On Monday, we will find out which players go enough votes to make it into the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. Although Rickey Henderson is a lock, there is a lot of Hall of Fame worthiness discussions surrounding all the other players. Who do we think will make it into Cooperstown?

Players Who Will Be In The Hall
Bert Blyleven
Andre Dawson
Rickey Henderson
Tim Raines

Players Who Won’t Be In The Hall
Harold Baines
Jay Bell
David Cone
Ron Gant
Mark Grace
Tommy John
Don Mattingly
Mark McGwire
Jack Morris
Dale Murphy
Jesse Orosco
Dave Parker
Dan Plesac
Jim Rice
Lee Smith
Alan Trammell
Greg Vaughn
Mo Vaughn
Matt Williams

The Phillies did it!

What does it feel like to be a World Series champion? Ask the Philadelphia Phillies, who on Wednesday took home the 2008 World Series title. These Phillies are now the champions of baseball for the year of 2008 and no one can take that away from them.

Ryan Howard has now established himself in history.

You can see Phillies World Series celebration videos here:

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By Guest Blogger James Edwards

My age was 12. Baseball ruled. It was 1968 and the Detroit Tigers were going to win it all. Yeah, that is what needs to be told to today’s baseball fan.

Hi, my name is James, sometimes known as the Squibster. Normally you would find me writing for Squibkick or NBAObsessed. You see baseball used to be my favorite sport and now football and basketball have taken baseball’s place. That needs some explaining, so we have to go back in time.

Baseball in 1968 was so different from today. Nobody had computers or the internet. Most of the games were on the radio. Don’t worry, there will be no reference to the good old days, because today is the good old days.

The Squibster was 12 years old and baseball was everything. My occupation upon growing up was to be shortstop for the Detroit Tigers.

The Tigers were coming from behind in the late innings and winning game after game. Dennis Dale McClain won 31 games that year and then kind of wore out his arm and rubber arm Mickey Lolich took over in the World Series to win 3 games.

It was so cool to a baseball obsessed youngster in the days before even the VCR or DVR, because our teachers rolled in the TV’s to our class rooms and allowed us to watch a couple World Series games on TV. The games were even played in the day time back then!

Now we need a good story to complete this story; kind of the story within the story, so here goes.
The Tigers were facing one of the all time great teams in the 68 St. Louis Cardinals with Bob Gibson pitching. Hmm, think his ERA was around 2.95 and he had a blazing fastball. Bob struck out 17 batters in the first game, a record at the time. His ERA in the Series was well below 2.00.

In the 60’s it was a pitchers game and bunting and stealing were very important. Hardly anyone hit over .300. Al Kaline was one of the best hitters in the league and only batted .287 that year. (keep in mind this is all from memory, so don’t bet your paycheck on any of these facts.) In fact, only Carl Yaztrzemski hit over .300 that year and he hit .301.

The Tigers had four outfielders, Mickey Stanley, Jim “the Grey Fox” Northrup, Al Kaline, and Willie Horton. The manager, Mayo Smith, decided to move Mickey Stanley to shortstop for the World Series to get one more bat in the lineup. Ray Oyler was the regular shortstop and hit less than .200. That left Al Kaline in right field, Jim Northrup in center and Willie Horton in left field.

Stanley (2 gold gloves), Northrup, and Kaline (9 gold gloves) were all great fielders. Stanley’s fielding percentage used to be the all time high. Willie Horton was an average fielder with an average arm, but he was bulging with muscles back when players were small. Willie Mays was 5′ 11″ as was Mickey Mantle and they were not big. Oh, the Yaz was also 5′ 11″ tall.

Enough prep, lets get to the story. The word got out that Willie Horton would not try to throw anyone out at home from left field on a runner on second when someone hit a single to left. Willie would just throw it to Don Wert at third.

St. Louis had one of the all time base stealers in Lou Brock. He had speed to burn. Brock was so fast that he would go into home standing up from second, because outfielders rarely challenged him with a throw to home.

Lou Brock - the one of the greatest base stealers of all time

So, sure enough, Bill Freehan, the catcher, signaled Don Wert, the third baseman, to let Willie Horton’s throw through to the plate and they caught Lou Brock at the plate standing up for an out. The momentum had changed.

The Tigers were losing the game 3 - 2 at the time and were down 3 -1 in the series. They went on to win the game and the series. Mickey Lolich became the star.

This was more than a World Series. It was a team holding a town together. This was the year of civil rights and riots and marching in the city of Detroit. The Newspapers were on strike and few games were on TV. The Tigers were on the radio all summer and kind of gave the city something else to think about, something to rally around, to believe in.

The Squibster was 12 years old and Detroit was going to win it all. My world was perfect.

The bloggers for the b5media sports channel were asked to write a blog entry about a childhood sports memory. For me, when I think of childhood sports memories, there’s really only one that stands out.

I really started following baseball in the 1988 season. Both of my parents are Los Angeles Dodgers fans after growing up in Los Angeles. They’d watch Dodgers games here and there and I’d join them on the coach. I really didn’t understand much at first but I asked a lot of questions, and by the end of the year I had a pretty good understanding of what was happening.

Fast forward to the first game of the World Series between the Dodgers and the Oakland Athletics. The big, strong and powerful A’s were supposed to destroy the pesky Dodgers, who most people said lucked out even making it to the World Series.

(As an interesting side-story, I remember asking my dad about why Jose Canseco always twitches when he’s on the plate. My dad told me it was because he was on steroids. If it was that obvious then, why’d it take so long to unravel that mystery? Then again, that’s probably a memory for a different day.)

With the Dodgers down by a run, I remember thinking it was over when Dennis Eckersley entered the game. They flashed his stats and I had advanced far enough in my baseball knowledge to know that chances were slim that the Dodgers could make a comeback.

With two outs and a runner of first base, I remember Kirk Gibson limping to the batter’s box. He worked the count full. Each swing he took seemed to take years off of his life. Then it happened. The homerun. The Kirk Gibson homerun.

I remember celebrating around the house. I couldn’t believe what I just saw. The Dodgers were the winners of the World Series!!! Or so I thought at the time. My parents then explained that was only the first game of the World Series. Only the first game?

Since that time, I’ve been hooked.

10 minutes of unedited Kirk Gibson homerun video:

Well, maybe not, but my latest article at Baseball Digest Daily profiles the 15 big leaguers who have as their only hit a triple. Yep, from John Barthold to Eric Cammack, I’ve got you covered. You’re welcome…

J.D. Drew and Ila Borders were playing in the Northern League. Kevin Mench led the NCAA in home runs, while Brian Roberts led in stolen bases. You guessed it, we’re back in 1998 for our latest look at baseball’s best prospects from that year. Sit back, relax, and enjoy…

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   Photo by <<graham>>
   some rights reserved

Hey, here’s a fun team that doesn’t get a lot of attention. The 1966 Pittsburgh Pirates went 92-70, good enough for third place in an extremely tight National League race. The Dodgers won the pennant, with the Giants back of them by 1 1/2 games. The Bucs, in turn, finished 1 1/2 games behind San Francisco.

Harry “The Hat” Walker managed the Pirates in ‘66, and what an offense he had at his disposal. Future Hall-of-Famers Willie Stargell (.315/.381/.581, 164 OPS+) and Roberto Clemente (.317/.360/.536, 146 OPS+) had monster seasons (Clemente won the MVP award), as did first baseman Donn Clendenon (.299/.358/.520, 141 OPS+). Matty Alou (.342/.373/.421, 121 OPS+) won the batting title, finishing 15 points ahead of brother Felipe. As a team, they led the NL in batting average, slugging percentage, and on-base percentage, and placed second (to the Braves) in runs scored.

The pitching wasn’t quite as good as the hitting, but then, with that offense, it didn’t need to be. Left-hander Bob Veale (16-12, 3.02 ERA, 118 ERA+) led the charge. The rest of the rotation was nothing special but did feature a couple of promising youngsters in Woodie Fryman and Steve Blass. Nobody in the bullpen dominated, but as a unit, Roy Face, Pete Mikkelsen, Al McBean, and Billy O’Dell offered solid support when needed.

The Pirates spent 60 days in first in ‘66, the last time coming on September 10. Never once during the season were they under .500. They never won more than six games in a row, nor did they ever lose more than four straight. That is some kind of consistency.

Speaking of which, the Pirates went 46-35 both at home and on the road. Their downfall, if you want to call it that, was a 40-37 record after the All-Star break. Getting swept at home by the Giants over the final weekend didn’t help either.

This was a good Pirates team that easily could have won the pennant and might have been a better match for the Baltimore Orioles (who swept the Dodgers in the World Series). What wouldn’t Pittsburgh fans do for such a potent lineup right about now?

I think 1998 is right around when I first started to realize how difficult it is to develop a big-league catcher. Five backstops made Baseball America’s Top 100 prospects that year, and none of ‘em did much. Still, this latest batch includes a former home-run champion and a Cy Young Award winner…

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California bans smoking in bars and restaurants, 19 countries in Europe forbid human cloning, the Unabomber enters a guilty plea — and that’s just in January! You guessed it, we’re looking back at 1998 again. In this installment, we enter the top half of Baseball America’s Top 100 prospects. Sit back, relax, and try not to think about George Michael getting arrested in a park restroom…

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   Photo by <<graham>>
   some rights reserved

Admit it. You’d never heard of the Worcester Ruby Legs. It’s okay, I’d never heard of them either.

The Ruby Legs played three years in the National League, 1880 - 1882. They started out bad and kept getting worse. In 1881, they sported a 32-50 record, good for last place in the NL, 23 games back of the champion Chicago Cubs. (Did I just say “champion Chicago Cubs”? Wow, that was a long time ago.)

Other teams in the NL that year included the Providence Grays, Buffalo Bisons, Detroit Wolverines, Troy Trojans, Boston Red Caps, and Cleveland Blues. As for the Ruby Legs, they were led on offense by first baseman Harry Stovey, and outfielders Buttercup Dickerson and Pete Hotaling.

Talk about a different game. The club used four pitchers all season. Catcher Doc Bushong committed 44 errors. How does a catcher commit 44 errors? Well, like I said, it was a different game. Only 59% of the runs the Ruby Legs allowed in 1881 were earned. That number for MLB in 2007 was 92.5%.

The Ruby Legs actually were in first place as of May 24, when they owned a 10-4 record. They went 22-46 the rest of the way, and carried that momentum into 1882, when they finished 18-66. After the ‘82 season, the club closed up shop with an all-time franchise record of 90-159 (.361). Stovey is the club’s all-time leader in runs (223), hits (290), doubles (59), triples (31), and homers (11).