from Amazon
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Roy Smalley, (personal) Hall of Famer
I like this post.
If I ever made it to Cooperstown, I would be a bit disappointed that there was not an entire wing devoted to the greatness of Roy Smalley. Sadly, Smalley never sniffed the Hall of Fame, and even more sadly his exclusion is entirely correct. Nevertheless, if I had my own personal Hall, he would be a charter member. I think many baseball fans have a player like Roy Smalley in their background, someone they loved when they were younger for reasons that are a bit tricky to articulate. As a matter of fact, most folks I know tended to have two favorite players as kids, one true superstar and one truly unique to the fan. In my case, I loved Kirby Puckett, but I loved Smalley first. So today, let’s here the tale of Roy Smalley, one time shortstop for the Texas Rangers, Minnesota Twins, Chicago White Sox, and New York Yankees.
I love the idea in the blog post. Poz, for example, has written something along these lines for Duane Kuiper. This blogger (sportsPhd) gives it a good framework. So have it, tell me who your childhood “great” player was that simply would not sniff the HOF. Smalley had 25 WAR, and Kuiper had 2 (TWO!) WAR. I’ll set the maximum WAR at 40, though preferably someone under 30 WAR. And it has to be someone from where you were still in school.
For me, it’s Oil Can Boyd, 16 WAR, though Bill Lee is close (21 WAR).
You guys?