John Franco recorded 424 saves in his 21 year MLB career, the most of any left-handed relief pitcher. He is currently 7th all-time in career saves and 3rd in games played for a pitcher, but at the time of his retirement he was 2nd in both categories. Is this enough to earn John Franco a ticket to Cooperstown?…

In the Season 2 Finale Russell breaks down the 2025 BBWAA Ballot vote and previews the 2026 BBWAA ballot including who he thinks will be elected and who has a chance of surviving the dreaded "one and done" 5% vote requirement.Oleh Russell Christian

Russell breaks down the entire 2025 BBWAA ballot in advance of the Jan 21st announcement and makes the case for who he thinks will and won't get elected. If you're looking for a crash-course on the 2025 BBWAA ballot look no further! Featuring the exclusive Dan Bern song "That's The List" written for the occasion!…

Episode 21 features a very special interview with critically acclaimed singer- songwriter, novelist, painter, and fellow baseball fan extraordinaire Dan Bern. Bern's music has been compared to that of Bob Dylan, Woody Guthrie, Bruce Springsteen, Phil Ochs and Elvis Costello. A prolific composer, Bern estimates to have written over one thousand song…

Listen as Russell breaks down the Classic Baseball Era Committee ballot voting and congratulates new Hall of Famers Dick Allen and Dave Parker! He'll also break down his prediction for next year's era committee ballot. (spoiler alert - it's Dale Murphy's year!)Oleh Russell Christian

The Classic Baseball Era Ballot vote is Sunday, December 8, 2024. The 8 players on the ballot are Dick Allen, Ken Boyer, John Donaldson, Steve Garvey, Vic Harris, Tommy John, Dave Parker, and Luis Tiant. Who will get in? Who would Russ vote for? Listen to find out!Oleh Russell Christian

Famed Cuban pitcher Luis Tiant is up for consideration on this year's Classic Baseball Era Committee ballot. The son of famed Cuban pitcher Luis Tiant Sr., Luis pitched 19 seasons in MLB and is one of only 11 pitchers in MLB history to retire with 225+ wins, 2400+ strikeouts, 49+ shutouts and a career ERA under 3.30. The other 10 are all in the HOF…

Left-handed pitcher Tommy John earned 288 Wins over a 26 year career, the second longest in MLB history. Most notably, 164 of John's wins came AFTER he underwent the groundbreaking surgery which now bears his name. A 3-time 20 game winner, John twice led the league in Win-Loss % and led all of MLB in shutouts 3 times (1966, 1967, 1980). A 4 time Al…

A 7 time All-Star, Dick Allen won the 1964 NL Rookie of the Year and the 1972 AL MVP Awards. He is one of only 28 players to have won both a ROY and an MVP Award. Allen is one of only 10 players in baseball history to retire with 350+ home runs, 1000+ RBI, 1000+ runs, 100+ stolen bases, and 75+ triples. He is also one of only five players in MLB hi…

Felix Hernandez pitched his entire 15 year career with the Seattle Mariners. A 6 time All-Star and the 2010 AL Cy Young Award Winner, Felix finished his career with 169 wins, 2524 strikeouts, and a 3.42 ERA. He also pitched the 23rd Perfect Game in MLB history on August 15, 2012. Despite a very strong 7 year peak between 2009 and 2015, does "King F…

Dave "The Cobra" Parker played 19 year and amassed 2,712 hits, 526 doubles, 75 triples, 339 home runs, 1493 RBI, 154 stolen bases, 4405 Total Bases and a career .290 BA. Parker was a 2 time batting champion, 2 time World Series Champion, the 1979 All-Star Game MVP and the 1978 NL MVP. A longtime fan favorite, his counting stats, hardware, and champ…

The calendar has changed to September. The air is cooler. The leaves are changing colors. The kids are back at school. That means it's Hall of Fame season! This winter, the Classic Baseball Era Committee will meet to discuss candidates who made their mark on the game prior to 1980. I've been anxiously awaiting this ballot because it seems like an i…

In Episode 13, the last Episode of Season 1, Russell breaks down the 2024 BBWAA ballot including the players elected to the Hall, who fell off the ballot, who is still on for next year and what newcomers to watch for in 2025.Oleh Russell Christian

Today, Adrián Beltré, Todd Helton, and Joe Mauer were elected to the Hall of Fame via the BBWAA Ballot. Dave Metter (@CooperstownDave) joins me to discuss the election results and answer listener questions.

In this episode Russell breaks down the ENTIRE 2024 BBWAA Hall of Fame Ballot and discusses the HOF cases for every player not already assigned their own individual episode. The results of the 2024 BBWAA Ballot will be announced on January 23, 2024, if you're curious what might happen or you're a BBWAA voter who is still undecided then take a liste…

Bobby Abreu is 1 of 7 players with 900+ extra-base hits 400+ stolen bases in his career. The others are Ty Cobb, Honus Wagner, Tris Speaker, Barry Bonds, Craig Biggio, and Paul Molitor. Will this be enough to get Abreu in the Hall of Fame? Born and raised in Venezuela, Abreu first drew the attention of MLB scouts when he was 14 and signed with the …

Carlos Beltran played 20 years in MLB with a reputation retiring with very impressive career stats of a 70.1 WAR, 2725 hits, 565 doubles, 435 home runs, 1587 RBI, and 312 stolen bases. He is one of only 4 players in MLB history along with A-Rod, Bonds, and Mays to accumulate 2,500+ hits, 400+ homers, 300+ stolen bases and 1,000+ walks. Arguably one…

Over a 6 year peak 2005-2010 Chase Utley's season average was .298 BA, 27 HR, and 95 RBI. During that period he won 4 Silver Sluggers and received MVP votes in 5 seasons including 3 top-10 finishes. Utley was also in the top 3 NL leaders in WAR for 4 seasons. Utley excelled in the post-season, helping his Phillies win the 2008 World Series and in t…

Andruw Jones won 10 consecutive Gold Gloves with the Atlanta Braves and in 2005 set a franchise record (since broken) with 51 home runs in a season. Defensively he's 2nd all time in MLB history in all players, all positions, in Total Zone Runs (Brooks Robinson is #1). Andruw is also 1 of 5 center fielders to record at least 400 putouts in a season …

Today we go outside the box. Mark Shirk (@bballhist on Twitter) and Justin McKinney (@Just_Mckinney on Twitter) join me to discuss players who we believe were at or close to a Hall of Fame level, but are not on the Hall of Fame radar (for a variety of reasons. Players discussed: Mark’s List: Charlie Keller Charlie Smith Mike Scioscia Ross Barnes Bo…

Joe Mauer played 15 years in Major League baseball, all of them with the Minnesota Twins. A hometown hereo, he grew up in Minnesota and was a standout athlete in baseball, basketball and football at Cretin-Derham Hall High School in St. Paul. Joe was drafted in the 1st round of the 2001 MLB draft and played his entire 15 year career with the Minnes…

Gary Sheffield was a feared slugger who tallied 509 home runs, 1636 runs, 2689 hits, 1676 RBI and a career .292 career batting average over 22 MLB seasons. He is 1 of only 4 players in MLB history with 500+ home runs and 250+ stolen bases. Of the 28 members of the "500 home run club" only Mel Ott and Ted Williams have less career strikeouts. A 9 ti…

Tonight, Jim Leyland was announced as the lone inductee to the Hall of Fame from the Contemporary Era Committee’s Non-Player Ballot. Adam and Dave discuss the results of the election and look forward to future elections.

Episode 5 explores the Hall of Fame Case for relief pitcher Billy Wagner. Billy pitched in 853 games over 16 seasons, all of them in relief. He retired with 422 saves which is 6th best all time. A 7 time All-Star, his advanced stats compare favorably with Mariano Rivera and Trevor Hoffman however Wagner struggled in his post-season appearances post…

In episode 4 we examine the voting process and the difference between the Baseball Writers' Association of America (BBWAA) ballot and the Veterans Committee ballot, and breakdown the cases for all the candidates on the 2024 Contemporary Baseball Committee: Ed Montague (Umpire) Joe West (Umpire) Hank Peters (Executive) Bill White (Executive) Cito Ga…

Episode 3 addresses the Hall of Fame case for Todd Helton who played his entire 17 year with the Colorado Rockies, retiring in 2013 holding Rockies career records for games played, hits, doubles, home runs, RBI's, and walks. Todd batted .300 or better in 12 seasons and retired with a career .316 batting average. His 592 doubles are the 20th most ev…

In this episode we discuss the Hall of Fame Case for Detroit Tigers legend Lou Whitaker. Lou and shortstop teammate Alan Trammell are the longest-running double play combination in major-league history, turning 1,527 double plays over 19 seasons. The 1978 AL Rookie of the Year, Lou won 3 Gold Gloves, 4 Silver Sluggers, was a 5 x All-Star selection …

The inaugural episode of The Case For: A Baseball Hall of Fame Podcast is dedicated to former Atlanta Braves legend Dale Murphy. Attorney and baseball fan extraordinaire Russell Christian makes the case for the induction of 2-time NL MVP Dale Murphy into Cooperstown.Oleh Russell

The Hall of Fame released the Contemporary Baseball Era’s Non-Players ballot, so I got on the line with Graham Womack and Dave Metter to discuss the candidates.

Today we welcome David Metter, aka Cooperstown Dave, to the show. David is a Baseball Hall of Fame enthusiast and previously ran the Vlad4HOF Twitter account. He has since pivoted the account (due to Vlad’s successful induction) to a general Hall of Fame account. He has recently been tweeting about non-player candidates and “Rule B” candidates (“Th…

Today I’m stepping outside of the Hall of Fame echo chamber to chat with an “old school” baseball guy (or maybe he just plays one on Twitter?). Even if we don’t always see eye-to-eye on things like WAR, I always appreciate remembering some underrated players with Not Gaetti (sorry, that’s the only name I’m at liberty to use). We discuss the Contemp…

Today Fred McGriff was selected for Hall of Fame induction by the Contemporary Baseball Era Committee. Graham and I discuss the results, what they mean for future elections, and more. Graham Womack on Twitter: https://twitter.com/grahamdude Graham's Website: https://www.sactocontentwriter.com/ Baseball Past and Present: https://baseballpastandprese…

Today the Hall of Fame announced the 2023 Contemporary Baseball Era Players Ballot. It is loaded with complicated candidates (Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Curt Schilling, Rafael Palmeiro) and “clean” ones (Dale Murphy, Fred McGriff, Don Mattingly). Oh, and Albert Belle. We don’t know how to classify him. To break it all down we are joined by Graham …

The Hall of Fame threw us a curveball and announced some new changes to the Era Committee process, effective immediately. We’re joined again by Graham Womack to discuss the new Contemporary Baseball Era and Classic Baseball Era committees. Graham Womack on Twitter: https://twitter.com/grahamdude Graham's Website: https://www.sactocontentwriter.com/…

After our deep dive into the Early Baseball and Golden Days Eras (including sidebars into Negro League and Latin American Baseball) in Season 1, we finally turn our attention to the 2023 Today’s Game Era Ballot in Season 2. Today we’re joined by Graham Womack to discuss the history of this Committee, who the returning candidates are, and the incred…

There’s one more episode I wanted to do before moving on to the next election cycle. When researching the Negro Leagues, the Pre-Negro Leagues, and Negro League MLEs, something kept coming up—Cuban baseball. It’s hard to talk about the Negro Leagues without including Cuban baseball. Today’s guest, Gary Ashwill of the Seamheads Negro League Database…

Mark Armour returns for a chat that focuses on the Golden Days Era—specifically the 1955–1970 National League, which Mark calls “the best league ever.” Stars of the Negro Leagues were integrating the majors, but it was the National League that led the way. This leads to a pretty large disparity of talent between the NL and AL during the first two d…

Today I chat with Graig Kreindler, “The Painter of the National Pastime.” We discussed how he started painting baseball and how that turned into the huge Negro Leagues project (and card set) commissioned by Jay Caldwell for the 100th anniversary of the Negro Leagues. Then, Graig shared some stories about intersting subjects he’s tackled over the ye…

Today we continue to explore the Negro Leagues and Negro League Hall of Fame candidates. We welcome Gary Gillette, Ted Knorr, and Sean Gibson to the podcast. Gillette, Knorr, and Gibson have joined together to form a new committee—named "42 for 21"—to publicize deserving Negro Leagues & Black Baseball candidates for upcoming Hall of Fame elections.…

The Era Committee elections may be over, but that doesn't mean I've stopped thinking about them. Since we last chatted, Eric Chalek's Negro League MLEs have been added to the Hall of Stats to power Hall Rating for Negro League candidates. Kevin Johnson of Seamheads joins the podcast to talk about the best Negro League (and Latin) candidates outside…

The Hall of Fame's Early Baseball (pre-1950) and Golden Days (1950-1969) Era results are in and we have SIX new Hall of Famers. In the episode, Graham and I discuss the inductions of Minnie Miñoso, Gil Hodges, Jim Kaat, Tony Oliva, Buck O'Neil, and Bud Fowler. We also touch upon those who didn't make it (like Dick Allen once again finishing a vote …

After spending ten episodes figuring out who should be on the Hall of Fame's Early Baseball (pre-1950) and Golden Days (1950-1969) Era ballots, they finally came out on Friday, November 5. Graham Womack is back to discuss who made it on the ballot, who did not, how we would vote, and what we think might happen. Graham Womack on Twitter: http://twit…

In today’s special episode, we return to the Negro Leagues to chat with Eric Chalek, a researcher who has developed a set of MLEs (Major League Equivalencies) for Negro League stars. For the first time we can see Martîn Dihigo with 3,082 hits and 381 home runs—or Smokey Joe Williams with a 390-301 record with a 2.68 ERA—or Cool Papa Bell with 3,366…

This Winter, the Golden Days Era Committee will meet to vote on ten candidates for the Baseball Hall of Fame. This committee covers baseball from 1950 to 1969. Over the last three episodes, we covered a lot of candidates, but there were a few that I felt we didn’t explore enough. In this episode, we dig into those candidates. First, Mark Armour tel…

This Winter, the Golden Days Era Committee will meet to vote on ten candidates for the Baseball Hall of Fame. This committee covers baseball from 1950 to 1969. Chris Bodig of Cooperstown Cred joins the podcast to discuss the 2015 Golden Era results, a relatively new rule added to the Era Committee process, and (of course) the players who would both…

This Winter, the Golden Days Era Committee will meet to vote on ten candidates for the Baseball Hall of Fame. This committee covers baseball from 1950 to 1969. This time we welcome a very special guest: Jessica Brand. Jessica is sabermetrician, baseball historian, and a Stathead legend. We discuss the process Jessica would take toward building a Go…

This Winter, the Golden Days Era Committee will meet to vote on ten candidates for the Baseball Hall of Fame. This committee covers baseball from 1950 to 1969. Graham Womack joins the podcast again to discuss the history of the Golden Days Era Committee as well as the ten names he’d place on his ballot (and a few more). Graham Womack on Twitter: ht…

This Winter, the Early Baseball Era Committee will meet to vote on ten candidates for the Baseball Hall of Fame. This committee covers all of baseball before 1950. The ballot will consider players from the White major leagues and the Black major leagues as well as pioneers, managers, umpires, and executives. How will the committee distill over 100 …

This Winter, the Early Baseball Era Committee will meet to vote on ten candidates for the Baseball Hall of Fame. This committee covers all of baseball before 1950. The ballot will consider players from the White major leagues and the Black major leagues as well as pioneers, managers, umpires, and executives. How will the committee distill over 100 …

This Winter, the Early Baseball Era Committee will meet to vote on ten candidates for the Baseball Hall of Fame. This committee covers all of baseball before 1950. The ballot will consider players from the White major leagues and the Black major leagues as well as pioneers, managers, umpires, and executives. How will the committee distill over 100 …