With all the talk these days about the Hall of Fame and who is worthy or not, I thought it'd be fun to revisit my blog post from just about eight years ago, and my 1970 Hall of Fame "induction" card of former pitcher Jesse Haines:
Haines
has always been one of the players held up as an example of the
nepotism by the Veteran's Committee in the early 70's and who they
selected for the Hall. And rightly so.
Here's the original post:
"One of the more controversial picks for induction, former St. Louis
Cardinals pitcher Jesse Haines is the next member of my Hall of Fame
sub-set, and the final one selected by the Veteran's Committee in 1970.
Admittedly, when taking a gander at Haines' final numbers, nothing
really leaps out at you: 210-158 record, a high 3.64 earned run average,
23 shutouts and 981 strikeouts over 19-years.
But he WAS an important member of the "Gashouse Gang" Cardinal
teams of the era, so I'm sure he got some help by former players who
were part of the committee.
All told, Haines had three 20-win seasons, two sub-3.00 E.R.A.
years, and went 3-1 in World Series play with a sparkling 1.67 E.R.A.,
including 2-0 with a shutout in the 1926 championship year for the Cards
over the Yankees.
Personally I don't see how Haines made the cut, but then again I
didn't see him pitch so I'll chalk it up to the Veteran's Committee
knowing what they were doing.
But Bill James and his awesome book "Whatever Happened to the Hall
of Fame" has something to say about it. Worth the read if you haven't
already."