Once again, we find ourselves looking at a Hall of Fame inductee
who leaves us scratching our heads, this time with the next player voted
into Cooperstown in 1971, former pitcher Rube Marquard.
Take a look:
Here's a guy who pitched 18-years in the Majors, from 1908-1925,
for the New York Giants, Brooklyn Dodgers, Cincinnati Reds and Boston
Braves, and posted a relatively pedestrian 201-177 record with a 3.08
earned run average, 30 shutouts and 1593 strikeouts.
Granted, the three year period of 1911-1913 were superstar caliber,
as he posted win totals of 24, 26 and 23 with E.R.A.'s all at about
2.50.
But that was it!
Really, look up his stats. He never even had what you'd say was an "all-star" year before or after again.
So are we to assume the man was inducted into the Hall of Fame based on THREE seasons?
Noted Baseball author Bill James claims Marquard is "probably the worst starting pitcher in the Hall of Fame."
I'm not trying to rag on Marquard here, but starting this thread a
few weeks ago has me scrutinizing all these players in light of today's
debate of "who deserves induction and who doesn't" because of the PED
age.
Crazy, but this guy is in the Hall but other pitchers like Kaat, Morris, John, Mullane, et al are not.
How about getting Bob Caruthers inducted? He's STILL the only
pitcher in Major League history to retire with over 200 wins and less
than 100 losses.
Pretty nifty in my book (Pedro JUST MISSED matching this feat
before retiring, as he got tagged for his 100th loss during his final
abbreviated season with the Phillies in 2009).