majors, along with the team he played for that season and his baseball-reference WAR (overall WAR for everyday players, pitching WAR for pitchers) for the season, is here:
Circle of Greats Seasons

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Gary Bateman

10 years ago

Don’t forget about Sandy Koufax on the most WAR/final season list (10.3 in 1966). Unless you were only counting position players:)

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birtelcom

Reply to Gary Bateman

Thanks, GB, I meant to specify that I was including only everyday players in that list (including pitchers would have resulted in a different group, not just Koufax). But I forgot until your reminder, and I have now corrected the list’s title. There are not too many National League stat lists that will feature Hank Greenberg.

Dr. Doom

As always, “active” players on the ballot marked with a *. Here they are: Craig Biggio – 763 John Smoltz – 658 Kenny Lofton – 608 Ryne Sandberg – 607 *Roberto Alomar – 607 *Eddie Murray – 570 Edgar Martinez – 507 Lou Whitaker – 493 Bobby Grich – 376 Sandy Koufax – 375 *Whitey Ford – 351 Tony Gwynn – 346 Willie McCovey – 336 *Harmon Killebrew – 298 Juan Marichal – 268 Tom Glavine – 262 Alan Trammell – 239 Mike Mussina – 233 Curt Schilling – 224 Nolan Ryan – 220 Ron Santo – 217 Tim Raines… Read more »

Reply to Dr. Doom

Thanks as always, Doc. Nice point about the late trio of votes for Robbie. That sort of late rush to 25% doesn’t happen often.

birtelcom, I have a proposal/idea/thought, and I’m curious what you (and others) think. Part of what makes me think about this is the addition of Joe Medwick to the holdover list. Admittedly, he might fall off the ballot right away. Nonetheless, I thought, “We really DO have a lot of candidates in Redemption Purgatory (TM) better than Medwick… why not try something different with the next Redemption Round? So here’s my proposal: At the time of the next Redemption Round, we vote, but not just on the players who are currently redeemable. Instead, all players on the bubble go into… Read more »

bells

Quick opinion is that, while I like mixing it up, we have had a pretty consistent process here for almost 2 years now, with some minor tweaks along the way to ensure that things are becoming fairer. I love radical new proposals, but I feel like this can maybe be addressed by having a redemption round a bit more frequently, another redeemer come back (making 4 and crowding the ballot, forcing a bit more of a choice on the bubble), or both. My feeling is that all the redemption candidates have stuck around in the last several elections, so definitely… Read more »

Hartvig

I’m somewhat more inclined to go with Bells idea of more frequent redemption rounds rather than tossing back some from our holdover list. And I’m not even sure that we have to even do that. In the relatively near future we have a fairly packed ballot coming up in 1907 (Foxx, Appling, Dickey) that will likely take up a lot of the available votes and then 4 years later (1903) we have a ballot with Gehrig, Warner, Gehringer, Hubbell, Cochrane, Lazzeri, Travis Jackson and Chick Hafey- all Hall of Famers. I’m pretty sure that one ballot will pretty much eliminate… Read more »