Re-evaluating Allie Reynolds’ Hall of Fame Case

From Richard Sandomir at The New York Times on November 19, 2011, with quotes from SABR members Rob Neyer and Michael Hoban:

With 182 victories and 1,423 strikeouts over 13 seasons, the hard-throwing Yankees pitcher Allie Reynolds lacked the shoo-in credentials of 300 wins or 3,000 strikeouts to usher a pitcher into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Nonetheless, he missed election by just one vote three years ago when the Veterans Committee voted in Joe Gordon — the second baseman the Yankees traded to Cleveland for Reynolds after the 1946 season.

For Reynolds’s family, that close ballot serves as a positive sign that the Hall’s recently created Golden Era Committee will choose him when it meets next month in Dallas. Reynolds died in 1994 at 77.

“Of course we’re hanging on that,” said Stacey Reynolds-Peterson, one of Reynolds’s granddaughters. “One of these days, it’s going to be over with and the dream will be gone. He wanted this so badly.”

Read the full article here: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/20/sports/baseball/hall-committee-reviews-yankees-allie-reynolds.html?_r=2



Originally published: November 19, 2011. Last Updated: November 19, 2011.