The Bizarro Hall of Fame: Introducing the Class of 1980

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.

IMPORTANT NOTE: I feel obligated to issue a warning about this particular entry – it’s pretty long. For some reason, 29 players received Bizarro status in 1980, by far the most of any year (I think the next highest is in the 15-17 range). Please don’t let it stop you from reading…but you may want to print it out and take it to the bathroom or something. Just a suggestion.

Class of 1980
Jack Aker – For four glorious years in the late 1960s, Jack Aker held the record for saves in a single season. It happened in 1966, when the 25-year-old reliever won eight games and saved 32 in 66 appearances for the Kansas City Athletics. In doing so, Aker became the second pitcher ever with a 30+ save season on his resume (behind only Ted Abernathy, who held the previous mark of 31). He struggled for the following two years, however, and was eventually selected by Seattle in the 1968 expansion draft.

Steve Barber A precursor to the great Baltimore Orioles pitchers of the late 1960s and early 1970s, Barber won 100 games before his thirtieth birthday but tailed off badly after, never again notching more than six victories in a season. Aside from a 20-13 season in 1963 and two All-Star nods (he didn’t pitch in either game), the thing he may be best remembered for is a recurring appearance as an oft-injured pitcher in Jim Bouton’s classic “Ball Four.”

Bob Barton – A light-hitting catcher who only played more than 61 games in one of his ten major league seasons, all of Barton’s homeruns came in 1970 and 1971. Three of them were hit off of pitchers who ended up in the Hall of Fame: Gaylord Perry, Ferguson Jenkins, and Phil Niekro.

John Boccabella – Drafted by the Montreal Expos in the 1968 expansion draft, Boccabella spent five years north of the border as a backup catcher and corner infielder. His only full season was 1973, when he caught 117 games and committed fourteen errors.

Larry Brown – No, not that Larry Brown. Not that one either. This Larry Brown played for Cleveland, Oakland, Baltimore, and Texas in a twelve-year major league career, the first three of which coincided with the end of his brother Dick’s playing days. According to the Baseball-Reference Bullpen, Brown had a number of connections with other Bizarro HOFers, including a serious injury sustained in a game pitched by Sonny Siebert (’82), being long-time teammates with Sam McDowell (’81), and getting his first major league hit off of Al Downing (’83).

Chris Cannizarro – An original member of the New York Mets and San Diego Padres, Cannizzaro kicked around the major leagues for fourteen seasons, seeing action for six teams. From the end of the 1965 season to August 1968, he did not appear in the majors but was traded four times.

Paul Casanova – A lot of mediocre catching careers ended in 1974. Casanova played for the Washington Senators in the 1960s under Gil Hodges and Ted Williams, but even The Greatest Hitter Who Ever Lived couldn’t make an offensive weapon out of him. After peaking at .254 and thirteen homeruns in 1966, he only hit higher than .229 once more.

Horace Clarke – Due to a recent decade-long run of success, we tend to forget that the New York Yankees of the late 1960s and early 1970s were not a good team, failing to make a World Series appearance from 1965 to 1975 (an unheard of stretch in Yankee land). The second baseman on those teams was Clarke, who assumed the position after Bobby Richardson’s retirement in 1966. A light-hitter, Clarke led the league in at-bats, at-bats per strikeout, and outs in 1970.

Johnny Edwards – A two-time National League Gold Glove winner as a catcher with the Cincinnati Reds, Edwards peaked in the mid 1960s, making three consecutive All-Star appearances and hitting 17 homeruns in 1965. He hit .364 for the Reds in the 1961 World Series.
Phil Gagliano – In 1965, Gagliano’s 18-year-old brother Ralph played his only major league game, pinch-running for BizHOFer Larry Brown in the ninth inning of a 9-4 Cleveland loss. Two years later, his big brother Phil picked up a World Series ring as a utility infielder with the Cardinals.

Jim Gosger – Gosger played for the Athletics during the team’s first season in Oakland in 1968, the Pilots during their only season in 1969, and the Expos during their second season of existence in 1970.

Jim Ray Hart – As a rookie in 1964, Hart hit .286 with 31 homers and 81 RBI – and received one vote for Rookie of the Year (Dick Allen was a near unanimous decision). Other points of interest: he and I have the same birthday, and he hails from Hookerton, North Carolina. I like to think that last one used to be known as Hooker Town before being shortened, because that would just be funny.

Ron Hunt – A .273 lifetime hitter, Hunt realized early on that the most efficient way for him to reach base was to stand directly in the path of the ball and hope for the best. He only finished out of the league’s top ten in the hit by pitch category once (1965, when he appeared in 57 games) and led the league for the final seven seasons of his career. His 243 career HBP rank third in the modern era behind Craig Biggio and Don Baylor; his 50 HBP in 1971 are a modern single-season record.

John Kennedy – Jesus, another inaugural Seattle Pilot. It’s gonna be fun to go back through this list when all is said and done and figure out which teams are the best represented.

Andy Kosco – Kosco was once traded from the Red Sox to the Reds with fellow BizHOFer Phil Gagliano.

Lew Krausse – For a time in the early 1970s, Krausse (the son of a former big league pitcher of the same name) followed a somewhat circular career path. On April 11, 1974, he was purchased by the Oakland Athletics from the Atlanta Braves. 35 days later, he was purchased by the Atlanta Braves from the Oakland Athletics. After the 1974 season, he was released by the Braves…and less than two months later, signed with the Athletics.

Frank Linzy – Linzy appeared in 516 games in eleven years, all but one as a reliever. The lone start: his major league debut on August 14, 1963, when he allowed three runs on eight hits in 2+ innings.

Denis Menke – A two-time All-Star with Houston, Menke was a part of the Big Red Machine-building trade that brought Joe Morgan, Ed Armbrister, Jack Billingham and Cesar Geronimo to Cincinnati in 1971. He lasted two seasons with the Reds before going back to Houston in exchange for Pat Darcy – who pitched well in 1975 but will always be remembered for giving up the famous Carlton Fisk homerun in Game Six of the World Series.

Bob Miller – A solid reliever who appeared in nearly 700 games (included 99 starts), Miller went 1-12 for the newborn Mets in 1962. He was later repaid for the sacrifice with World Series rings in 1965 and 1971 (and probably 1973, when he pitched for the Dodgers but didn’t play in the Fall Classic). It also must be mentioned that he is one of four Bob Millers in major league history, three of whom played in the 1950s.

Norm Miller – Miller had a great OPS+ in 1973, finishing at 177 while splitting time between Atlanta and Houston. Unfortunately, he only had twelve at-bats.

Ivan Murrell – Baseball players generally aren’t renowned for their all-around athletic skill. Murrell, who died last year, was an exception – in addition to his ten year major league career, he was also an accomplished amateur boxer and soccer player.

Juan Pizarro – Though he picked up a World Series ring in 1957 with the Braves, Pizarro’s career blossomed following a trade to the White Sox in 1961. He averaged fifteen wins a year in the four seasons that followed, culminating in a 19-9, 2.56 campaign in 1964.

Rick Reichardt – A two-sport star at Wisconsin (baseball and football), Reichardt was once handed what was at the time the richest bonus in major league history: $200,000.

Pete Richert – Richert’s birthday is the day before mine. In three World Series games, he pitched a total of one inning – and managed to record a save. He was part of a trade that sent Frank Robinson to the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1971.

Mike Ryan – Eight times in his career, Ryan recorded more than 100 at-bats. Only twice did he manage a batting average above .200 – 1966 (.214) and 1969 (.204). His career OPS+ was 51.

Paul Schaal – A light-hitting third baseman, Schaal was a member of the original Kansas City Royals. He manned the hot corner for the team from 1970 through 1974, with his best season coming in 1971.

Dick Selma – I could, if need be, probably write quite a bit about Dick Selma. All I’m going to say, however, is that according to Baseball-Reference, the man’s nickname was Mortimer Snerd. No explanation was given. I’m sure it could be looked up on the Internet, but that’s not gonna happen. Some things are perfect and ought not be ruined.

Duke Sims – One of several BizHOFs on the Cleveland Indians teams of the 1960s, Sims was a hard-hitting catcher (imagine that) who once slugged 23 homeruns in a season. My favorite thing about him, however, is the story included in his sponsorship section on Baseball-Reference, which reads: “For my mom, who was sitting in the Dodgers dugout before a game, when Duke Sims sauntered by, saying, “My, my! Look at all the pretty ladies sitting in the dugout today!”” Sounds to me like the Duke (real name: Duane B. Sims) had some game.

Bob Veale – Like Sandy Koufax, Veale was a hard-throwing lefty who enjoyed a solid multi-season run in the 1960s. Pitching for the Pittsburgh Pirates, Veale won 103 games in the seven seasons between 1964 and 1970, an average of just under fifteen victories a year. He also demonstrated an ability to run up large strikeouts totals, four times tallying more than 200 in a season. Veale was used in a relief role at the beginning and end of his playing days; one of his best seasons was 1963, when he had a microscopic 1.04 ERA in 77 2/3 innings pitched, mostly out of the bullpen.

(Coming soon: the Bizarro Hall of Fame Class of 1979)

(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.)