Cooperstown tale: Guess who lives around the corner
I received an email from a woman who lives around the corner us and has since we built our house six years ago. She wrote me about some community stuff, just a sentence or two, then added: “FYI. On July 26th, my uncle, Joe Gordon (my dad’s brother), will be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. If you remember, he beat out Allie Reynolds in the veterans balloting last December. Anyhow, we are planning to attend the ceremony and we are really looking forward to it.”
To which I responded, “YOU’VE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!” I never write in capital letters, but for crying out loud. Joe Gordon is one of my all-time favorite players.
Here’s what I wrote in 2007, upon hearing that Bowie Kuhn had been elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame: “You’ve got to be kidding. Baseball has had a long list of bad commissioners, and Kuhn rates near the top … This is ridiculous. Jim Rice and Joe Gordon and Bert Blyleven and Goose Gossage aren’t in the Hall of Fame, but an inept commissioner is? That’s not a hall of fame. That’s a old-friends club.”
Of course, now Rice and Gordon and Gossage have been elected, and maybe Blyleven will be, too. But anyway, here’s a list I produced in January, just before the voting, of the 10 most deserving players of Cooperstown who had not been elected, in descending order:
10. Bill Freehan; 9. Jim Rice; 8. Dale Murphy; 7. Ron Santo; 6. Tim Raines; 4-5. Lou Whitaker & Alan Trammell; 3. Gil Hodges; 2. Bert Blyleven; 1. Joe Gordon.
Joe Gordon was born in 1915, attended the University of Oregon, then signed with the Yankees in 1936. By 1938, he was their starting second baseman and played 11 seasons in the big leagues, low for a Hall of Famer, but he missed the 1944 and 1945 seasons, when he would have been in the prime of his career, because of World War II.
Gordon hit 253 home runs, a huge number for a second baseman and played on epic Yankee and Cleveland Indian teams, in stadiums that weren’t too friendly for right-handed hitters. A great, great player who long ago deserved to be in Cooperstown. And his niece lives around the corner.
Berry Tramel can be heard Monday through Friday from 4:40-5:20 p.m. on The Sports Animal radio network, including AM-640 and FM-98.1. You can e-mail him here and follow him on Twitter @BerryTramel.
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Comments
Congratulations Mr. Gordon!! Too bad that the really good ones have been, and are going to be, squeezed out by many of the ‘cheaters’ who have used illegal drugs to get there. Many of these players should be revisited and ushered in. The cheaters should be given the ceremonious bum’s rush! A rail, tar and feathers should be brought back just for this occasion.
[...] Dave Bullard put an intriguing blog post on Cooperstown tale: Guess who lives around the cornerHere’s a quick excerpt…in 2007, upon hearing that Bowie Kuhn had been elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame: “You’ve got to be kidding. Baseball has had a long… [...]