Cleveland Guardians, Kenny Lofton, Hall of Fame unsolicited observations

When the Baseball HOF Today’s Game committee meets in December, fans of the Cleveland Guardians will be hoping Kenny Lofton gets his due.

Lofton lasted all of one ballot, as the BBWAA decided he wasn’t worthy and the center fielder failed to  garner 5 percent of the vote.

With the help of Father Time,, Lofton’s statistics are gaining a new appreciation, especially in the world of advanced statistics. His Hall-of-Fame candidacy, once dead, now has a pulse, although he’ll now need 12 of the 16-member panel to earn enshrinement.

It’s certainly going to be an interesting committee meeting, as Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens, now off the BBWAA ballot, will be eligible for discussion.

First things first:  Old school stats. He totaled 2,428 hits in his 17-year career. Of course, 3,000 is the magic number, but being under that total certainly doesn’t mean exclusion. Lofton hit over. 300 in eight different seasons and end his career with a .299 lifetime average.

He was one of the greatest base stealers of all time, swiping 622 bases-15th all time. He was doing this at a time where stolen base numbers plummeted as lineups went power-up because “Chicks dig the long ball.”

He was the prototypical leadoff hitter of the 1990s and the best defensive center fielder in the game, which is saying something considering Ken Griffey Jr. played at the same time.

WAR also tells story of Cleveland Guardians legend Kenny Lofton

Advanced statistics–it’s all about WAR.

Starting in1992 and through the 1999 campaign, Lofton posted a 43.3 WAR, according to Fangraphs. That’s seventh among all position players. It was better than Hall of Famers Larry Walker and Roberto Alomar, and it also topped should-be Hall of Famers Mark McGwire and Rafael Palmeiro.

Bonds. Clemens. McGwire. Palmeiro. Should be Hall of Famers? yeah, that’s right.

I used to be a staunch defender of the Hall, strongly believing it was a just fight to keep Bonds and Clemens out of the Hall.

But you’re going to put David Ortiz in? Don’t they know he had a test come back positive in 2003?

Some question the validity of the test, with the result being dubious. OK, that’s fine, show me. Of course, no one has, and Ortiz gets a pass, because, I guess, he’s a likable figure who played on the Bambino Curse Crashers. It just seems John Q. Public is too eager to overlook the blemish on Big Papi’s record.

At the very least, the hint of suspicion still lingers over Ortiz and that 2003 test.  So, if Ortiz is in, let them all in.

I’ve written it before here, well before ESPN’s Jeff Passan echoed my thoughts after the latest round of Hall-of-Fame voting.

The Baseball Hall of Fame, is a museum, and museums generally deal with this subject we call history. Boring to many of the TikTok gen, but it still gets a few of us worked up. The guy who hit the most home runs in the history of the sport, for as much as we don’t like him, should probably be recognized.

After all, a museum’s job to educate. Say, in 30 years, Bonds gets in through the committee, and after seeing Barry Bonds’s mug in the plaque room, I should leave said museum knowing he put up some of the greatest number’s the game’s ever known, as well as why he’s one of the biggest villains to ever lace ’em up.

As for Curt Schilling being ignored, I really don’t understand. I guess it’s because the masses don’t like the things he’s commented on, politically, after retirement. I don’t even remember what he said, and I didn’t want to Google it. I know he offended an incredible amount of people.

But this is the BASEBALL HOF, not the Hall of Fame of great ballplayers and extraordinary gentlemen.  We’ve managed to muddle it all up, but it’s so simple: If you were a great baseball player, you should be recognized for what you did while you played. It’s the same reason Pete Rose should be in.

Ty Cobb was jerk, to put it politely, but he unquestionably, had a Hall of Fame career. Through education, there’s that word again, we know just how big a jerk he was. And we still live in a society where Cobb is in the Hall, the sun rises in the east and the Guardians are going to have one of the lowest payrolls in the game.

If you’re going to keep players out for things they said, half the enshrinees who played before the television era might get kicked out.

You may hate the person, but the ball player? The Bloody Sock. Breaking the Curse of the Bambina. The guy’s a Hall of Famer and to think otherwise is lunacy.