The Indians will be wearing #14 today, to honor Larry Doby. That's great, although it might upset Peter Bjarkman that they aren't wearing Clemente's number. :)
It is happening in conjuction with Hall of Fame Heritage weekend in Cleveland. At first I thought the Doby event would be watered down by the names of those being inducted into the Cleveland Indians Hall of Fame: Charles Nagy, Andre Thornton, Mike Garcia and Jim Bagby Sr. But to be fair, I decided to look at them individually.
Charles Nagy was essentially a major league average pitcher. He had some all-star quality seasons in 92, 94 and 96, but take those seasons away and there isn't much to say. He did pitch in Cleveland for 12 seasons. More importantly, he pitched for Cleveland during their ascendancy from decades-long doormats to frequent contenders. I think he is a borderline pick for a team Hall of Fame, but he may have a special relationship with Clevelanders.
Thornton was a good hitter in his day. Not an incredible hitter, considering he was penciled in as DH more than any other spot, just ahead of his games at 1b. But good. He spent 10 seasons in Cleveland. This selection makes sense to me for a team Hall of Fame, though he would probably not make even a Hall of the Very Good on a baseball-wide scale.
Mike Garcia is a much stronger case. He spent 12 seasons in Cleveland and until age got him, was one of the best pitchers in the American League. He has an almost .600 win percentage. Easily a team Hall of Famer. He was on the '54 pennant team. The only surprise is that it took this long. He retired 36 years ago, and I'm betting that Early Wynn, Bob Feller and Bob Lemon (his teammates in '54) are already in the team Hall of Fame (not to mention Cooperstown, with another '54 teammate, Hal Newhouser). Doby was on that team too.
Jim Bagby, Sr. pitched for 9 years in the bigs, from 1912 to 1923. Seven of those years were with Cleveland. Based on his stats, he appears to have been a pretty good pitcher, but not for very long. He had two or three all-star caliber seasons. His best was in 1917, when he had an ERA under 2.00 over nearly 321 innings and won 23 games. Of course, the league was a bit watered down by World War I, so he may have been preying on weak hitters. Not a strong selection.
All in all, I guess it isn't as bad as I first thought. Garcia is an excellent pick, Thornton a good pick, and Nagy and Bagby, Sr. just so so. I guess they couldn't use Manny, or Thome, or Lofton, since they are all playing for other teams. Albert Belle ought to be in there, but I bet that would be an unpopular decision.
I wonder, though, if Mike Hargrove is in the Indians Hall of Fame. I couldn't find a list of Indians Hall of Famers on their web site, though there was an alphabetical list of the 100 greatest Indians. All of the players named in this post are on the Top 100 list.
If Hargrove isn't in the Indians Hall of Fame, he should be -- both as a manager and a player -- and he probably needs the emotional boost.
