Like a woman who is always re-arranging the furniture or re-arranging her cabinets, I am forever re-organizing baseball history in my mind.   Recently it occurred to me that one could “organize” Hall of Fame candidates in this way.

            Let me say up front that this is a reader-participation series.   I am posting this idea as a way to organize an argument.  In the absence of an argument, it is an empty shell.   I am counting on you to hit that button at the bottom of the page, and tell us what you think about the candidates in each group. . . .where you would place them within the structure that is suggested here.  And I am counting on you to respond to the arguments made by the other readers who do post.

            OK, a player who is actually IN the Hall of Fame has one of three codes:  QL, Q1, or L1.  The Code “QL” indicates that his career has both the quality and the length that we would normally associate with a Hall of Famer.   Stan Musial is QL, and Mays, and Ted Williams, Aaron, Walter Johnson, Spahn, Steve Carlton, Tom Seaver, Babe Ruth. . ..players who had both long careers and several years of such quality that the player would have been selected to the Hall of Fame even if he had been seriously injured at age 32.

            The Code “Q1” indicates that the player was selected to the Hall of Fame based on the Quality of his performance, even though he may not have had the number of Quality Seasons that we would like a Hall of Famer to have.   Roy Campanella is Q1, and Mickey Cochrane, Sandy Koufax, Dizzy Dean, Addie Joss, Phil Rizzuto, Bobby Doerr, and Chick Hafey.   We’re not here to argue about whether a player should be in the Hall of Fame or not; if he’s in, he’s in.   He is coded either as Hall of Famer based on very high quality of performance in a short career, or based on the standard of excellence and consistency in a long career.   Early Wynn is perhaps the ultimate L1 Hall of Famer, but Tony Perez is L1, and Ted Lyons, Red Ruffing, Eddie Murray, Dave Winfield and Sam Rice.

            Hall of Fame candidates—those not in the Hall of Fame—could be sorted in this way.   We’ll start with those who are eligible, but have not been selected.

            If an eligible player is of the same caliber as the Q1 players at his position—that is, if his selection would not drag down the average quality of the Q1 players at his position at all—then the appropriate code for him is Q2.  

            I am trying to avoid talking about specific players here, because I wanted to make this about your opinions, rather than mine, but the most obvious example of a Q2 player might be Dick Allen.   Tony Oliva might be Q2, but perhaps that’s more debatable, and, again, I didn’t want to cut off anybody else’s opinion there.

            If the player’s career was

            a) more brilliant than that of at least two members of the Q1 group at his position, and

            b) of such quality that one more MVP-candidate type season would have made him a no-questions asked Hall of Famer,

            then the player should be coded Q3.

            David Cone might be Q3; not saying that he is, but Cone’s career was probably better than at least two right-handed starting pitchers who have been selected, and he did win a Cy Young Award.   I would have to think that if you added another Cy Young-quality season onto the top of that, the pile would have to topple over into the Hall of Fame area.  Oliva is Q3 if he isn’t Q2.

            If the player was

            a) a better-qualified Hall of Famer than at least two players who are in (at any position), and

            b) more Q than L,

            then the player should be coded Q4.

            Dick Groat might be an example of a Q4 Hall of Fame candidate, or Pete Runnels.   I’m showing my age, aren’t I?   Howard Johnson.   Eric Davis.

            If the player was clearly not a Hall of Famer, but did perform at a Hall of Fame level for a period of 4 to 6 years, that would be Q5.  Elston Howard might be an example of a Q5 player (although Sparky Lyle did argue, in The Bronx Zoo, for Howard to be elected.)

            If the player was clearly not a Hall of Famer, but did perform at a Hall of Fame level for 2 to 3 years, that would be Q6.   Ken Caminiti might be Q6.

            If the player was more Q than L, but never performed at a Hall of Fame level, then that would be Q7.

            You could probably fill in the “L” codes as well as I could.

            If an eligible player is of the same caliber as the L1 players at his position, and his selection would not drag down the average quality of the L1 players at his position at all, then the appropriate code for him is L2.   The most obvious example of an L2 player is probably Bert Blyleven.   Others might be Rusty Staub and Vada Pinson.

            If his career was

            a) longer than that of at least two members of the L1 group at his position and of equal quality, and

            b) of such quality that one (more) MVP-candidate type season, within the games that he actually played, would have made him a no-questions asked Hall of Famer,

            then the player should be coded L3.  

            If the player was

            a) a better-qualified Hall of Famer than at least two players who are in (at any position), and

            b) more L than Q,

            then the player should be coded L4.

            If the player was clearly not a Hall of Famer, but did perform at a high level for a period of 2200 games or more (or less if a catcher), then the player should be coded L5.

            If the player was clearly not a Hall of Famer, but did perform at a high level for 1700 games or more (less for a catcher), that would be L6.

            If the player was more L than Q, but played less than 1700 games, then that would be L7. 

            And I would suggest that, for a catcher, you could divide his games by about .70.    1540 games for a catcher would equal 2200 for a position player, and 1200 would equal 1700.

            I’ve dealt so far only with eligible Hall of Fame candidates, not with ineligible players or players not yet eligible.   For active players and ineligible players, the codes are the same except for three things.

            1)  Ineligible players may be coded “QL”.   Eligible players who have not been selected for the Hall cannot be coded QL, regardless of what we might think about them; it’s just not an available code for them.   But Ken Griffey is a QL, and Roger Clemens and Greg Maddux.

            2)  Ineligible players should be coded with an “x” on the end to indicate that they are not yet eligible.    Derek Jeter, for example, would be QLx, and Ichiro would probably be Q1x.   Griffey, Clemens and Maddux are QLx.

            3)  Eligible players who have not been selected cannot be coded “Q1” or “L1”, because marking them with such a code is really a way of making an argument for them, rather than placing them where they belong in the classification scheme.    We are regarding it as illogical to say that a player is an obvious Hall of Famer, but merely hasn’t been selected.    It may be true, but there’s an implicit contradiction that we’re going to skate around.

            However, active and recently retired (and ineligible) players may be coded Q1x or L1x, because there is no implicit contradiction in so doing.

            Why are we doing this?

            Because it may help us to think more clearly about Hall of Fame candidates.   It may help us to “see” things that we haven’t seen before, or it may prove to be a useful way to explain our conclusions to somebody who doesn’t get it and thinks Jack Clark is a Hall of Famer.  This is a way of asking, about each player, “Where does he fit, in an array of Hall of Fame candidates?”

Catchers

            Again, not trying to pre-empt your options, but I would have to think that Yogi Berra was the only catcher who would be coded QL.   Possibly Bench; I’ll leave that up to you.  Other Catchers in the Hall of Fame include:

            Johnny Bench

            Roger Bresnahan

            Gary Carter

            Roy Campanella  (Obvious Q1)

            Mickey Cochrane (Obvious Q1)

            Bill Dickey

            Buck Ewing

            Rick Ferrell      (Obvious L1)

            Carlton Fisk

            Gabby Hartnett

            King Kelly        (Obvious Q1)

            Ernie Lombardi

            Ray Schalk (Obvious L1)

            King Kelly only caught a few hundred games and played more games at other positions, but is most famous as a catcher, and I decided to list him there because he illustrates the idea of a Q1 better than anyone else except Campanella.

            Other Hall of Fame candidates among catchers include but are not limited to:

            Charlie Bennett

            Bob Boone

            Del Crandall

            Walker Cooper

            Spud Davis

            Bill Freehan

            Tom Haller

            Elston Howard

            Jason Kendall

            Johnny Kling

            Sherm Lollar

            Javier Lopez

            Tim McCarver

            Thurman Munson

            Chief Meyers

            Lance Parrish

            Tony Pena

            Mike Piazza

            Jorge Posada

            Ivan Rodriguez

            Wally Schang

            Ted Simmons

            Jim Sundberg

            Gene Tenace?

            Joe Torre

            Jason Varitek

            I will leave you to debate these names for a couple of days, and I beg you to participate in that debate.   I will read what you have to say and, in a couple of days, offer my own opinions, and then we’ll move on to the first basemen, OK?

            But first, there was one thing I wanted to say.   Delmar Wesley Crandall was one hell of a player.   Nobody talks about him anymore, and maybe he wasn’t a Hall of Famer.  Maybe he’s an L4 or an L6 or a Q3; I don’t know.

            But he was a tremendous player.    Look at the positives:

            1)  A durable catcher, leading the National League in games caught five times,

            2)  Provided true Gold Glove quality defense, year in and year out,

            3)  Hit as high (as a regular) as .297 and .294,

            4)  Hit 15 to 26 homers eight straight years,

5)  Threw out almost 50% of opposing base stealers, and

            6)  Was the starting catcher on two National League pennant winners.  

            And he compiled the hitting stats he did despite playing almost his entire career in pitcher’s parks.   His career average was 17 points higher on the road than in his home parks, and he hit 23 more homers on the road than in his home park.