Modern Baseball Era 2020 Hall of Fame Results

MLB Player's Union head Marvin Miller and Tony Curtis. Oops, that's actually Joe Torre. Sometime in the 1970's.

My favorite baseball card of Ted Simmons, his 1977 Topps card.

Yesterday the Modern Baseball Era Committee voted, and last night the results were announced. The Baseball Hall of Fame has gained two members: union executive Marvin Miller, and catcher Ted Simmons. I’m very excited about Miller and Simmons getting into the Hall of Fame. Miller should have been a no-brainer, and I would blame owner resentment for why his election took so long. Every professional baseball player owes Marvin Miller a lot. Miller started the MLB Players’ Union and pushed for collective bargaining and free agency. 

In my very long article from November, I examined all the players on the ballot, and presented a deep dive into Thurman Munson’s statistics. I wrote less about Ted Simmons, but he has long been one of my favorite players, and I think his election to the Hall of Fame was overdue. Simmons debuted on a stacked Hall of Fame ballot in 1994, and he only received 3.7% of the vote in his only appearance on the BBWAA ballot. Simmons fell just one vote short the last time this committee met two years ago, and his election proves that sometimes the writers simply get it wrong. No, Simmons wasn’t Johnny Bench. But no one has matched Johnny Bench’s accomplishments as a catcher. 

Simmons was a great hitter during his years with the St. Louis Cardinals, 1968-1980, putting up an OPS+ of 127, and a slash line of .298/.366/.459. Simmons became an everyday player in 1971, and from 1971-1980 he caught an average of 135 games a year. Simmons’ career in St. Louis came to an end when Whitey Herzog took over as manager and general manager in 1980. Herzog loved the catcher he had managed in Kansas City, the bespectacled Darrell Porter, and Herzog just didn’t like Ted Simmons. After signing Porter as a free agent after the 1980 season, Herzog wanted to move Simmons to first base, and then move Keith Hernandez to left field. Obviously, Herzog didn’t understand that he had maybe the best-fielding first baseman of all-time on his team. (In a terrible move in June of 1983, the Cardinals traded Hernandez to the Mets for Neil Allen and Rick Ownbey.) Simmons asked to be traded, and so the Cardinals sent Simmons, Rollie Fingers, (who was only a Cardinal for four days) and Pete Vuckovich to the Brewers for David Green, Dave LaPoint, Sixto Lezcano, and Lary Sorensen. The Cardinals had traded two future Hall of Famers, and the 1981 and 1982 AL Cy Young Award winners. Oops. But Lezcano was one of the players the Cardinals sent to the Padres for Ozzie Smith, so it all worked out. The Cardinals and the Brewers ended up facing off in the 1982 World Series. The Cardinals triumphed in 7 games. Fingers was injured and didn’t pitch in the postseason. Simmons slugged two home runs for the Brewers. Darrell Porter was the World Series MVP. 

In addition to being a great catcher, Ted Simmons also seems like a very cool guy. For a baseball player, Simmons was a bit of an iconoclast. Nicknamed “Simba” because his long hair resembled a lion’s mane, Simmons was a vocal opponent of Richard Nixon’s administration. Simmons might have become baseball’s first free agent, as he started to play the 1972 season without signing his contract. Simmons eventually signed his contract during the season, thus making the point moot. Andy Messersmith and Dave McNally did the same thing in 1975, pitching for the entire season without contracts, and an arbitrator ruled that they were free agents, thus ending baseball’s reserve clause. Simmons was a collector of antiques and a trustee of the St. Louis Art Museum. In an article from Sports Illustrated from 1978, Simmons is quoted as “authoritatively discussing the evolution of the fireplace in American households.” The whole article is worth reading, as it gives you a glimpse of a very intelligent man. 

As a young man, Simmons had sleepy eyes and long, dark hair, so I think the obvious choice to play him in a 1970’s made-for-TV movie would have been Tony Danza. Okay, so Simmons isn’t Italian, but it would have worked. “The Ted Simmons Story: From Simba to Museum Trustee,” airing next week on NBC. 

Simmons was named on 13 of the 16 ballots, and Miller was named on 12 of 16. Dwight Evans did well in his first appearance on a Committee ballot, getting 8 votes. Dave Parker got 7 votes, and Steve Garvey and Lou Whitaker each got 6 votes. Tommy John, Don Mattingly, Thurman Munson, and Dale Murphy each got 3 or fewer votes. It’s interesting to me that Tommy John didn’t get more support, especially since he was the only pitcher on the ballot. I still think John has a strong case for the Hall of Fame, but maybe his stock is going down as less emphasis gets placed on pitcher wins. Evans has a strong case to make, and hopefully he’ll be included on future Committee ballots. Ditto for Lou Whitaker. Evans and Whitaker were players who flew under the radar more than Parker and Garvey. I think Dave Parker and Steve Garvey have weaker cases than Evans and Whitaker, but if Parker and Garvey were elected, I would understand why—they both have the “Fame” part covered for sure. The Modern Baseball Committee will vote again in 2022, for the class of 2023, so I’m sure I’ll be writing about many of these players again.