The Bizarro Hall of Fame: Introducing the Class of 1987

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 1987

Jerry Grote – Grote spent sixteen seasons in the major leagues, playing on teams that made four World Series appearances in the ten seasons between 1969 and 1978. He was a National League All-Star with the Mets in 1968 and 1974. He left baseball for two years following the 1978 season, returning in 1981 to appear in 24 games for Kansas City and Los Angeles.

Steve Stone – Three things you should know about Steve Stone, the baseball player: one, his 25-7 record in 1980 won him the American League Cy Young Award and accounted for nearly a quarter of his 107 career wins; two, he was the third best Jewish pitcher in major league history behind Sandy Koufax and Ken Holtzman; and three, he surrendered the only homerun Duane Kuiper hit in nearly 3,400 career at-bats (off-topic: did you know Kuiper was drafted six times, including twice in the second round?)

(Coming soon: the Bizarro Hall of Fame Class of 1986.)

(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.)