Lee Smith and Harold Baines elected to Baseball Hall of Fame

Lee Smith and Harold Baines elected to Baseball Hall of Fame Dec 12, 2018 14:04:49 GMT klawrencio79 likes this

Quote

Post by tristramshandy on Dec 12, 2018 14:04:49 GMT

Dec 12, 2018 7:22:22 GMT millar70 said:

Dec 12, 2018 6:01:37 GMT tristramshandy said:

One of the arguments I've heard for Baines is that he missed a combined 119 games because of the '81, '94, and '95 strikes. He finished his career with 2866 hits. If he just got one hit in each of those games, he's up to 2985 hits, but because he hit .286 in 1981, .294 in 1994, and .299 in 1995, he'd be getting more than one per game on average multiple times, which would give him 3000+ hits.

Beyond that, Baines hit a home run every 13.39% of his hits.

Baines ended his career with 384 home runs.

If you divide 16 into the 119 games that he missed due to strikes, you get 13.44%.

If he hit 400 home runs and had 3000 hits, is anyone arguing about his inclusion into the hall of fame?

So now we vote guys in because of what they might have done?

I wouldn't, and I wouldn't have voted Baines in. He's sort of the hitting version of Don Sutton, a compiler with great longevity.

That being said, the only person who has more hits than Baines who won't be in the Hall of Fame (minus Bonds and Palmeiro who aren't in because of steroids) is Omar Vizquel, and Vizquel only has 11 more hits than Baines.

I don't think Baines should be in, but people who are treating this like the greatest injustice in sports history are more ridiculous than the group of sixteen who got him in.