The Bizarro Hall of Fame: Introducing the Class of 1994

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 1994

Chris Chambliss – The number one overall pick in the 1970 amateur draft and the American League Rookie of the Year the following season, Chambliss enjoyed a good career that didn’t quite live up to that early promise. His best season was 1976, when he hit .293 with 17 homeruns and 96 RBI, made his only appearance in the All-Star game and notched his name on the “Most Famous Homeruns” list with the dramatic ninth inning shot that won the American League Championship Series for the New York Yankees.

George Hendrick – Hendrick’s name won’t be immediately recognizable to most casual fans, but he enjoyed a lengthy major league career, playing for six teams in eighteen seasons after being selected with the first pick in the 1968 draft. His best stretch was from 1979 to 1984, when he made two of his four All-Star appearances and served as one of the sole power sources on a string of light-hitting Cardinal teams.

Bob Horner – Like Chambliss and Hendrick, Horner was the number one overall selection in 1978, and like Chambliss, he followed that up by winning the Rookie of the Year award, but Horner was unique in that his award was won without a day spent in the minor leagues. (He is one of only 21 players to make that leap since the advent of the draft in 1975, and the only one to be named top rookie.) His chief talent throughout his career was hitting homeruns: he had thirty or more in a season three times and is one of only fifteen players to hit four in the same game. Unfortunately, Horner is not likely to be impressed by his Bizarro Hall of Fame status: he was elected to the College Baseball Hall of Fame in 2006.

Mario Soto – After spending most of his first four seasons in the Cincinnati Reds bullpen, Soto became a full-time starter in 1981 and never entered another game in relief again. He emerged as an All-Star in that role on some awful Reds teams in the early part of the 1980s, with three consecutive appearances in the mid-summer classic from 1982-84 and the starting assignment for the National League in 1983. He also finished in the top ten in the Cy Young voting in each of those seasons (he was second to fellow Bizarro Hall of Famer John Denny – Class of 1992 - in 1982).

Scott McGregor – A twenty-game winner for the Baltimore Orioles in 1980, an All-Star in 1981, and top ten vote getter for the Cy Young award in 1980 and 1983, McGregor’s finest on-field moment came in the 1983 World Series. After taking a tough 2-1 loss in Game One (the deciding run came on an eighth inning homerun by Bizarro Hall of Famer Garry Maddox – Class of 1992), he returned to the mound in Game Five and pitched a shutout to clinch the championship for the Orioles.

Coming soon: the Bizarro Hall of Fame’s Class of 1993.

(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.)