Yankees on the 2025 Classic Baseball Era HoF Ballot
A few weeks ago the Baseball Hall of Fame announced their candidates to be considered by the 2025 Classic Baseball Era Committee. As has been the case for a few years now, there are eight former players on the ballot, and this batch contains those who made their greatest contributions to baseball prior to 1980. Two of the eight are former Yankees.
Just like the BBWAA election that will take place later this year, candidates need 75% of the vote from the 16-member committee in order to gain enshrinement. With each committee member limited to just four votes, this is a tall task. However, more often than not these committees elect at least one new Hall of Fame member each year. Here's hoping that when they announce the results on Dec 8th, a man whose name is attached to the most famous surgery in sports gets his due.
Tommy John - Pitcher
Nolan Ryan is one of just two pitchers in Major League history to pitch when he was as young as 20 years old and again when he was as old as 46. By now you can guess who the other guy is, but that's where the comparisons with Nolan Ryan end for Tommy John. Relying on impeccable control and a quality curve ball from his southpaw delivery, John outlasted hitters more than overpowered them and rode his trademark resilience to a remarkable 27 year career.
For the first nine years of his career John pitched mostly for the White Sox where he was a reliable starter. Despite showing flashes of brilliance - he led the major leagues in shutouts in 1966 and 1967 - he toiled for a middling team until a fortuitous trade for slugger Dick Allen (also on this ballot) landed him with the Dodgers in 1971. He continued to pitch well for the perennial contenders until a freak injury in 1974.
In a mid-season tilt with the Montreal Expos John felt a pop in his left arm just before releasing a pitch that left it feeling dead and unable to get the ball over the plate. After a month of rest showed no improvement, ligament damage in the elbow was strongly suspected and surgery became the only option. Historically, this had been a career death sentence for a pitcher, but the 31-year old John trusted his team surgeon, Dr. Frank Jobe.
When Jobe opened up John's arm, he discovered that the ulnar collateral ligament was worn down beyond repair. He then got creative and constructed a replacement ligament by grafting one from a tendon in John's right (non-throwing) wrist. The radical procedure left John's arm in rough shape as he embarked on an indeterminate recovery period, not knowing if he would ever be able to pitch again.
John sat out the entire 1975 season while he arduously rehabbed the elbow. In 1976 the hard work paid off and he proved Dr. Jobe's procedure to be a resounding success. For the next five seasons John surpassed 200 innings pitched each year, the longest streak of his career. He would also win at least 20 games and finish in the top five of the Cy Young vote three times each, the only such seasons of his long career.
Perhaps most satisfying for John was that he got his first taste of World Series action in this period as well. In 1977 and 1978 he made three starts for the Dodgers in the Fall Classic against the Yankees, both of them losing efforts for his team. In 1979 he decided that if he couldn't beat them, he would join them and signed as a free agent with New York. There he pitched in another World Series in 1981 where the Yankees lost to the team John had left just two years prior. Despite the lack of team success, John pitched well when called upon in October, going 2-1 with a 2.67 ERA in six World Series games.
After that 1981 season, John went firmly into decline mode as he pitched well into his 40's. He pitched a few seasons for the Angels and A's before returning to the Yankees at the ripe age of 43. During these years he was a back of the rotation starter as his stuff and already modest strikeout totals dwindled.
Putting his career in perspective, Tommy John is the definition of a borderline Hall of Famer. He was never a dominant player, posting a career high WAR of just 5.6 in 1968, so his value is in the fact that he was an effective pitcher over a long period of time. Even at that, his career WAR total of 61.5 is more than 10 wins shy of the average Hall of Fame pitcher.
From a traditional standpoint, John's career 3.34 ERA puts him in a better light. Furthermore, he hung on long enough to come tantalizingly close to a golden number for Hall of Famers with 288 career victories to his name. Despite that impressive total, during John's 15 years on the BBWAA ballot he consistently garnered between just 20% and 30% of the vote, topping out at 31.7% in 2009, his last year of eligibility. These results suggest that he was worthy of serious consideration, but not quite great enough to reach the promised land, which sounds about right.
If John is to gain election via this special committee, the x-factor will be the revolutionary surgery he underwent that saved his career, and the careers of hundreds of other pitchers thereafter. His willingness to undergo the procedure, and dedication in re-habbing it fully for over a year without knowing if it would be even remotely effective is truly remarkable. What's more, he was able to return to being a successful pitcher for a staggering 14 years post-surgery, giving hope to all future pitchers suffering a similar injury. Regardless of the election result, Tommy John's name will always be famous in the baseball corner of the world, and rightfully so.
Luis Tiant - Pitcher
It's quite possible that Luis Tiant never threw the same pitch twice. Every Tiant delivery was a unique combination of his various grips, arm angles, torso twists, leg kicks, hesitations, and even a dispy doodle or two. Think of a more dynamic version of peak Nasty Nestor. The possibilities were endless, and the results were often staggering.
The son of a Cuban Negro League pitcher, Tiant was born to pitch. After years of playing in leagues across Cuba and Mexico as a teenager, he latched on with the Cleveland Indians organization in 1961. By 1964 he made his major leage debut in Cleveland where he was teammates with ballot-mate Tommy John and immediately became a mainstay in the starting rotation.
In 1968 the 27-year old Tiant had a career year that stands as truly one of the great pitching seasons in baseball history. He went 21-9 with a league-leading 1.60 ERA (186 ERA+), 264 strikeouts and nine shutouts. Despite such a magnificant performance, Tiant didn't receive a single AL Cy Young Award vote that year due to Denny McLain's 31-win season for the Detroit Tigers. His season was further overshadowed by Bob Gibson's dazzling 1.12 ERA and whopping 13 shutouts posted in the National League. Nonetheless, Tiant left little doubt that he was one of the game's best pitchers.
For the next two injury-marred seasons Tiant's performance fell well short of those heights. In between them, he was traded to the Minnesota Twins for a package that included future Yankee Graig Nettles. After just one year in Minnesota he was released and free to sign with any team in 1971. He eventually landed with the Boston Red Sox and would remain there for eight seasons.
No longer able to overpower hitters, Tiant doubled down on his ability to improvise on the mound. After a rocky start in Boston in 1971, he found great success with his new rope-a-dope style that fooled hitters rather than dominating them. In his seven seasons with the Red Sox from 1972 to 1978, he averaged more than 17 wins and 5 WAR per year. The highlight of these years for Tiant was the 1975 World Series against the Big Red Machine. Facing the best lineup in baseball, he earned two complete game victories in the series and pitched his guts out in Game Six (perhaps the greatest baseball game ever played). In seven innings he allowed six runs, but kept his team within striking distance as they won in 12. Alas, the Cincinnati Reds would take the series in Game Seven.
With his on-field pizzazz matching his flashy character off it, Luis Tiant had caught the attention of George Steinbrenner when he was a free agent again after the 1978 season. Despite the 38-year old Tiant looking more ready for beer league softball than major league baseball, Steinbrenner got his man on a two-year deal. He joined a pitching staff chock full of pitchers that would hover around the border of the Baseball Hall of Fame for years to come, including Catfish Hunter, Goose Gossage, Jim Kaat (all three now elected), Tommy John, and Ron Guidry (still on the outside looking in).
In 1979 Tiant was perfectly serviceable while donning the pinstripes (13-9, 3.91 ERA). In 1980 he was something less than that (8-9, 4.89 ERA). With very little left in the tank, he finished out his career with one negligible season apiece in Pittsburgh and California with the Angels.
When it comes to a Hall of Fame case, Tiant has a very good one. His career total of 66 WAR would put him right in the middle of the pack as far as enshrined pitchers, on par with the likes of Juan Marichal and Don Sutton. Add in that he was one of baseball's most colorful characters when he pitched who rose to the occasion in the playoffs and he should be a shoe-in for Cooperstown. Yet after spending the full 15 years on the BBWAA ballot and already being included on six susbequent veteran's committee ballots up to this point, he's never been particularly close to gaining election.
It really boils down to timing for Tiant. In his debut on the BBWAA ballot in 1988, he had the highest career WAR total of any pitcher up for election and garnered over 30% of the vote. That's usually a good indicator of eventual enshrinement. However, that would represent the high water mark for Tiant during his 15-year run.
In 1989, Gaylord Perry and Fergie Jenkins made their debut - each with a stronger case than Tiant - and cut into his share of the vote. In 1990 Jim Palmer entered the picture and was elected on his first ballot. In 1991, it was Rollie Fingers - a more famous if not more successful pitcher than Tiant - who's share of the vote in his debut dwarfed Tiant's. Tom Seaver dominated the vote on his first ballot in 1992, Phil Niekro joined the party in 1993. One by one, figures of the golden era of pitching with Hall of Fame cases just slightly better than Tiant's blocked his path to Cooperstown. Unfortunately, many committee's have had a chance to right this wrong but have failed to do so.
One key difference in Tiant's circumstances for this Classic Baseball Era committee might push him over the line and into the plaque room. And it's really the most unfortunate of circumstances. These committee's tend to vote in worthy candidates only after the player has died. Therefore, Tiant's death at age 83 back in October means that he's been in the news more than usual recently and in the minds of committee members casting their votes as I write this. While they may very well right a wrong, there's got to be a better way to ensure that a player like Luis Tiant gains baseball's greatest honor while he can still address the crowd at Cooperstown.
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