The High Court

Deep Thinkers Only...

Cooperstown (Hot) Cornermen

September 22, 2005

 

I had a special request a few weeks ago to produce a Hall of Fame case for former St. Louis Cardinal Ken Boyer.  Sure, I thought, that will be easy.  Boyer was a terrific player, a fact I had been aware of since I first became interested in the game.  Because when I really became a baseball fan, Boyer was managing the Cardinals, my favorite team.  My dad had grown up watching Boyer and following his career, and he was quick to share with me what a superb all-around performer Boyer had been for the Redbirds in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s.  Boyer’s managerial career would end early in the 1980 season (he was hired in ’78), and unfortunately Ken would lose a battle with cancer in 1982.  Boyer deserves, I believe, the posthumous honor of induction into the Hall of Fame.  But here’s where it gets complicated:  I cannot make a case for Boyer without also making one for another Midwestern star, former Chicago Cub Ron Santo.  I hope Cardinal fans can forgive me for advocating the case of a Cub, but it would be an injustice not to lobby for the classy Santo as well.  He and Boyer are two of the great gentlemen ever to play the game.

 

There has been a great deal of grass-roots support for the Hall-worthiness of both of these outstanding players.  I know in Boyer’s case he is often compared to Hall of Famer and former Baltimore Orioles great Brooks Robinson.  This is an accurate comparison from a statistical standpoint offensively, but it is a comparison I would rather not see made.  Both Boyer and Santo were better offensive players, at their best, than Robinson.  But Brooks Robinson is one of the greatest defensive players of all-time (16 Gold Gloves), and he would be worthy of his Hall spot even if he had never swung a bat.  Comparing anyone to Robinson offensively (and he was actually quite solid) is like comparing players to Ozzie Smith offensively.  There are lots of players with similar numbers with the bat, but both Robinson and Smith are in Cooperstown because of their defensive prowess.  It makes little sense to use them as offensive standards.  I would rather compare Boyer and Santo to another Hall of Famer, a man I believe may be one of the most underappreciated greats of all-time, former Milwaukee Braves third baseman Eddie Mathews.

 

Mathews is perhaps best known as Hank Aaron’s sidekick with the Braves, but Mathews could have been a leading man in his own right.  One of the top sluggers of all-time with 512 homers, Mathews finished in the top five in NL home runs nine consecutive times, in the top eight 12 times.  He led the league twice, in 1953 and 1959. His slugging percentage topped .600 three times, and he was in the NL’s top ten in slugging eight times.  He finished in the top ten in RBI eight times, driving in 90 or more runs ten times.  Mathews was in the NL’s top eight in runs nine times, and in the league’s top nine in total bases eight times.  Mathews was also an on-base machine, finishing in the top four in walks twelve times, leading the league four times.  He was a nine time All-Star and was in the top ten in MVP voting four times, including finishing second twice (’53 and ’59).  Mathews was also a very competent defensive third baseman, despite never winning a Gold Glove.  That was due in large part to two factors: One, Gold Gloves were not handed out until 1957 (and in ’57 there was only one MLB award given, not separate league awards);  Number two would be the gentlemen we are about to discuss, who would win 10 of the next 11 Gold Gloves at third base from 1958-1968.  Gold Gloves or not, Mathews (who also played on two World Series Winners…Milwaukee in ’57 and Detroit in ’68) is in the argument for greatest third baseman of all-time.  For my money, the answer to that is Mike Schmidt, but Eddie Mathews would be right there in the two spot.  And as great as he was, both Ken Boyer and Ron Santo compare very favorably to Mr. Mathews.  And that is why they too should be in Cooperstown.

 

You will occasionally see numbers on Ken Boyer that break down his career into seasonal averages.  And that is a mistake.  Boyer was never healthy enough to play more than 113 games after 1966, so there is really little point in examining the last three seasons of his career.  Where the focus should be, is on 1955 through 1964, when Kenny Boyer was at his best.  During that period of time, there was not a single third baseman in baseball with a better all-around game than Boyer.  Robinson was better defensively, Mathews was a shade better offensively.  But nobody could put it together like Boyer.  Boyer topped 90 RBI eight times from ’55-’64, including seven consecutive seasons from 1958-1964 (topping 100 twice, in 63-64).  His RBI totals would put him in the NL’s top eight seven times during the span, including a league-leading 119 in 1964.  During this stretch of brilliance Boyer would finish in the NL’s top ten in batting average, hits, walks, and on-base percentage five times.  He would finish in the league’s top ten in home runs, triples, slugging, OPS, and runs four times.  Boyer would compile top ten numbers in total bases on six occasions.  For good measure, he even finished third in the league in stolen bases in 1955.

 

Boyer was the NL’s best defensive third baseman for many years, winning five Gold Gloves from 1958 through 1963 (Jim Davenport of the San Francisco Giants interrupted his run in 1962…Santo would start his own streak in ’64).  He was a seven-time All-Star and placed in the top ten of the NL’s MVP voting four times, winning the award in 1964.  Boyer would lead the Cardinals to the World Series, where they won in seven games over the Yankees, with Boyer homering twice.  Boyer’s home run totals never near Mathews’, but Boyer was the better hitter, compiling a .287 lifetime average to Mathews’ .271.  Mathews’ propensity for drawing walks gives him the advantage over Boyer in OBP, and his power gives him a sizeable lead in slugging.  But both Boyer’s OBP (.349) and his slugging (.462) are good for his era.  In fact, in terms of run production, Boyer was nearly Mathews’ equal, averaging an RBI ever 6.5 at-bats to Mathews’ 5.9.  Giving Boyer at least a slight advantage defensively, you can see that these two fine third-sackers are very nearly equals.  And given the fact we just rated Mathews’ as our second-best third baseman of all-time, that speaks very well for Ken Boyer’s case.

 

Ron Santo’s case for Cooperstown is just as compelling, if not more so, as Boyer’s.  Santo is known by younger generations as the lovable, emotional WGN radio analyst for the Cubs.  But for older baseball fans, especially older Cub fans, Santo’s Hall quest has made him the living embodiment of the Cub experience.  Despite Santo’s brilliance, and that of Ernie Banks, Billy Williams, and Ferguson Jenkins, he never played in a single postseason game.  The fact is, however, that Ron Santo does not need any other accomplishments to his credit.  What the man achieved over a 15-year career is enough.

 

Like Boyer, Santo’s work should be weighed on his full seasons in the big leagues.  Omitting his first season and his last, we see a period from 1961-1973 that was marked by both brilliance and workman-like consistency.  Santo hit 328 of his 342 lifetime home runs during that span, finishing in the NL’s top nine in homers seven times.  A terrific run producer, Santo put together seven top tens in RBI as well.  His consistency mirrored Boyer’s, with eight consecutive seasons of 90 RBI or more, including four seasons of better than 100.  Santo was in the NL’s top ten in RBI in each of those years.  Much like Mathews, Santo was a walk machine.  Seven times in his career Santo topped 86 walks in a season, leading the league four times.  He was in the NL’s top ten in walks nine times.  Santo’s impressive walk totals allowed him to lead the league in on-base percentage twice, with seven top tens.  Three times he was a top ten finisher in the batting race, and he garnered five top tens in slugging, OPS, and total bases.

 

Santo picked up Boyer’s legacy as the NL’s best defensive third baseman, winning five consecutive Gold Gloves from 1964-1968.  He was a nine-time All-Star, and he finished in the top eight in NL MVP voting four times.  Santo, like Boyer, was not quite the home run hitter Mathews was, despite his own impressive power numbers.  But he was nearly his equal as a run producer, averaging a run batted in every 6.1 at-bats.  His .277 career average is ten points less than Boyer’s, but thanks to his ability to draw a walk, his OBP rises nearly to Mathews’ level at .362.  Santo’s .464 slugging is nearly equal to Boyer’s .462.  As with Boyer, it is probably fair to give Santo a slight advantage over Mathews’ defensively, which also puts Santo in the Hall of Famer’s class.

 

There are also two more important factors that come into play when considering Boyer and Santo.  One is character.  Boyer and Santo were both regarded as class acts, on and off the field.  They were leaders who loved the game and played it the right way.  Character may not keep players out of the Hall (and probably shouldn’t), but it certainly should be considered as an asset for induction.  Anytime you can partner performance with character…well…let’s just say the Hall of Fame can never have too much of that.  The second important factor is history.  And history says this…third base is the most under-represented of the positions in the Hall...because it is the least represented.  Even with Wade Boggs’ recent induction, there are only 12 third basemen in Cooperstown.  Only catchers are close with such low representation, with 14 (shortstops and center fielders lead the way for position players with 22) members in the Hall.  And in my humble opinion, only three of the 12 Hall of Fame third sackers are clearly better than Ken Boyer and Ron Santo (Mike Schmidt, Mathews, and George Brett).  The newly minted HOFer Boggs, despite his 3,000 hits, was not a better all-around player than either of these guys.  And with my apologies, I have to say I would rather have Boyer and Santo in place of Freddy Lindstrom and George Kell.  And I don’t want either of those guys thrown out.  I just want Boyer and Santo in.  Now.

 

Ken Boyer and Ron Santo are, as they have been, in the hands of the Hall’s Veterans Committee.  If anybody will recognize the worthiness of these outstanding candidates, I would think it would surely be these living members of the Hall of Fame.  Boyer and Santo were the kind of men and baseball players worthy of our admiration and respect.  It is my hope that I can raise awareness of the greatness of these terrific performers (as well as the greatness of the underappreciated Mr. Mathews), and I also hope that Ron Santo will get his ticket to Cooperstown while he is still with us.  These are the greatest third basemen of an era (I believe Boyer, Mathews, Santo, and Robinson are the best third baseman from 1950-1975) and they deserve to be immortalized in baseball’s greatest shrine.

 

 

 

Contact The Chief Justice at chiefjustice@thehighcourtofsports.com.

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