The Bizarro Hall of Fame: Introducing the Class of 1988

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.

(This ran a little long, so begin reading at your own risk. Thankfully, the next four classes are more manageable.)

Class of 1988

Stan Bahnsen – Bahnsen won the American League Rookie of the Year award as the second-best pitcher for a fifth place Yankees team in 1968, finishing the year 17-12 with a 2.05 ERA. He later won 39 games between the 1972 and 1973 seasons, a number that would have been more impressive had it not been coupled with 37 losses in the same time frame. Near the end of his career, he was a part of the same Montreal bullpen as Woodie Fryman (Bizarro ’89).

Ross Grimsley – A second-generation major league pitcher (his father, Ross Sr., appeared in seven games for the 1951 White Sox), Grimsley was yet another Bizarro Hall of Famer who played for the Montreal Expos of the late 1970s. He won twenty games for Les Expos in 1978, completing 19 of his 36 starts and striking out an impressive 84 in 263 innings.

Larry Hisle – Two years after finishing fourth in the 1969 Rookie of the Year voting, Hisle posted a .493 OPS and was traded three times in a thirteen month span. The third deal sent him to Minnesota, where he enjoyed a five-year stretch of double-digit homeruns that culminated in a 28/119/.302 season in 1977. He left for Milwaukee as a free agent after the season and immediately paid dividends, hitting 34 homeruns, driving in 115 runs and finishing third in the AL MVP voting.

Grant Jackson – After a two-season experiment that saw him start 58 games for Philadelphia, Jackson worked almost exclusively out of the bullpen for the final twelve years of his career. His value in that role was undeniable: twice he went undefeated for a playoff-bound team (8-0, 9 saves, 1.90 ERA for the 1973 Orioles; 6-0, 1.69 for the 1976 Yankees) and performed admirably in the postseason, but finally got his ring in 1979 as one of Pittsburgh’s top bullpen options (8-5, 14 saves, 2.96).

Randy Jones – The San Diego Padres lost 180 games during the 1975 and 1976 seasons, but fans of the team were not completely deprived. Young outfielder Dave Winfield was only a year or two away from busting out (and bolting for New York) and displaying the form that earned him a spot in the Hall of Fame, while Randy Jones was a trusted option to take the hill every fourth day. As of right now, Jones is the only Bizarro Hall of Famer with more than one twenty win season to his credit; he reached that total twice, finishing second in the National League Cy Young award voting in 1975 (20-12, 2.24) and winning in 1976 (22-14, 2.74).

John Mayberry – Strange but true fact: two of the Kansas City Royals three best hitters did not make the American League All-Star team in 1975. The lucky guy who got to make the trip to Milwaukee was future BHOFer and Royals manager Hal McRae, who carried a .310 batting average into the break. Staying home were a 22-year-old kid named George Brett (the next year, Brett won the batting title, played in the All-Star game and finished second for MVP) and a 6’3”, 220 lb. first baseman named John Mayberry. In fairness, while two-time All-Star Mayberry enjoyed the best year of his career (34 homeruns, 106 RBI, .291 BA), he didn’t really take off until July, slugging twelve homeruns in the month en route to a second place finish in the MVP voting. He later hit 20+ homers in three straight seasons for Toronto, including 30 in 1980, before finishing up with the Yankees in 1982.

Lynn McGlothen – McGlothen showed promise as a 24-year-old pitcher with the 1974 St. Louis Cardinals, finishing 16-12 with a 2.69 ERA, but he had trouble duplicating that modest success later in his career. He was killed in a fire in 1984.

Doc Medich – If my name was George Frances, I’d want a nickname like Doc too. After appearing in one game in 1972 and exiting after zero innings and two runs with an infinite ERA, Medich rebounded to win 14 games and challenge for the Rookie of the Year award (won by Al Bumbry) the following season. In 1974, he won 19 games for the Yankees. Due to a strange combination of free agency, waivers and contract purchases, he played for five teams from 1976 to 1978.

John Milner – “The Hammer”, whose cousin Eddie played in the majors for nine seasons, was a career .249 hitter. In ten World Series games, however, he managed a .306 mark (11-for-36; only one of the hits was for extra bases).

Willie Montanez – I honestly don’t know where to start with Montanez. He played for nine teams in fourteen seasons. He was traded eight times, including once for Garry Maddox, straight up; once as part of a mammoth four team, eleven player deal that included John Milner, Bert Blyleven, Jon Matlack, Al Oliver, and Tom Grieve; again for Milner, this time straight up; once for Gaylord Perry and two other players; and, most famously, he was one of two players shipped from St. Louis to Philadelphia in 1970 when Curt Flood refused to report to the Phillies. Yeesh. If you want to know about his stats (which includes a second place finish for 1971 Rookie of the Year with 30 homeruns, then never again enjoying a single season that was nearly as good), just click the link.

Joe Rudi – Rudi was a three-time All-Star, three-time Gold Glover and two-time MVP runner-up. A key member of Oakland’s three consecutive World Series victories in the early 1970s, he hit an even .300 with two homeruns in those Fall Classics.

Jim Spencer – A career .250 hitter, Spencer owned fellow BHOFers Doyle Alexander and Stan Bahnsen, hitting .448 and .350 against them, respectively. His grandfather, Ben Spencer, played for the Washington Senators in 1913.

Del Unser – A light-hitting outfielder, Unser lost out on the 1968 AL ROY award to Stan Bahnsen. The son of former major leaguer Al Unser, he hit .455 and picked up a World Series ring in limited postseason action for the 1980 Phillies.

Rick Wise – One of the more interesting characters with which I crossed paths during my brief stay in professional baseball, “Owl Man” won 188 games in eighteen seasons before traveling the minor leagues as a pitching coach. His major league career is best remembered for four things: in 1971, he became the first (and only) pitcher to pitch a no-hitter and hit two homeruns in the same game; in 1972, he was traded, straight up, for Hall of Famer Steve Carlton; in 1975, he was the winning pitcher when Carlton Fisk hit his famous homerun off of Fenway Park’s left field foul pole; and in 1978, he was involved in the deal that brought Hall of Famer Dennis Eckersley to Boston. That’s a career. Also, if he happens to read this (which I’m not sure will happen, because I don’t think he knows how to use the Internet): Hi Rick (Nashua Pride, 2003 Media Relations – come on, you remember me).

(Coming soon: the Bizarro Hall of Fame Class of 1987.)
(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.)