Fun-Time Baseball Hall: Your First-Ballot Tigers!

Ty Cobb, Al Kaline and Hank Greenberg were the top three vote-getters in the Fun-Time Baseball Hall: Tigers Edition. They are joined as first-ballot inductees by Alan Trammell, Sam Crawford, Charlie Gehringer and Lou Whitaker. (See the end of this post for exact totals as well as a link about induction rules.) Thank you to everyone who voted.

Are there any Sam Crawford cards out there of any sort? I'd like one or three!

I greatly enjoyed seeing how this would shake out and I learned a bit about baseball history along the way. Up next: Angels. There will be four first-ballot Angels inducted, per previously set forth rules related to a team's year of establishment.

A little more about some of the inductees beyond what's included in the initial link (found below).

Ty Cobb and Sam Crawford, aka the "Georgia Peach" and "Wahoo Sam", were contemporaries, teammates for parts of 13 seasons. They led Detroit to three straight AL pennants in 1907, 1908 and 1909, but both slumped in their World Series appearances, as the Tigers lost all three World Series. Crawford hit for a .243 average in three World Series, and Cobb hit an uncharacteristic .200 in the 1907 World Series and .231 in the 1909 classic.

Cobb and Crawford, a Wahoo, Neb. native, played beside each other in right and center field, and Crawford followed Cobb in the batting order year after year. Initially, they had a student-teacher relationship. Crawford was an established star when Cobb arrived, and Cobb sought his advice.

That relationship gradually changed to one of jealous rivals. Plenty of unflattering comments were made publicly about each other.

But, after Cobb died, a reporter found letters showing Cobb had written to influential people, lobbying for Crawford’s induction into the Hall of Fame. Crawford was reportedly unaware of Cobb’s efforts until after Cobb had died. At one point, Cobb was quoted as saying he'd always remember Crawford's kindness.

Whitaker and Trammell also are linked forever, of course. They both made their major league debuts at Fenway Park, during the second game of a double-header on September 9, 1977. It was the first of 19 seasons together. Their stats are remarkably similar.

Whitaker is currently ineligible for the Hall of Fame. He did not receive the required five percent of the votes to stay on the ballot in his first (and only) year of eligibility in 2001. This surprised many observers, including baseball stats guru Bill James, who named Whitaker the 13th-best 2B ever. Whitaker is now ineligible for baseball's highest honor until 2015. Trammell is still on the ballot but failed to gain induction in the recent voting. 

Gehringer, aka the "Mechanical Man," is ranked by most baseball historians as a top 10 second baseman of all time. The nickname was attached because he was not flashy, and reportedly had no discernible personality, but just went about consistently doing his job better than most of his peers.

For more about the inductees, as well as those who did not win first-year induction, see this post. Stay tuned roughly one year from now for second-ballot voting. Will Norm Cash get in?

Who will join the remaining names on the ballot? Mark Fidrych? Willie Hernandez? How soon before Justin Verlander and Miguel Cabrera are on the ballot? Answer, per rules: Three seasons after their last Tiger season (so it'll be awhile.)

Thanks to the 22 who voted (not a bad total to start this thing off with.) As a reminder, I had asked everyone to choose up to 7 but no more than 10.

Here are the totals:

Norm Cash	7 (31%)
Ty Cobb	20 (90%)
Sam Crawford	12 (54%)
Cecil Fielder	1 (4%)
Bill Freehan	3 (13%)
Charlie Gehringer	12 (54%)
Kirk Gibson	5 (22%)
Hank Greenberg	19 (86%)
Harry Heilmann	4 (18%)
Willie Horton	1 (4%)
Al Kaline	19 (86%)
George Kell	7 (31%)
Mickey Lolich	6 (27%)
Denny McLain	5 (22%)
Jack Morris	5 (22%)
Hal Newhouser	4 (18%)
Lance Parrish	2 (9%)
Alan Trammell	15 (68%)
Lou Whitaker	11 (50%)