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Baseball history: Players who finished in the top ten in home runs the most times, how Jim Rice got into the HOF, unlikely centerfielders

Wednesday 3/13/24

I don't know this for certain, but I believe three players are tied for having finished in the top ten in home runs in their league the most times--eighteen!--in baseball history. They are Hank Aaron, Babe Ruth--no surprises there--and...Mel Ott. Shows why you always have to consider era. Ott had 511 home runs. You'd think to do this you'd perhaps need more.


Jim Rice is often deemed as not being Hall of Fame worthy by analytics people, and there aren't a lot of people who think he's more than a borderline guy who managed to squeak in and a low-level Hall of Famer. He didn't walk. As we've seen again and again, for all of the hullabaloo, modern analytics, on the offensive side, is really about how much you walk.


Standing in the game is rarely taken into consideration, because rare is the person who does not believe and act as if the world began the moment they came into it or started looking at it a certain way. During Rice's time, he was this urban legend-type ballplayer, a cause for the telling of tales. Some of them tall, sure--but he had a Casey at the Bat thing going on for a number of years. What I would say about Rice is this--if he walked more, yes, he'd have a higher OBP (definitely) and OPS+ (probably), but I don't think he'd be in the Hall of Fame. He's there for the home runs and RBI totals. Season totals. His in-season clout. Not career-numbers clout. That was his ticket. That was what made him fearsome. That made his reputation. He was a slugger. Force and power. Lower those numbers, reduce that rep, boost the WAR, the OBP, and not only isn't he in Cooperstown, he's not even much remembered. There's no need to bring him up or call him to mind.


It pleases me that men with the body types of Gorman Thomas and Hack Wilson were centerfielders. Baseball is a game of unlikeliness. Things that you wouldn't think would or could happen do happen. Unlikeliness in baseball is like some character in a play that is always hanging around. You don't know when that character is going to speak up, or if it will during that evening's performance, but there's always the chance, and it does often enough that the seasoned playgoer is aware it may speak some lines, though without knowing what they might be.



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