Jack Morris and Alan Trammell were both elected to the Baseball Hall Of Fame today, as announced on the MLB Network. The two longtime Tigers greats were voted in via the HOF’s Modern Baseball Era Committee, who weighed the cases of Morris, Trammell and eight others who weren’t originally selected in the traditional writers’ vote. (MLB.com’s Barry M. Bloom has the details on the Modern Era Committee’s composition and process.)
Both Morris and Trammell went the full 15 years on the Baseball Writers’ Association Of America ballot without getting the necessary 75% of the vote necessary for election. Still, both players (as well as the others on the Modern Era Committee’s ballot) had their share of supporters who felt that the duo was long overdue to be enshrined in the Hall of Fame.
Morris won 254 games over his 18-year career, with 14 of those seasons coming in Detroit. While advanced metrics weren’t always keen on Morris’ work, he was a prototypical old-school workhorse, tossing complete games in 175 of his 527 career starts. His most famous outing, in fact, was a complete game on the sport’s biggest stage — Morris tossed 10 shutout innings in Game Seven of the 1991 World Series to help lead the Twins to the championship. That was one of four World Series rings Morris earned during his career, while posting a 3.90 ERA and 2478 strikeouts over his 3824 career innings.
Trammell spent all 20 seasons of his career in Detroit, highlighted by his World Series MVP performance in the Tigers’ championship season in 1984. Trammell hit .285/.352/.415 with 185 homers over 9376 career plate appearances, with six All-Star appearances, four Gold Gloves and three Silver Slugger Awards to his credit. Despite this impressive resume, Trammell’s overall steady play may have actually led to his being underrated in comparison to star shortstops of his era (as recently argued by MLB.com’s Joe Posnanski), hence his long wait for Cooperstown.
The Modern Era Committee focused on names from 1970-87, with other candidates including union leader Marvin Miller and former star players Steve Garvey, Tommy John, Don Mattingly, Dale Murphy, Dave Parker, Ted Simmons, and Luis Tiant. Simmons came closest to induction, falling just a single vote shy of the 12-vote threshold. Miller was the next-highest candidate, earning seven of 16 votes.
This is so awesome! I loved watching these guys when I was growing up.
Well… Remember when their careers began at Lakeland in the FSL.. Then about every Tiger (Leyland also) were at Lakeland during the mid-late 70’s for those powerhouse 80’s Detroit teams.
Finally.
Finally! Right.
Will we get final voting results?
Bout time
Hall of fame is becoming such a mess.
Why?
Yes, why? There have been only a few head scratchers over the years. Trammel was way, way, way overdue.
Because the voting process just makes no sense and the veterans committee is a joke. Tim Raines and these 2 today only got in because people felt bad for them. If it takes this long you are not a hall of famer.
If the Vet Committee is a joke, why did only these two get in? I think Morris is marginal and you may have a point there. However, Trammel deserves to be in the Hall.
Agreed, I’d rather be voted in by HOFers I played against than the media.
I guess you don’t think Nellie Fox, Hal Newhouser, Jim Bunning, Richie Ashburn, Johnny Mize, Enos Slaughter or Hack Wilson are Hall of Famers. All were put in by the Veteran’s Committee.
In todays time yes its bad. Not talking about 20 years ago
Take a look at the list of Hall of Fame Shortstops and show me more than 6 or 7 better than Trammel. Sometimes modern players seem to be held out because they didn’t play in the glorious 1900’s-1940.
@winston2b
Says who? You or the moron media jerks who some even leave Griffey Jr. Maddux and other no doubters off the ballot?
I agree it should not take this long. I disagree that the delay means the player is not a hall of famer. Thev delay shows voting should be taken away from the writers. They do not know crap
Leave it in the hands if the hall of famers themselves
Sorry Winston2b. I meant that reply to WalkersDayOff
Fox, Newhouser, Mize and Wilson are poor selections for sure.
That’s cool, I was just about to reply saying I think we agree!
Im not saying who or who shouldn’t be in. The process as a whole is just a big mess and if you cant see that then you aren’t paying attention
Hall of fame has been a mess for a long time. Keeping out hits record holder, home run record holder, the guy with the most mvps in the history of the league, the guy with the most cy Young’s in the history of the league. The HOF has played moral police to the point of self harm. The best players are being kept out, that doesn’t happen in any other sport.
Some reading for ya
files.mlb.com/mitchrpt.pdf
thedowdreport.com/report.pdf
so the reason The Hall is a mess
is because the players you referred to but did not cite
did Performance Enhancing Drugs?
I would say, rather, that the hall has tried to refrain from becoming a stinking, mire of a pig sty mess by withholding official worship of these wrongdoers.
Yes, it’s the Hall is a mess! But whose fault is that? Certainly, not the Hall of Fame.
Congrats to both. It’s about time.
Alan Trammell: 63.7 fWAR and 70.4 bWAR
Lou Whitaker: 68.1 fWAR and 74.9 bWAR
They can’t even get this subsection right.
HMM I WONDER WHY ONE IS IN THE HALL AND ONE FELL OFF THE BALLOT AFTER ONE YEAR
Lou Whitaker never got nearly as much press as Trammell.
Simple. Whitaker retired earlier and played a less glamorous position. Whiatker’s first year on the ballot, voters focused far more on counting stats than WAR and metrics. According to counting stats criteria, Whitaker is NOT a HOFer, but according to metrics he is. Whitaker was just a victim of poor timing.
Its only a matter of time util lou gets his due
Congrats to both Trammell and Morris! Hopefully, this opens the door for Sweet Lou to finally get in.
I would’ve loved to have seen Simba inducted this year too!
Morris vs. John Smoltz Game 7. Pitching at its finest.
Obviously.
Garvey should be in too.
Yes. So should Orel
Orel Is not even close to a hall of famer
Garvey should not even be in the same sentence as hall of fame. No shot.
Long time coming for Jack and Tram! Awesome!
Congratz to these guys, but the HOF doesn’t mean anything. Failing to acknowledge an entire era of baseball, and a number of other all time greats in a museum defeats the whole system
I read a lot of advanced stats on Baseball Reference that said Jack Morris isn’t a Hall of Famer. I have no idea what they mean, but sabermetrics are everything, so how could he be elected?!?
baseball-reference.com/players/m/morrija02.shtml#a…
Well, Ryan, there are many unqualified Hall-of-Famers. Morris is just the latest in a long line of them.
What is ignored by the stats when compared to all time stats, is that players are also Hall of Famers for being among the best of their era. Jack Morris was one of the most prominent of his time, and the pitcher you wanted on the mound for the Big Game. He absolutely deserving especially this honor. If either had played for the Yankees, they would have been no doubters 15 years ago.
Yet, Tiant and John were superior to Morris.
Wow. Great for these two. I absolutely think these guys are deserving and they were fun to watch in the 80’s. Here is my issue though. Morris had a career 3.90 ERA and 254 wins and less than 2,500 strikeouts. Trammell batted .285 with 185 HR and 2365 hits. I understand that those are antiquated value stats and doesn’t paint the big picture, but it also opens the door to pitchers that never hit the 300 wins, 3,000 K plateau, or batters that never reached the 3,000 hit, 500 HR plateau(which are traditionally shoe-ins for the hall of fame). Maybe this is a different view from the HOF committee of players that were often overlooked for HOF status. I hope so, because there are a lot of other players that have been denied the HOF because of the narrow-minded thinking in the voting process. Congrats to Trammell and Morris!
If you made those arbittrary statistical benchmarks the cutoff for Hall of Famers there’d be like 30 players in the Hall. I’m a small hall guy but I think more than that deserve to be in. But Morris shouldn’t be in for other reasons than his ERA or K total.
The requirements or standards for a shortstop are certainly not 3000 hits and 500 homeruns. In fact there is not one shortstop that played shortstop only that hit 500 homeruns. Arod is the only thing close to this and he was a 3b for half his career. Trammell was arguably better than Ripken and Ozzie smith both first ballot hof. This just corrected a very embarrassing voter bias. As far as your pitching standards only 16 pitchers had 3000k’s and I highly doubt we see 5 more 300 win pitchers in the next 50 years.
Didn’t Ernie Banks play SS? He hit 500+ home runs.
Banks played more games at first than at short in his career.
Ernie banks played ss for 8 of his 19 year career. 10 as a 1b and in between a failed trial in the outfield.
512
Right and that is why I stated “SHOE-IN” stats. Everything else is voted upon by feelings of HOF voters. Ron Santo was a top 3 3b for that generation of baseball players. 342 career HRs, multiple gold gloves, but he was denied (while he was alive) because some of the players he played against were already in and they thought he was “cocky” because he would click his heels after an inning change. He got voted in (after his death due to complications stemming from Diabetes in which he dealt with throughout his playing career) finally in, in 2011 after a 32 year fight. This coming from a White Sox fan as well. That is what I mean by an antiquated system. The voting process (until today’s results) was an utter and complete joke.Why is a player undeserving in one particular year(32 in this case) but deserving many years later after he played?
Well said by chitown311
Morris in and Steib off the ballot after one year. Check out the “Hall of Stats” website. If we are to embrace modern stats one is a hall of famer and one is not.
Oh boy. What a stupid process and idiotic result. Trammell should have been in years ago and Morris wasn’t a Hall of Famer on the best day of his life. Oh well. I’m sure Vizquel will get in next year and Rolen will fall off the ballot. Sigh.
Agreed on Morris. He gets in because of one game in 1991.
Amazing how some people don’t understand sarcasm. Those players are his peers. Getting voted in by the competition speaks much higher than getting voted in by reporters.
^^^ This ^^^
If Morris is in then there’s no way they can keep Bartolo Colon out, right? And I don’t think Colon is worthy of enshrinement.
@davidcoonce74, serious? Bartolo Colon has a positive PED test. Are you trolling us?
Yeah, there’s no Hall of Famer who has used PEDs.
Bartolo did not have the sustained years of dominance at the time he played.
Jack Morris is my favorite guy to debate when it comes to Hall of Fame worthiness. The guy was a staff ace on multiple championship teams and one of the last old era workhorse starters who was expected to go nine each time out. I wonder what his numbers would look like if he pitched in today’s era where starters can pace their game with the expectation of being pulled when they hit 100 +/1alpha pitches.
Congrats to both guys. I’m not going to hate, even though I think that it is dangerous to let guys into the Hall with less than elite careers.
I’m a dumbass and not using google. Can someone please let me know why this was announced today and not in January/and or has this happened Before? Can’t recall this in another instance at the moment.
Simple…click on and read the link in the article
There’s a reason why they went so many years without being enshrined, as each deserve to be in the Hall of the Very Good, but not the Hall of Fame. Of the two, I can accept Trammell more than Morris, who was largely elected due to his performances in the postseason. An ERA of almost 4? As Hawk Harrelson would say, “You’ve got to be bleeping me. “
Why do you think trammell doesn’t belong in? Have you compared him to other ss in the hall? If so how do you actually think he doesn’t belong in the hall?
I don’t think that comparing candidates to other mistakes in the HoF is a valid way to judge a player’s worthiness. Just because there are shortstops in the Hall who aren’t deserving doesn’t mean you add another one. And besides, I said I’m ok with Trammell. I’m definately not ok with Morris.
I 100% agree
fred mcgriff…
The Crime Dog definitely deserves to be in the HOF. So does Marvin Miller for his impact on the Game.
So does Tommy John. Without his pioneering injury recovery, who knows how many pitchers would have had much shorter careers? The doctor that performed the surgery should be enshrined as well.
Glad for Morris. He should’ve been voted in. Indifferent about Trammell.
But who is on the committee? How on earth is Marvin Miller not in? He’s the father of free agency, the most important development in baseball of the last 50 years (or more). And only 7 votes? Makes me think there’s a heavy ownership presence on the committee, voting as a bloc against him out of spite.
You beat me to it.
These veterans voting on the HOF committee would be working as greeters at Walmart for the retirement income if not for the efforts of Marvin Miller. The idea that he hasn’t been voted in BY THE PLAYERS is mind-boggling.
Marvin Miller deserved admission >30 years ago. But he made it quite clear in his last years that he wasn’t interested in posthumous induction, a way for the HoF to make money off his carcass. Miller lived to be 95 and the PTB were so afraid of what he’d say they kept him out as long as he was breathing. He should remain out and the HoF should have to explain his non-sensical absence forever. Any interest I had in the HoF was permanently extinguished when the management/ownership element on the veteran’s committee kept this obviously over qualified man out for political reasons.
Mr. Miller was fine with not being in the HoF and we should respect that esteemed gentleman’s wishes on the subject, which I assume most of the former players did. Were it up to Miller he’d have chosen to be eliminated from consideration upon his death. Don’t let the ownership group assuage their guilt over the way MM was treated while alive by admitting his corpse to Cooperstown. He didn’t want that and we shouldn’t want it for him. Cheers.
I always thought Morris just wasn’t quite a HOFer. Very good but hard to say he was an all-time great. But, I really like him, and I can’t say that I’m terribly upset that he got in.
they both belong in the Hall of Very Good, not the Hall of Fame. the HOF is so watered down it’s not even funny.
Why do people think “Very Good” is on the same scale as “Fame?” It’s not called the Hall of Excellent, so very good really has no point to it.
George Brett, Rod Carew, Bobby Cox, Dennis Eckersley, John Schuerholz, Don Sutton, Dave Winfield Robin Yount, Sandy Alderson, Paul Beeston, Bob Castellini, Bill DeWitt, David Glass, Bob Elliott, Steve Hirdt and Jayson Stark decided that Morris should get on based only on “that one game in 91” or “only on his post season”. I sure that 14 of those 16 named him just because of that. After all, all they did was play at the time or work at the time or are considered historians by the Hall. After all they certainly are not qualified. /s
(Trammel was named on named on 13 of 16 and no, they do not release who voted for who)
Just because millenials only know about Game 7 of 91 doesn’t mean Morris wasn’t a really good pitcher for a really long time. If I had a vote probably not HOF, but a legitimate argument to make for him.
I’m sure most millennials really remember that game well, seeing as how they were only 2 or 3 years old at the time, if not even born yet.
That was his point. Most 20-30 year old people have no idea about Morris’s career other than the story of Game 7 and the cold numbers (which don’t really do him justice). Those of us of a certain age are more aware of his actual playing career from firsthand information.
I grew up in the 80s and Morris always “felt” like a HOFer (but so did Don Mattingly and Dale Murphy), but Trammell really didn’t (neither did Tim Raines or Paul Molitor). So it really is kinda of a weird meshing of the voting worlds with an old school guy based on the eye test and a new school guy based on pure numbers going in together. I think I really like that both schools of thought are getting their way here (and not getting their way).
Raines and Molitor played in small markets. Did you see them play for the Expos and Brewers?
Moreso Raines, because I mainly watched NL games back then. All NL teams got quite a bit of exposure due to the superstation games of the Braves and Cubs. But I tried to acquaint myself with all players. And small market meant little to me. To me, the Yankees and Red Sox were on the same plane as the Padres, Mariners and Rangers. IE, teams I rarely paid attention to. Payrolls back then were not the same either, so there was not as big a disparity between the haves and have nots. There was some, but not nearly as much.
I agree with stymeedone….the members of the Modern Era Committee are contemporaries or HoF recognized historians. To me, being voted in mainly by peers is a higher testament than by the BBWAA. The 14 that voted for him didn’t have to…..but they did because he is deserving. It’s ludicrous to think that those who voted did so because of a game or the post season only ir because they felt sorry for them.
The long version:
Trammel is a definite. He was easily one of the biggest head scratchers out of the hall.
Morris was essentially a durable, but inconsistent number 3. Its not a total travesty thay he’s in because it’s no small feat to be a productive, above average major leaguer for like 20 years but I, personally wouldnt have voted him.
The biggest snubs currently not still on the BBWA as of now:
Dick Allen, Orel Hershiser, Kenny Lofton, Lou Whitaker, Lee Smith and Marvin Miller
~Wouldnt be opposed to seeing Garvey or Palmiero elected (Steroids can help, but 3000 hits and 500 home runs is still insane).
I don’t think I’d vote Morris but he literally wasn’t a 3, he had 14 opening day starts.
Morris shouldnt be in, trammel yes. Just because morris had a relatively healthy career none of his stats lead one to conclude he would be hall of fame worthy…
12 of 16 needed for induction
Jack Morris (14 votes, 87.5%); Alan Trammell (13 votes, 81.3%); Ted Simmons (11 votes, 68.8%); Marvin Miller (7 votes, 43.8%); Steve Garvey, Tommy John, Don Mattingly, Dale Murphy, Dave Parker and Luis Tiant each received fewer than seven votes.
Great day in Motown.
The hall of fame needs a rebuild. The way players are selected by writers is just attrocious. Writers are no more qualified to vote than anyone else, sometimes even less so. It should be a player vote. Ant player who played “x” amount of MLB games gets a vote as long as they live. Writers have turned it into the hall of fueled morality, and it’s a shame. Not to hate on baseball writers because i do enjoy their work, especially here at mlbtraderumors.
Tigers are doing the right thing, retiring # 3 and # 47 in August. Good day to be a Tiger fan.
Congrats to Trammell… he definitely deserves to be in the HOF!!!
Congrats to both. I saw them play, and they looked like HOF players to me. Only gripe is why the others weren’t put in as well. These were great players of their day. It’s not like we’re putting in some marginal player that shuttled between the Majors and Triple A.
Don’t agree with Trammell take away his 87 season and his offensive numbers were mediocre
As compared to the offensive powerhouse that is Ozzie Smith? He has comparable numbers to other HoF SS.
A Hall that has room for Bowie Kuhn and Bud Selig surely has room for Marvin Miller. I suppose that when it comes to Executives, it really is a “Small Hall”
If they let Morris in they gotta let Schilling in too
Both of them should absolutely be in. One of them has (so far) talked his way out of it.
Garvey should be in.
Mattingly and tiant deserve to be in hall not these two bums
AWESOME!!!
Anyone who picked their head up out of a stat sheet and watched the action on the field knows that Jack Morris was a HOF’er.
Two nice guys, but there’s a sack full of guys more deserving. Jack Morris getting into the hof with nearly a 4 era lowers the bar dramatically.
Welcome to the Hall of Very Good.