Old history post - sorry, but…
Has there ever been any talk of Al Bubba Baker going to the HOF? Seriously, google him. His CV is quite long and impressive. (like my Johnson)
His sack total is all time business high. ROY, 3x pro bowl. On and on and on…
Why no HOF? Did he piss off the writers? What gives?
Off the top of my head. Not a high enough overall total.
BUT the real reason I believe is he played for a loser. The HOF loves themselves players that win SB.
Remember when Stafford played for the Lions setting all time numbers and everyone said he would never be a HOF quality. Hmmmmm that narrative has changed all the sudden and now many announcer talk like it is not a question of if but when.
Winning matters and it matters a ton. The mere fact Eli is even discussed about being in the HOF is a joke but proves my point in my opinion. He has the numbers of a journeyman practically.
Not just winning but playing for a big market. It matters in baseball and matters in football.
23 (unofficial) sacks in his rookie year. All time record
131 career sacks. 21st all time.
There’s a lot of guys like him that will never get into the hall of fame because sacks weren’t officially counted until later.
Big market and ass kissing the writers/electors. Why Jack Morris didn’t get in until the players elected him.
Big market matters too. But there’s something that happened between the Lions and the league office. Did Willie Clay Ford embarass Rozelle at the winter meetings or something? Weren’t they both big drinkers?
There’s some history out there. Don’t know what.
Jack Morris shouldn’t be in the Hall of Fame IMO. ERA of damn near 4. Jack Morris in the Hall of Fame by Vida Blur is not? What are we doing here?
Jack Morris vs. Vida Blue: Head-to-Head Stats Comparison | Stathead.com I would sure like to see Vida Blue in the Hall of Fame. I would put them in there over Tiant. Taking a look at the comparison though he and Morris were strikingly similar and the era differential is pretty much washed out by run scoring environment due to the difference in one decade from when they started their careers. Walk rate is same strikeout rates same Morris started 50 more games and had 45 more wins so we see a little bit more of that pitching to the score Bulldog narrative that people associated with Morris.
Three rings for Vida Blue and a Cy and an MVP with a career like his to me makes him a Hall of Famer. The voters when he came up though were very much counting stat guys and 207 wins look pretty s***** compared to the guys coming in behind him who were approaching 300 and passing while they were still playing and some of them for quite a long time. That’s the other part with Blue is that he didn’t pitch deep into his career from an age standpoint he was done at 33 and was up and down for a few years prior to that so he had this marvelous Peak but sure didn’t have the career length of a lot of those guys from the '60s and seventies
Blue should be in the Hall but it isn’t one or the other. Their HoF metrics are comparable. Blue is better in some, Morris in others. Blue had the higher peak but fewer peak years.
I’ve never seen either pitch live. And I never saw Vida pitch at all. But I grew up with my dad telling me about seeing 21 year old Vida pitch in Oakland while on a date with my mom. My dad sold hotdogs at Candlestick growing up. Saw Koufax, Gibson, Drysdale, Marachal. He thought early career Vida was that level of dude. Jack Morris was never that level of dude IMO. 
I care about greatness. I don’t think Don Sutton should be in the Hall of Fame either.
And neither should Phil Rizzuto or Johnny Evers or a bunch of other guys.
Neither Blue nor Morris makes a Small Hall. I get the arguments against Morris and I’m not going to try to change your opinion. Don Sutton is kind of a good comp. Very good pitcher who pitched on very good teams for a very long time. Morris was the best pitcher on three different WS winning teams/franchises, He’s in the larger group of players in the Hall who needed help from their teams and sometimes the writers to get there.
I am pretty ambivalent about Sutton. He did stuff no one else has ever done though.
774 career starts? Jesus. Same ERA+ as Vida Blue, pitched almost double the innings…
The other part of the argument is if Blue pitched longer and added more counting stats, he hits age related decline and gis ratios take a hit. That’s why Sutton is in.
Carlton was hot, stinky swamp ass for half a decade at the end.
Perry and Niekro mostly hot ass after 38.
Sutton just kept chugging. League average pitcher age 38-43.
Just wasnt a WOW guy and had a short and flat peak, but a looooong prime
Apparently Don Sutton is a mensch. May have helped his cause as well.
I’d vote for Bubba Baker! He had 56.5 sacks in his first 3 years with the Lions. He was never the same after that but he played with St Louis and Cleveland and did have double digit sacks 3 more times. But his first 3 years in the NFL as a Lion I thought he was the baddest man on the planet.
I did not realize Vida Blue was not in the HOF. There was a trivia question Who was the last switch hitter to win the MVP in the AL? of course everyone thought Mantle but it was Vida. For that 1 year with the A’s in 1971 he was one of the best pitchers I ever saw.
In 1971 Vida Blue had over 300 Ks with 24 complete games and an ERA under 2.00. He lost his fastball and never struck out more than 200 in any year after that. he did win 20 a couple more times but basically became a Don Sutton type pitcher for the rest of his career.
You are always going to have some players that are borderline in any HOF.
Sure there are players that are just obvious. But it gets dicey.
I will always struggle with Frank Gore. Career 4.3 yards per carry average.
He just lived a long time in the NFL 
But he is 3rd or 4th on all time yards.
But I do not ever remember a years except for 1 where he felt like a top 5 back in a season.
Second team All Pro once and 5 Pro Bowls
He is the Jack Morris of HOF guys.
You’ve never seen Morris pitch or just not pitching live?
I think Morris was one of, if not, most dominant pitcher in the 80’s decade.
Live. I saw Morris pitch a ton on TV though I was two young to enjoy his '84 heroics. Probably first saw him pitch on TV in 1987 I’d guess.
Madison Bumgarner is going to be a fascinating one in terms of the MLB Hall of Fame.
Jack was 7-4 in the playoffs before MLB expanded the number of teams in the playoffs.
He threw a 10 inning shutout to win game 7 of the World Series.. 
That single game practically gets 1 foot in the door at Cooperstown.
.
I remember that Twins run very well.
If that is the case then MadBum should be a lock bc Morris wasn’t even a fraction as good of a postseason pitcher as MadBum was.
