Happy Birthday Simba!

[RoseBowlMtg]

As August 14th approaches I hope some of you will approach Simba and tell him the injustice the HOF voters did upon him. Here is a refresher.



HOW TED SIMMONS RATES WITH HALL OF FAME CATCHERS

RUNS

Carlton Fisk 1,276

Yogi Berra 1,175

Buck Ewing 1,118

Johnny Bench 1,091

Ted Simmons 1,074

Mickey Cochrane 1,041

Bill Dickey 930

Gabby Hartnett 867

Rick Ferrell 687

Roger Bresnahan 684

Roy Campanella 627

Ernie Lombardi 601

Ray Schalk 579

HITS

Ted Simmons 2,472

Carlton Fisk 2,356

Yogi Berra 2,150

Johnny Bench 2,048

Bill Dickey 1,969

Gabby Hartnett 1,912

Ernie Lombardi 1,792

Rick Ferrell 1,692

Buck Ewing 1,663

Mickey Cochrane 1,652

Ray Schalk 1,345

Roger Bresnahan 1,251

Roy Campanella 1,161

DOUBLES

Ted Simmons 483

Carlton Fisk 421

Gabby Hartnett 396

Johnny Bench 381

Bill Dickey 343

Mickey Cochrane 333

Rick Ferrell 324

Yogi Berra 321

Ernie Lombardi 277

Buck Ewing 237

Roger Bresnahan 222

Ray Schalk 199

Roy Companella 178

HOME RUNS

Johnny Bench 389

Carlton Fisk 376

Yogi Berra 358

Ted Simmons 248

Roy Campanella 242

Gabby Hartnett 236

Bill Dickey 202

Ernie Lombardi 190

Mickey Cochrane 119

Buck Ewing 66

Rick Ferrell 28

Roger Bresnahan 26

Ray Schalk 12

RBI

Yogi Berra 1,430

Ted Simmons 1,389

Johnny Bench 1,376

Carlton Fisk 1,330

Bill Dickey 1,209

Gabby Hartnett 1,179

Ernie Lombardi 990

Buck Ewing 883

Roy Campanella 856

Mickey Cochrane 832

Rick Ferrell 734

Ray Schalk 596

Roger Bresnahan 531

BATTING AVERAGE

Mickey Cochrane .320

Bill Dickey .313

Ernie Lombardi .306

Buck Ewing .303

Gabby Hartnett .297

Ted Simmons .285

Yogi Berra .285

Rick Ferrell .281

Roger Bresnahan .279

Roy Campanella .276

Carlton Fisk .269

Johnny Bench .267

Ray Schalk .253

GAMES CAUGHT

Carlton Fisk 2,226

Rick Ferrell 1,806

Gabby Hartnett 1,793

Ted Simmons 1,771

Johnny Bench 1,742

Ray Schalk 1,727

Bill Dickey 1,708

Yogi Berra 1,699

Ernie Lombardi 1,544

Mickey Cochrane 1,451

Roy Campanella 1,183

Roger Bresnahan 974

Buck Ewing 636

FIELDING AVG. AS CATCHER

Listed are each catcher's career

fielding average (FA) as a catcher

and the average fielding percentage

for catchers during his

career--League Fielding Percentage

(LPCT)

Catcher FA LPCT

Johnny Bench .990 .987

Yogi Berra .989 .987

Bill Dickey .988 .982

Roy Campanella .988 .984

Carlton Fisk .988 .986

Ted Simmons .987 .986

Mickey Cochrane .985 .980

Rick Ferrell .984 .982

Gabby Hartnett .984 .978

Ray Schalk .981 .971

Ernie Lombardi .979 .980

Roger Bresnahan .971 .968

Buck Ewing .931 .906

[MoneyballMan]

WOW! Thanks for posting this - I certainly had not realized how he compared favorably with other HOF catchers. I'm sure BF.net must have done a HOF discussion about him previously, but I obviously missed it. Good stuff!

[cruiserx43]

What year was Simmons on the ballot? It's hard to believe with career numbers stacking up against those HOFers that he didn't get in.

[RoseBowlMtg]

1993 17 writers voted for Simmons and he didn't receive the 5% necesary to remain on the ballot. Drew Olsen who used to head the baseball writers assoc said Simmons omission is the biggest injustice of all. A very intelligent man who will be back in town Tuesday does not make an issue about this ala Gary Carter but he is so deserving it is just a joke.

 

Name another position player who leads in hits not in the HOF. Rose doesn't count but you know he would be in if....

Name another position player who is second in RBI's not in the HOF.

Name a catcher in the 70's who had more hits

Name a catcher in the 70's who had more RBI's

Name any ML player who led his team in RBI's for 7 consecutive years.

 

On and On! Happy 58th Teddy!

[razzzorsharp]

Thank you for that, I did not know the full extent of this all. Is there anyway that he can get in anymore?

[recte44]

Only the Veterans Committee could undo the injustice at this point.

[jodo23]

I wrote to the Hall of Fame back in '05 about Simmons' Veterans Committee eligibility. This is part of their response:

Dear Friend,

Thank you for your recent message.

Ted Simmons was eligible for election to the National Baseball Hall of
Fame in 1994. He garnered 17 votes, just shy of the 5% required to
remain on the ballot for the next year.

Under the rules of the Committee of Baseball Veterans, Simmons will be
given another chance in the coming years. After 22 seasons from
retirement, 1988 being his last, Simmons can be considered by the
Veterans Committee. Since the Committee begins the process every two
years (and in odd years), 2011 will be the first eligible year for
Simmons, meaning he can appear on the ballot in 2013. He will then be
eligible for the life of the process. For a complete list of rules, be
sure to visit our web site under the Hall of Famers section at
.

I'm seriously considering a letter writing campaign to the Veterans Committee voters in behalf of Simmons. Maybe develop some sort of pamphlet with his stat comparisons, snippets from news articles, etc... I plan to get started on this sometime in, oh, say about 2011. Unless I forget.

[splitterpfj]

Let's see if this helps anyone decide. I compared Simmons to a control group of post WW 2 Hall of Fame catchers on a per season basis to see how he stacks up. I used 162 games played as one season. The control group consists of Bench, Berra, Campanella, Carter and Fisk. The average seasons played for the control group was affected by Campanella's short MLB career. S=seasons played

S Runs Hits 2B 3B HR RBI SB AVE OPS
15.1 71 163 32 3 16 92 1 .285 .785 Simmons

S Runs Hits 2B 3B HR RBI SB AVE OPS
12.7 81 154 26 2 26 97 4 .271 .815 Group

As you can see, Ted beat the group in hits, doubles, triples and average per season, but fell short in homers, rbi, steals and OPS.

In my opinion, a catcher that played the equivalent of 15 full seasons, averaging 92 rbi per season, with a career average that far above the standard for his position deserves to be in the Hall of Fame. I realize the others had more power, and I realize I haven't accounted for defense at a crucial position, but to me the hits and rbi over that period of time say enough.

Fingers, Molitor, Sutton, Yount, Brock, Gibson, Musial and Schoendienst are all on the committee, as are Bench, Carter and Berra..........I wouldn't be at all surprised to see Ted get in.

[Legends]

I didn't realize he stacked up so well. One of my all-time favorites.

[SlideBernieSlide]

Ted Simmons was/is my favorite Brewer of all-time. Injustice is definitely the right word.

[jaybird2001wi]

RoseBowl, are those rankings even current? I seem to recall Mike Piazza tying and eventually breaking Johnny Bench's catching home run record at Miller Park. My brother caught the ball and has the autographed bat from Piazza to prove it.

[splitterpfj]

Jaybird, that's a comparison of Simmons vs catchers currently in the Hall of Fame....that's why you don't see Piazza on there.

[jaybird2001wi]

Oops, sorry. I guess I wasn't reading the initial post correctly. (duh @ me)