The Bizarro Hall of Fame: Introducing the Class of 1999

In the coming weeks, 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 1999
Mike Boddicker – The answer to a great trivia question, Boddicker was a top-notch pitcher for Baltimore in the early 1980s, going 16-8 for the world champions in 1983 (including the award for Most Valuable Player of the ALCS) and recording his only twenty win season the following year. Desperate for a reliable arm in the rotation behind Roger Clemens and Bruce Hurst, Boston gave up prospects Brady Anderson and Curt Schilling to acquire the veteran righty at the 1988 trading deadline. The move paid off: Boddicker won 39 games in 2 ½ seasons with the Red Sox while helping the team to American League East division titles in 1988 and 1990.

Frank Tanana – For several years in the mid-to-late 1970s, Tanana paired with California Angels teammate Nolan Ryan to form one of the hardest throwing combinations in major league history. Too many innings took a toll on his shoulder (he pitched fourteen straight complete games in 1977, at the age of 24), however, and he was forced to alter his style and become a junkballer for the rest of his career. In 1976, he was the pitcher Minnie Minoso faced in becoming one of the few major leaguers to see action in four decades.

Charlie Leibrandt – Leibrandt was a fair pitcher who won 140 career games and finished fifth in the voting for the American League Cy Young award in 1985, but the most memorable moments in his career (and not in a good way) came in October. Two years in a row, in 1991 and 1992, the Atlanta Braves called upon Leibrandt with the game on the line in the extra innings of Game Six; two years in a row, he took the loss, giving up big eleventh inning extra base hits to a pair of Hall of Famers (a homerun for Kirby Minnesota’s Kirby Puckett – which set the stage for 1991’s classic Game Seven – and a two-run double to Dave Winfield).

Mike Witt – A two-time All-Star who finished behind only Rogers Clemens and Teddy Higuera in the 1986 Cy Young award voting, Witt was never better than September 30, 1984, when he pitched a perfect game against the Rangers on the last day of the season. He is the only major leaguer to pitch a perfect game and be listed on the Hall of Fame ballot without receiving a vote. (Tom Browning came close, garnering one vote in 2001, while Don Larsen, Charlie Robertson and Len Barker never even got on the ballot.)

Special programming note regarding the Bizarro Hall of Fame Classes of 1997 and 1998: For the first time since 1977, every player listed on the Hall of Fame ballot received at least one vote (Terry Kennedy, Terry Puhl, and Rick Dempsey were the closest to making the Bizarro Hall). Consequently, the next class in the Bizarro Hall of Fame series will be the Class of 1996, and as always, it will be coming soon.

(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.)