Luke Appling was a solid second in the voting in each of the past three rounds, his first three rounds on the ballot. He finally broke through to the top spot this round, becoming the 83rd inductee into the High Heat Stats Circle of Greats. More on Luke and the voting after the jump.

Most Career Wins Above Replacement (WAR, Baseball-Reference version) By A Hitter With a Higher Career OBP Than SLG
1. Ozzie Smith 76.5
2. Luke Appling 74.5
3. Willie Randolph 65.5
4. Richie Ashburn 63.4
5. Billy Hamilton 63.3
6. Brett Butler 49.4

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Most WAR by a Non-Pitcher, Age 39 Season To Career End
1. Luke Appling 19.2
2. Barry Bonds 18.6
3. Cap Anson 17.5
4. Carlton Fisk 15.4
5. Honus Wagner 14.7

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Highest Career On-Base Percentage By an AL Hitter With at least 100 Games Played at Shortstop
1. Luke Appling .399
2. Johnny Pesky .394
3. Joe Sewell .3909
4. Joe Cronin .3906
5. Buddy Myer .3894
6. Eddie Joost .3893

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Most Hits By A Batter Hitting Fifth in the Batting Order, 1921-2014
1. Luke Appling 1,132
2. Harry Heilmann 1,071
3. Pie Traynor 993
4. Jimmie Foxx 986
5. Chick Hafey 963
6. Ernie Banks 960

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Notes on this round’s voting:

–It has been unusual recently for a candidate to receive more than 20 votes in each of his first three rounds on the eligible list while falling short of induction each time. Luke Appling did that in his first three rounds before winning induction in this, his fourth, round. The most recent guys to top 20 votes in each of their first three COG voting rounds, without winning induction in any of the three, have been Bob Gibson and Gaylord Perry.

–Appling is the third hitter born in 1907 to be inducted into the COG, joining Bill Dickey and Jimmie Foxx. So far only 1931 (Mantle, Mays, Mathews and Banks), 1934 (Aaron, Clemente, Kaline) and 1968 (Piazza plus the co-birthday first basemen Jeff Bagwell and Frank Thomas) have matched or exceeded that size haul of Circle of Greats hitters. We’ve got a long way to go though.

–Somehow voters continue to keep 18 holdovers on the eligible list. All of the guys “on the bubble” reached the 10% support level required to survive to the next round, although Wes Ferrell made it by the thinnest possible margin, hitting 10% on the nose.

–The one holdover who fell below 10%, Roy Campanella, was not on the bubble, as he went into this round with a round of eligibility to spare. Having used that up now, though, Campy will be on the bubble next round. That will make a whopping total of ten guys on the bubble next round.

–We remain at 18 holdovers because Luke Appling, who ascends to the Circle, is replaced on the holdover list by this round’s most popular newcomer, Joe Cronin, who not only topped the 10% support level needed to come back, he hit the 25% level (albeit with no room to spare) that allows him to stay off the bubble next time.

–We appear to have gone this round without ballots from one or more of our regular voters, disappointed in being unable to vote for the 1906-born Satchel Paige. Paige didn’t meet the minimum requirement of major league participation for standard entry on to the birth year ballot. That Paige was not permitted to play in the majors until he was into his 40s surely robbed not only Paige but major league fans of what could have been an amazing MLB career. Another reminder that bigotry hurts not only the excluded (though of course it hurts them most grievously), but the wider population as well. Those who do think it appropriate to bring Satchel Paige into the COG despite his short MLB career are welcome to vote for him in the next Redemption Round — if he gets enough votes there, he will be included in the following induction round.
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The full spreadsheet showing this round’s vote tally is here: COG 1906 Vote Tally.

Three spreadsheets provide past vote totals for previous COG rounds, and related information about past COG voting. The newest such spreadsheet, which will collect votes from this current 1906 round (Round 83) and all our subsequent COG balloting from now on, is here: COG Vote Summary 3 . Spreadsheets showing results from previous COG rounds are here: COG Vote Summary/Rounds 1 through 37 and here: COG Vote Summary Rounds 38 through 82 .  In all three of these archive spreadsheets, raw vote totals for each past round appear on Sheet 1; click on the Sheet 2 tab to see the percentage vote totals for each past round.

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A spreadsheet listing the full membership to date of the Circle of Greats, along with some stats for each member, is here: Circle of Greats Membership . Hitters are on Sheet 1, pitchers are on Sheet 2.  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