2014 Hall of Fame Candidates Index

This is the Index for the 2014 Hall of Fame Candidates that were profiled by team Phungo. This series was largely done between November of 2013 and February 2014. Three of the HoF candidates became inductees Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine, and Frank Thomas.

1988 Topps #361 Greg Maddux

2014 HoF Candidate Postings  

Craig Biggio (Phungo Vote = HoF)      
Tom Glavine HoF
Todd Jones  
Greg Maddux HoF     
Mike Mussina   HoF      
Rafael Palmeiro HoF    
Mike Piazza (2013 Profile)     
Curt Schilling (2013 Profile)      
Mike Timlin      
Larry Walker 
 
2013 HoF Rejects (no longer on ballot)

Jeff Conine

Kenny Lofton

Jose Mesa

Phungo HoF Index
 

1991 Topps #79 Frank Thomas - 2014 Hall of Fame Inductee

Today we concluded are 2014 HoF candidates with the Big Hurt.

1991 Topps #79 Frank Thomas

Two MVP awards, 521 career Home Runs (ranks 18th all time), 1704 RBI (22nd), Career OPS .974 (14th), 79.8 Career Offensive WAR(36th) 5 time All-Star, 4 time OBP and OPS league leader.  

Even with during the offensive inflation era those are great numbers. The only hole in the Frank Thomas resume is the light postseason numbers. Not that his playoff performances were poor, in '93 Thomas batted .353 with a .593 OBP, but his teams never won. That 1993 White Sox squad lost to the Blue Jays Joe Carter team.  

1991 Topps
This is Frank Thomas' 2nd Topps Card.  I have always been a fan of the '91 Topps Set and I am glad to see the set has another Hall of Famer. This set is everywhere and it is likely I picked this card up out of a dime box. 

His first Topps card is 1990 #414 which is well known due to a scarce variation that has his name missing. To find out about Frank Thomas Rookies check out this article at Cardboard Connection


2014 HoF Candidate Postings   

I hope everyone enjoyed our 2014 HoF candidate postings. I plan on looking at the 2015 ballot more thoroughly. In these posts I try to put in a variety of cards and discuss an aspect of the player and/or card.

Craig Biggio (Phungo Vote = HoF)    
Tom Glavine HoF

Todd Jones  
Greg Maddux HoF     
Mike Mussina   HoF      
Rafael Palmeiro HoF    
Mike Piazza (2013 Profile)     
Curt Schilling (2013 Profile)      
Mike Timlin      
Larry Walker 

2013 HoF Rejects (no longer on ballot)

Jeff Conine

Kenny Lofton

Jose Mesa

Sources

Cardboard Connection
Baseball Card Database
Baseball-ref.com

2003 Donruss #9 Diamond Kings Tom Glavine - 2014 Hall of Fame Inductee

I started the HoF Candidates feature a bit later than I wanted and have a couple of scans left over. Of course I didn't get to a couple of players that actually got inducted. 

2003 Donruss #9 Diamond Kings Tom Glavine

The Hall of Fame resume for Tom Glavine is a pretty easy set of check marks: multiple Cy Young check, 300 Wins check, World Championship check. For the SABR fans Glavine led all players and pitchers in WAR (1991) and his Career WAR/JAWS numbers are comparable with other Hall of Fame Pitchers.

2003 Donruss Diamond Kings
The first 20 cards of 2003 Donruss make up the DiamondKings subset.  There appears to be no Phillies in the subset although Curt Schilling is card #19 (as a Diamondback). Glavine's fellow HoF inductee and Teammate Greg Maddux is also in the set as well as recent Braves retiree Chipper Jones. 
 
The DK painting for Tom Glavine was done by Mark Turnes who remains active and appears to be working on a new project. Turnes most recent  work appears to be Football related, subjects include Barry Sanders and John Riggins.  

Philies portraits done by Mark Turnes include Jim Thome also done for Donruss.    

My HoF Vote
Everyone remembers Tom Glavine as a Brave, I put him in the Hall for a game he pitched for the Mets on September 30th 2007. Going into the game the Mets and Phillies were tied for first place in the NL East. The Mets game started a half hour before the Phillies, well by the time the Phils game started, the Mets were done. Glavine didn't get out of the first inning, he only recorded one out and gave up SEVEN runs.  I was driving back from the beach listening to the game on the FAN, it is one of my favorite sports memories.

The Phils held up their end of the bargain that day, Jimmy Rollins hit his 20th triple of the season which likely led to his MVP win in 2007. The Phils won 6-1 and got themselves into the Playoffs. Unfortunately it was the last game the Phillies won that seaosn.  

2014 HoF Candidates  
Craig Biggio HoF   
Todd Jones

Greg Maddux HoF   
Mike Mussina   HoF    
Rafael Palmeiro HoF  
Mike Piazza (2013 Profile)   
Curt Schilling (2013 Profile)    
Mike Timlin    
Larry Walker (phungo vote = HoF)
 
2013 HoF Rejects (no longer on ballot)

Jeff Conine

Kenny Lofton

Jose Mesa

Sources
Baseball-ref.com
BaseballCardpedia
Standard Catalog of Baseball Cards
Philly.com
14,000 Phillies