Day two of Joe Posnanski’s week-long look at the Hall of Fame consists of his review of the 11 players on this year’s ballot who are clearly not Hall of Famers, but who, according to Joe, are worth spending a few minutes remembering. The Carlos Baergas and Brett Boones of the world, don’t you know.
I’m glad that Posnanski goes through them in detail because these are the guys who we’ll find more interesting and mysterious several years from now. Everyone knows Roberto Almoar’s career backwards and forwards at this point. People will soon forget that, say, Carlos Baerga got 200 hits in a season twice. Or that Marquis Grissom, while not necessarily better than you remember, was a really unique player. Heck, most people have probably already forgotten. A lot of those guys are described by Joe with phrases like “and suddenly, one day, he stopped being really good.” Yeah, it was the time for that.
It’s a good read. It helps us to remember that, while eras are defined by the superstars, most of the working and paying, living and dying, pitching and hitting in Major League Baseball is done by regular guys. Thanks to Joe for bearing witness to some of them here.