In death, Gil Hodges is almost more influential than in life.
The iconic Brooklyn Dodgers first baseman, who died of a heart attack two days shy of his 48th birthday in 1972, has inspired everything from newspaper articles to Facebook groups in recent years calling for his Hall of Fame selection. .
Hodges came up short with the Baseball Writers Association of America in his fifteenth and final year of eligibility in 1983 when he received 63.4 percent of the vote, less than the 75 percent needed for induction. He is one of the most votes ever for a non-Hall of Fame man and, in fact, six players who got fewer votes than Hodges in 1983 have been selected to Cooperstown.
Hodges is eligible to be selected by the Veterans Committee, and whether he is ultimately honored could depend on the following:
Pro
1. Hodges was close to writers like recent Veterans Committee picks: In the past 20 years, the Veterans Committee has named 10 modern-era Major League Baseball players to the Hall of Fame. The committee’s task is to find overlooked players, but it tends to honor players who gained significant support with the writers. The committee’s recent honorees appeared on the writers’ ballot for 13 years each, on average, and Jim Bunning and Nellie Fox each were within one percent of the necessary votes. Of the remaining eight players, Hodges garnered a higher percentage of writers’ votes than seven.
2. Sentimental appeal: In addition to inspiring newspaper articles and Facebook endorsements, Hodges was mentioned in the 1989 film. field of dreams as one of the ghost ball players, and Roger Kahn wrote about him in the boys of summer.
3. Hodges is among the best defensive first basemen of all time: He won three consecutive Gold Glove Awards from 1957 to 1959 and led all NL first basemen in fielding percentage four times, among other things. For life, Hodges ranks second in National League history with 1,281 assists and 1,614 double plays.
Scam
1. Hodges’ offensive numbers don’t compare to many Hall of Famers: By no means did Hodges post bad career numbers. His 370 home runs are more than Joe DiMaggio, Ralph Kiner or Johnny Mize. It’s just that there’s little that’s spectacular about Hodges’ overall totals, from his .273 batting average to his .487 slugging percentage to his 1,921 career hits. None of the ten players Baseball Reference lists as most similar to Hodges offensively are in Cooperstown.
2. His career was deceptively short: Although Hodges appeared in 18 seasons, he only had 12 with at least 400 plate appearances and was a bench player in his last four seasons.
3. Defense is often not a ticket to Cooperstown: For every defensive wizard like Brooks Robinson, Ozzie Smith or Bill Mazeroski in the Hall of Fame, there are many more offensive stalwarts like Babe Ruth, Hank Aaron or Ted Williams. In fact, two of the greatest defensive first basemen of all time, Keith Hernandez and Hal Chase, aren’t in Cooperstown. Chase was banned from the game for gambling, while Hernandez had well-documented drug problems and, like Hodges, quickly declined late in his career.
4. The Veterans Committee moves slowly and many worthy players could be considered as well: It’s not hard to make a list of the top ten non-Hall of Fame baseball players. In fact, many former All Stars came up short on writers and, like Hodges, exhausted their 15 years of eligibility, including Roger Maris, Don Newcombe, Tony Oliva, Maury Wills, and Tommy John. For the past 20 years, the Veterans Committee has honored an average of one modern-era player every two years, sometimes waiting decades to sign forgotten men. The most recent player selected by the committee, Joe Gordon in 2009, last appeared on the writers’ ballot in 1970.
Bottom line: Hodges’ vote totals indicate he may be selected by the Veterans Committee in the next 10 to 15 years, but that’s not a sure thing.