Luis Tiant outside Cooperstown; Parker and Allen new exalted
Cuban pitcher Luis Tiant received less than five votes of the 12 he needed from the Classic Baseball Era Committee.
Dave Parkerthe streak-armed outfielder and 1978 National League Most Valuable Player with the Pittsburgh Pirates, and Dick Allenthe feared hitter of the Philadelphia Phillies and Most Valuable Player of the American League in 1972 with the Chicago White Sox, are the new members of the Baseball Hall of Fame, while the Cuban Luis Tiant He was left out after receiving less than five votes.
The vote of Classic Baseball Era Committee considered players, managers, executives and referees whose major contributions occurred before 1980. A selection committee selected eight distinguished finalists for the final vote, and candidates were required to receive at least 12 votes from the 16-person committee which consisted of Hall of Famers Paul Molitor, Eddie Murray, Tony Pérez, Lee Smith, Ozzie Smith and Joe Torres, plus five executives/owners and five media members/historians.
Parker was named in 14 of the 16 ballotswhile Allen was in 13 and will be inducted into the Hall of Fame on July 27 along with the players voted by the Baseball Writers Association of America, whose voting will be announced on January 21.
Other candidates on the ballot included: John Donaldson, a star pitcher in the Negro Leagues and pre-Negro Leagues for more than 30 years; Negro Leagues player and manager Vic Harris; pitcher Tommy John, winner of 288 games and the patient who pioneered elbow ligament replacement surgery; former Dodgers and Padres first baseman Steve Garvey; third baseman Ken Boyer, the 1964 National League Most Valuable Player; and former legendary Red Sox pitcher Luis Tiant.
John received seven votes, while the others received less than five.
Injustice with Tiant?
The Cuban had a record of 229-172 with a 3.30 ERA in 19 Major League seasons. His EFE+ of 114 places him 14 points above average. He was named to three All-Star Games and led his league in shutouts three times and was consistently among the leaders in strikeouts per walks during his peak.
Between 1966 and 1976, he had an ERA+ of 122, 158 wins and 1,671 strikeouts in a total of 379 games (306 starts) and 2,343 innings pitched, recording an earned run average of 3.02. In that span, he had all four of his seasons with 20 wins or more.
La Cobra, one of the best
Parker, nicknamed “The Cobra,” was one of the best players in the Major Leagues from 1975 to 1979, winning consecutive batting titles with the Pirates in 1977 and 1978 and earning the 1978 Most Valuable Player award when he hit .334 with 30 home runs and 117 RBIs.
He won World Series titles with the Pirates in 1979 and the Oakland Athletics in 1989, and was also known for his powerful throwing arm, immortalized in the 1979 All-Star Game when he threw out a runner at third base already. another on the plate.
Mid-career was marred by drug use, injuries and weight problems, but he returned to his hometown Cincinnati Reds in 1984 and revitalized his career with a second-place finish in Most Valuable Player voting. in 1985, when he hit .312 with 34 home runs and a league-leading 125 RBI.
Parker would later move to Oakland, where he became the respected veteran designated hitter alongside Mark McGwire and José Canseco for the “Bash Brothers” teams in 1988 and 1989.
Parker peaked at just 24.5% on the BBWAA ballot and had appeared on three previous veterans’ ballots, without receiving enough votes to register. While modern analysis doesn’t rate him as a strong Hall of Fame candidate with a career WAR of 40.1, he fares better in traditional counting statistics: 2,712 hits, 339 home runs and 1,493 RBIs. Add to that a career .290 batting average and the Most Valuable Player award, and it was enough to finally get him in.
Parker, who was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2012, also remains a fan favorite, especially among those who remember his best years in the late 1970s.
Allen, player of 351 home runs
Allen was one of the most powerful hitters of his era, leading his league four times in OPS, three times in slugging percentage and twice in home runs. Allen, the 1972 American League Most Valuable Player with the White Sox, had one of the best rookie seasons of all time with the Phillies in 1964, when he hit .318 and led the National League in total bases and runs scored. .
Allen was a controversial player during his career (he was traded five times) and was also a victim of the racial elements of his era, suffering abuse while playing for Arkansas in the minor leagues in 1963 and later during his years in Philadelphia.
Allen put up big numbers in the low offensive context of the late 1960s and early 1970s, and modern analytics helped make him a more viable Hall of Fame candidate. His adjusted OPS+ of 156 is tied for 16th among players since 1900 with at least 5,000 plate appearances. He is the same as Frank Thomas and taller than Willie Mays (155) and Henry Aaron (155).
During his peak years from 1964 to 1974, Allen ranked fifth in home runs, seventh in runs batted in and scored, second in slugging percentage, first in OPS+, and sixth in WAR among position players.
During his 15 years on the BBWAA ballot, he only got 18.9%, where he was faulted for his career totals of 351 home runs and fewer than 2,000 hits (1,848). However, he had appeared on six previous veterans committee ballots, falling one vote behind in 2015 and 2022.
