Modern Era Hall of Famers: Marvin Miller and Ted Simmons

[tony&rodney]

I am delighted that Miller has finally been recognized. He is controversial, for sure, but a giant in the history of baseball history; Marvin miller absolutely belong in the Baseball Hall of Fame.

I'm always happy for Ted Simmons - he was a great player and it seems there are some people that simply do not understand the difficulty of catching. Take a look at how few catchers are in the Hall of Fame.

The Blyleven-Drysdale comments are fun. Koufax and Martinez? I saw both dozens of times and they are both very special pitchers. However, Sandy Koufax, in an era of Bob Gibson and Juan Marichal, was simple the most dominating pitcher of the modern era in my opinion. Game 7 of the 1965 World Series is just one game of the evidence supporting my position. Boy, did I love watching Pedro Martinez though, too.

[Nine of twelve]

I know it is a tangent to the topic of this thread, but others have brought up the topic of Bert Blyleven and this needs to be said.

The case for Blyleven in the HOF can be summed up very succinctly. When he retired he was third in career strikeouts. Third out of the thousands upon thousands of men who pitched in the majors. Only Nolan Ryan and Steve Carlton had more.

I repeat for emphasis: ****ing third all-time!!!

It was a travesty that he was not voted in on the first-ballot. What if Harmon had been made to wait 13 years to be inducted because even though he hit a lot of home runs he didn't have a very high batting average, he never won a World Championship, and he struck out a lot? This was the same thing. Unforgivable.

[cardsfan]

Killebrew was an 11-time All-star. Blyleven 2. Obviously, there weren't many years in which the managers thought he was the ace on his team or a top 10 pitcher. He lasted a long time.