2020 was a deadly year in baseball history, too.
As the final hours disappear in the year 2020 in the United States, we face the reality that nearly 350,000 Americans have died in connection to symptoms from COVID-19. Though the actual impact of the virus, as well as its prevention and its treatment, is a highly political and polarizing topic, there’s not much to debate about the total-deaths statistic itself.
Baseball, too, is well-acquainted with debate. We might even say the sport is made for it and by it.
Who’s the best player of all time?
Which pitcher would you want in a deciding game of the World Series?
Should there be asterisks beside historical records due to cheating scandals related to steroids, the 1919 Chicago “Black” Sox, and the 2017 Houston Astros?
There are as many debates in baseball as there are statistical categories themselves.
2020 has, perhaps, given us another baseball debate by taking away so much from us. Has this calendar year been the deadliest ever for Major League Baseball Hall of Famers?
Al Kaline, Tom Seaver, Lou Brock, Bob Gibson, Whitey Ford, Joe Morgan and Phil Niekro all passed away in 2020.
The four pitchers among them — Seaver, Gibson, Ford and Niekro — won a combined 1,116 games in their career.
Kaline, known by other Hall of Famers as a gentleman, was called “Mr. Tiger” because he played his entire 22-year career in Detroit, a reality that’s almost unthinkable today thanks to free agency and mobility. He surpassed 3,000 hits in his career, finished one homer shy of 400 and just a few points shy of a .300 batting average, made 18 all-star teams and secured 10 Gold Glove Award nods.
And then there was Joe Morgan, regarded as one of the best second basemen in the history of the game. The diminutive Morgan was what sports analysts today might call a solid “two-way player” for his excellence in the field (5 Gold Gloves) and at the plate (2,500 hits, 268 home runs).
Finally, Brock (938) was one of the best base runners and stealers ever, ranking ahead of Ty Cobb (897) and only behind Rickey Henderson (1,406) on the MLB all-time list.
Those seven Hall of Fame inductees comprise quite a team of legends. But it’s not the first time seven Hall members have died in one year, especially if you count players who were enshrined posthumously.
In 1972, for one example, Jackie Robinson and Roberto Clemente were among a group of seven baseball greats who died and now occupy spots in Cooperstown. However, the other members who passed away that year (Gabby Hartnett, Pie Traynor, Dave Bancroft, Zack Wheat and executive George Weiss) are relatively obscure to all but the expert baseball fans.
None of the Hall members to pass away in 2020 can begin to be classified as obscure. If one were to assemble an MLB all-time team, one could make a solid argument for the inclusion of each of the seven former players who died this year.
Others who might be included on such a mystical team, such as Babe Ruth (d. 1948), Cy Young (d. 1955) and Cobb (d. 1961), were not surrounded with nearly the legend-status company in the years they passed away.
The debate is intriguing, but it will never be settled. As long as baseball is played, great athletes will do incredible things on the field, and some of the best of those stars will make the Hall of Fame, a small fraternity of just more than 300 total members. And, like all other things, their careers and their lives will eventually come to a close, just as 2020 has. But that will always give new life to conversations such as this.
So, what do you think? Was 2020 (so far) the year we’ve lost the most baseball greatness? I welcome your insights!
NOTE: I do not profess that I am the only sports fan or writer to introduce the idea that 2020 is possibly the year in which we’ve lost the most professional baseball talent in history. However, I am among those who have been considering the notion after a string of greats died back in the fall. While I have seen others sharing blog posts and articles about the Hall of Famers who’ve died in 2020, these are my specific thoughts and my musings, and, since I am not a professional statistics organization myself, I have relied on sources including Baseball Almanac, Baseball Reference, ESPN, Johns Hopkins University of Medicine and MLB to assemble this essay.
