AboutDavid Panian Expertise 1980-present. Please note I really don't know much about Tiger Stadium seats. Most of what I'm able to find out about them I find by doing searches on Google.com. I am also unable to appraise collectibles such as autographed balls or cards.
Expert: David Panian Date: 7/23/2008 Subject: denny mcclain
Question denny was the only modern pitcher to win 31.
he did not go to jail as a player, only as a civilian after
baseball. he should be in the hall of fame, these young
butt heads that vote dont even know who al kaline is
i pound mike @ mike, and first take at espn. no answer
enlighten me
skip largo fl
Answer Hi, Skip.
I respectfully disagree on McLain deserving to be in the Hall of Fame, and all but one voter in 1978 - McLain's only year on the Baseball Writers Association of America ballot - agrees with me.
You can check out all of this on the Hall of Fame's Web site at www.baseballhalloffame.org.
As you know, players need to receive at least 75 percent of the BBWAA's vote to be elected that way. McLain received only one vote of 379 votes cast in 1978. Most of the voters then would have covered him and been very familiar with his playing career.
Even if you leave out his post-baseball criminal activities, his career simply does not make him one of the greatest pitchers of all time.
He barely meets the Hall of Fame's requirement that a player have appeared in 10 seasons. He won only 131 games. His career ERA of 3.39 was just a smidge better than the league average of 3.43.
You might argue that Sandy Koufax got in largely on the strength of a few outstanding seasons. But Koufax's career ERA of 2.76 was almost a run lower than the league average of 3.62. He also never lost 22 games in a season like McLain did, and he had three seasons of 24 or more wins to McLain's two of 24 or more.
McLain struck out less than a batter an inning while Koufax fanned just a little more than a batter an inning.
You also have to recall that McLain was suspended as a player for his relations with gamblers and again for carrying a gun on a team flight. When voting, the voting members of the BBWAA are told to consider "the player's record, playing ability, integrity, sportsmanship, character, and contributions to the team(s) on which the player played."
BBWAA voters have to have at least 10 years of experience covering major league baseball, so most of them aren't all that young. For example, Mike Greenberg and Mike Golic do not have Hall of Fame votes because they haven't covered baseball full-time. The voters are all current or former newspaper or magazine writers. Some, like Peter Gammons, Tim Kurkjian and Jayson Stark, have moved on to Web sites like ESPN.com.
And they have to have actually covered games. Guys who work for Web sites that do analysis - like www.baseballprospectus.com - don't qualify for the vote. Maybe they will some day, but I wouldn't hold my breath.
Broadcasters don't qualify, either. Ernie Harwell only has a Veterans Committee vote because he won the Ford C. Frick Award. Guys like Jon Miller at ESPN or Josh Lewin of Fox Sports in Texas or Joe Buck on Fox Sports aren't eligible.
But at this point the writers have little to do with possibly getting McLain into the Hall. The Veterans Committee process is kind of complicated, but it's spelled out here:
