The Bizarro Hall of Fame: Introducing the Class of 1979

As part of an ongoing project, One More Dying Quail will be profiling the 182 current members of the Bizarro Hall of Fame, an organization that currently exists only in my mind. It was created in the wake of Major League Baseball’s infamous Steroid Era as a way of honoring those players whose careers were perfectly mediocre: the only requirement is that a candidate be listed on the official Baseball Hall of Fame ballot and receive zero votes.

Class of 1979
Tommie Agee – The American League’s Rookie of the Year for the White Sox in 1966, Agee represented the team in the All-Star Game in both his freshman and sophomore seasons. He was dealt to the Mets before the 1968 season and saw his power numbers plummet (20 extra base hits in 368 at-bats) before rebounding as a key member of 1969’s Amazin’ Mets.

Bernie Allen – A light-hitting second baseman, Allen’s fourth major league homerun was a three-run walk-off shot to beat the Tigers on May 6, 1962. Ten years later, on July 8, 1972, his eleventh inning round-tripper accounted for the only run in a 1-0 defeat of the Yankees.

Gene Alley – Alley was Pittsburgh’s regular shortstop in 1971, but only had two at-bats in the team’s World Series victory over Baltimore. The next year, in the five game NLCS against Cincinnati, he went hitless in sixteen at-bats.

Jim Beauchamp – Maybe the definition of a Quadruple A player. Beauchamp’s complete minor league stats aren’t available on Baseball-Reference, but the BR Bullpen notes that he hit at least 128 homeruns in the minors (and probably many more, as they only included stats for a handful of seasons).

Bobby Bolin – Bolin was a valuable multi-tasker for the San Francisco Giants in the mid-1960s, appearing primarily out of the bullpen but also seeing time as a spot-starter for the team.

Ray Culp – Culp won 122 games in eleven major league seasons, with his best years coming as a member of the Red Sox from 1968 to 1971. A two-time All-Star, he went into real estate after his retirement.

Fred Gladding – Gladding appeared in 450 major league games as a pitcher but only started one: a five inning scoreless performance on August 2, 1967. He was in line for the win until Baltimore scored twice in the ninth off rookie reliever Pat Dobson – who, ironically, later became a 20 game winner for the Orioles as well as a Bizarro Hall of Famer. Following the 1967 season, Gladding was traded to Houston, straight up, for Hall of Famer Eddie Mathews.

Jerry May – The BizHOF’s third May, Jerry was walked intentionally nineteen times – more than half of his total walks for the year (36) - as a 23-year-old catcher for the Pirates in 1967.

Jose Pagan – Thanks to a three game Dodgers-Giants playoff in 1962, Pagan played in 164 games, the second highest single season total in major league history (Maury Wills holds the record with 165, set the same year).

Joe Pepitone – Famous for caring more about his hair than his performance on the field, Pepitone was a talented power-hitter for the Yankees in the 1960s. Despite the good homerun numbers, he never hit for a good average or drew a lot of walks, resulting in a string of low OPS numbers.

Rich Reese – Never did much offensively as a first baseman: until 1969, when he inexplicably posted a .322 batting average and 141 OPS+ for Minnesota. His .513 slugging percentage was far and away his career best; in only one other season did it even reach .400.

Larry Stahl – I apologize, Mr. Stahl, but I cannot for the life of me think of anything to write about your career.

John Stephenson – The first homerun of Stephenson’s career, on June 29, 1964, led off the game against fellow BizHOFer Bobby Bolin of the San Francisco Giants.

Jimmy Stewart – Not much of a ballplayer, but he was great in Mr. Smith Goes To Washington and It’s A Wonderful Life.

Jeff Torborg – Torborg played in less than 600 games in his major league career, but he had the good fortune to cross paths with two of the most dominant pitchers of all time, Sandy Koufax and Nolan Ryan, who pitched two of the three no-hitters Torborg caught in his career (Bill Singer was the other).

(Coming soon: the Bizarro Hall of Fame Class of 1978)
(All Hall of Fame voting results were obtained from the official web site of the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Statistical information included in postings for the Bizarro Hall of Fame was, unless otherwise noted, originally compiled by Baseball-Reference.com.)