We currently have around 25 voters, many of whom have been on the project since the initial election. In each election, each voter is allowed to vote for as many as five players. Managers, executives and broadcasters are also eligible. Any player receiving 75% of the votes gets into the Hall of Fame. That first election included players who finished their careers with the Tigers by 1915. The second election included all players who ended their Tigers careers between 1916 and 1920. Each week, we had an election including players from a new five-year period. In June, 2007 we conducted the voting for players who ended their careers between 2001-2005 and this completed the first phase of the project.
Later in the year, we held special elections for the Detroit Wolverines (a National League team from 1881-1888) and the Detroit Stars (a Negro League team in the 1920s and 1930s). There will also be annual elections for newly retired players and for players who received a significant portion of votes but failed to get inducted in earlier elections. This week we concluded one of those elections and three new players have been added to the Hall of Fame: Bobby Higginson, Mike Henneman and Tony Phillips.
If you go to the second link above, you'll see a profile of each of the 65 members elected so far. A brief summary is included in the Table below.
| Name | Position | First Year as Tiger | Last Year as Tiger |
| Ed Killian | Pitcher | 1904 | 1910 |
| George Mullin | Pitcher | 1902 | 1913 |
| Sam Crawford | Outfielder | 1903 | 1917 |
| Bill Donovan | Pitcher | 1903 | 1918 |
| Hughie Jennings | Manager | 1907 | 1920 |
| Donie Bush | Shortstop | 1908 | 1921 |
| Bobby Veach | Outfielder | 1912 | 1923 |
| Ty Cobb | Outfielder | 1905 | 1926 |
| Hooks Dauss | Pitcher | 1912 | 1926 |
| Harry Heilmann | Outfielder | 1914 | 1929 |
| Frank Navin | Owner,Executive | 1903 | 1935 |
| Mickey Cochrane | Catcher, Manager | 1934 | 1938 |
| Charlie Gehringer | Second baseman | 1924 | 1942 |
| School Boy Rowe | Pitcher | 1933 | 1942 |
| Rudy York | First baseman | 1934 | 1945 |
| Hank Greenberg | First baseman | 1930 | 1946 |
| Tommy Bridges | Pitcher | 1930 | 1946 |
| Wish Egan | Scout | 1907 | 1951 |
| Dizzy Trout | Pitcher | 1932 | 1952 |
| George Kell | Third baseman | 1946 | 1952 |
| Walter Briggs, Sr. | Owner, Executive | 1920 | 1952 |
| Ty Tyson | Broadcaster | 1927 | 1952 |
| Hal Newhouser | Pitcher | 1939 | 1953 |
| Fred Hutchinson | Pitcher | 1939 | 1953 |
| Virgil Trucks | Pitcher | 1941 | 1956 |
| Ray Boone | Third baseman | 1953 | 1958 |
| Harvey Kuenn | Shortstop | 1952 | 1959 |
| Jim Bunning | Pitcher | 1955 | 1963 |
| Vic Wertz | Outfielder | 1947 | 1963 |
| Rocky Colavito | Outfielder | 1960 | 1963 |
| Frank Lary | Pitcher | 1954 | 1964 |
| Denny McLain | Pitcher | 1963 | 1970 |
| Dick McAuliffe | Second baseman | 1960 | 1973 |
| Willie Horton | Outfielder | 1963 | 1973 |
| Al Kaline | Outfielder | 1953 | 1974 |
| Norm Cash | First baseman | 1960 | 1974 |
| Jim Northrup | Outfielder | 1964 | 1974 |
| Mickey Lolich | Pitcher | 1963 | 1975 |
| Bill Freehan | Catcher | 1961 | 1976 |
| John Hiller | Pitcher | 1965 | 1980 |
| John Fetzer | Owner, Executive | 1956 | 1983 |
| Lance Parrish | Catcher | 1977 | 1986 |
| Willie Hernandez | Pitcher | 1984 | 1989 |
| Jack Morris | Pitcher | 1977 | 1990 |
| Chet Lemon | Outfielder | 1982 | 1990 |
| Jim Campbell | GM, Executive | 1962 | 1990 |
| Paul Carey | Broadcaster | 1973 | 1991 |
| Lou Whitaker | Second baseman | 1977 | 1995 |
| Kirk Gibson | Outfielder | 1979 | 1995 |
| Sparky Anderson | Manager | 1979 | 1995 |
| Alan Trammell | Shortstop | 1977 | 1996 |
| Cecil Fielder | First baseman | 1990 | 1996 |
| Travis Fryman | Third baseman | 1990 | 1997 |
| Ernie Harwell | Broadcaster | 1960 | 2002 |
| Turkey Stearnes* | Outfielder | 1923 | 1931 |
| Edgar Wesley* | First baseman | 1920 | 1927 |
| Andy Cooper* | Pitcher | 1920 | 1930 |
| Sam Thompson# | Outfielder | 1885 | 1888 |
| Dan Brouthers# | First baseman | 1886 | 1888 |
| Charlie Bennett# | Catcher | 1881 | 1888 |
| Billy Rogell | Shortstop | 1930 | 1939 |
| Harry Coveleski | Pitcher | 1914 | 1918 |
| Tony Phillips | Infielder/Outfielder | 1990 | 1994 |
| Mike Henneman | Pitcher | 1987 | 1995 |
| Bobby Higginson | Outfielder | 1995 | 2005 |
* Detroit Stars
# Detroit Wolverines
Why in the world is Higginson considered one of the great Tigers of all time? I understand he was the best player when the Tigers were the worst team in baseball, but come on. Higginson may have had 2 good years as a Tiger.
ReplyDeleteYou guys need to be more selective as HOF voters if you want to be taken seriously.
Tim
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteTim,
ReplyDeleteHigginson had a poor finish to his career. However, he was a Tiger for a long time and had several solid seasons. If he was surrounded by better players and they won more games during the period, he would probably look much better to you. He wasn't a slam dunk but I don't think he was a bad choice at all. I voted for him. I received a similar comment about Travis Fryman but I also believe he was a solid choice.
As far as being taken seriously, all I can say is that most of the voters studied the careers of all the Tigers in the history of the team very carefully. I was pretty happy with the outcome. There are a few people in the group that would enjoy discussing Higginson's qualifications with you in detail.
Just drop by Motownsports.com and go to the History Forum. Comments are very welcome and so are debates!
Higginson had more than two good years as a Tiger. His OPS+ (% above league average) was high in the following years:
ReplyDelete1996 146
1997 133
1998 114
2000 132
2001 120
He was also a very good outfielder for many years.
You could argue that the end of his career dragged on too long and hurt his candidacy. That's what made him borderline but I consider him a legitimate candidate.
Ok, so Higgy was good for 5 years. But HOF material I'm not so sure. He was one of the best players on a very poor team. I guess when I think of Tigers HOF I'd like to keep standards really high like the MLBs HOF. That's why I would not vote for Higgy.
ReplyDeleteI gotta say, going through this list is kinda fun. I only know player from the 80s on so it's good to have a list like this.
ReplyDeleteEven thought I disagree with Higgy it's a fun list.
Tim, It was hard to decide where to make the cut off. There were about about 30 players who were slam dunk Hall of Famers - Cobb, Gehringer, Greenberg, etc. But I think the project would have been boring if we just made a list of great players. We also wanted to include a certain number of players who played with the Tigers for a long time and were pretty good. Figuring out who to include after the obvious one was what made the project interesting. There have been a lot of debates along the way.
ReplyDelete