Some idiot on "Cold Pizza" (the worst show on television, including "Girlfriends") argued tonight that Raffy Palmeiro shouldn't be in the Hall of Fame. Why not? Because he's never started an all-star game.
A thing that does not matter.
A thing that is determined by the opposite of logic -- namely, fan opinion.
Not voting for someone because he never started an all-star game is like not voting for a congressman because he was never voted "most likely to be a congressman" in high school.
Palmeiro will soon have 3000 hits. He has 563 HR. He is a model of consistency. His lifetime RC27 is almost 7 (higher than, among others, Dave Winfield and Willie Stargell), including one year over 10. Think he only achieved the stats because of his home parks? His career OPS+ is 132 (Eddie Murray 129, Yaz 130, Frank Robinson 139).
Baseball-reference.com lists the following 10 guys as the most similar through age 39:
Eddie Murray (898) *
Frank Robinson (884) *
Carl Yastrzemski (816) *
Fred McGriff (812)
Al Kaline (805) *
Reggie Jackson (792) *
Willie Mays (783) *
Dave Winfield (755) *
Mike Schmidt (736) *
Andre Dawson (725)
I know that reasonable people may disagree on this, but in my opinion, he is a hall of famer. Maybe not very first ballot, but he is a hall of famer. To me, Fred McGriff is the borderline case (very similar RC27 and OPS+ to Raffy, not as good raw numbers), and Canseco is the "not a chance in hell" case, even before the steroids flap. Raffy is, to me, a pretty clear-cut "he's in" case.
Regardless, the point is, whether you think he's in or not, "he never started an all-star game" is a completely, utterly, thoroughly irrelevant and stupid and meaningless thing to bring up in the argument. Take that, "Cold Pizza."
Labels: all-star game, cold pizza, hall of fame, rafael palmeiro