Cal Ripken is not a Hall of Famer

[faceman802]

from his "biography" on espn classic

When Cal Ripken Jr. played in his 2,131st consecutive game, passing Lou Gehrig, he snapped what many baseball people had considered an unbreakable record. Ripken extended his streak to 2,632, and this is his lasting monument.

But it is also something of a curse, since it has sometimes obscured his talents and given rise to a debate about whether the Baltimore Orioles infielder might have been a better player if he had taken an occasional day off. Eight seasons during the streak he failed to hit .270 and his career average, over 3,001 games, was .276.


On the other hand, Ripken's accomplishments are many. In 14 of his 21 seasons, he collected more than 20 homers. Eight times he drove in more than 90 runs. A two-time MVP, he holds the record for most homers by a shortstop and set a standard of excellence for shortstops in 1990 by committing only three errors.


Retiring after the 2001 season with 3,184 hits and 431 homers, he is one of only two American Leaguers -- Carl Yastrzemski is the other -- to have more than 3,000 hits and 400 homers.

Stats can be analyzed any way you want to praise or hurt a player and his chances at the hall. We've all seen it. He's considered a "god" of the 80's and is going to make it easy regardless of "questionable" stats. What I'm more interested in is if the other "borderline" candidates get in, ie. Gossage, Dawson, Rice and also how high or low a percentage of votes McGwire gets due to his steroid problems