Phungo Readers Hall of Fame - Tommy John - REJECTED. How about David Cone?

1979 Topps #255 Tommy John

A few weeks back I ran a poll to see what my readers opinions were on Tommy John as a Hall of Famer. This was the 2nd Phungo HOF poll. In the first Jim Rice recieved a thumbs down. Once again the Phungo readers have spoken and Tommy John was also rejected, and by a larger margin. His 288 wins (294 including post season) were not enough to persuade Phungo readers of that John is Hall-worthy.

There were 4 "Yes" votes and 9 "No" votes for John. I had one other voting category not present for BBWAA writers, and that is to Defer a vote - one person chose this option. I based my Yes vote on a few things. 288 career wins, He pitched for 5 playoff teams in the pre-wild card era (note 1 NLDS in 1981 strike season), and in 3 World Series. He may have come up short in all 3 of those series but I think getting to them is also important. And lastly I believe that he deserves at least a minor bump for being the first athlete to successfully pitch after receiving the surgery that now bears his name.

This small Phungo vote (30.7% for) was remarkably close to the final Hall vote (31.7%). The Tommy John vote also generated less interest than the Rice vote (14 cumulative votes down from 26 for the Rice Vote). There were no reader comments regarding the Tommy John vote either.

If Phungo is still alive a year from now I will try and bring up the vote again. It will be interesting to see what happens to Tommy John in these limbo years between the writers ballot and the Veteran's ballot.

As far as card collecting goes, recent sales of Tommy John's 1964 Rookie Card (Topps #146) were in the $6 to $6.50 range for ungraded cards. Completed auctions for low-end Tommy John autograph cards are in the $5.50 to $6.00 range.

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Phungo HOF Poll - David Cone

I am going a totally different route with a new HOF poll. We are examining the career of David Cone. Cone has nearly 100 fewer regular season Win then Tommy John, but has a pretty solid post season resume 8 wins, 3 losses, 3.80 ERA. (2.12 in 6 World Series Games) and hist teams were 12-3 in 15 Post Season Series including 5-0 in the World Series.

Cone was flat out rejected on the writers ballot, receiving less than the 5% minimum to qualify for future votes. I am not sure that he is HOF material, but I think it is a pretty weak that he did not get the requisite 5% to keep him on the ballot.

Phungo Readers Hall of Fame - Jim Rice - REJECTED. How about Tommy John?

The Phungo readers have spoken.

with 11 votes out of 18 Jim Rice did not get the required 75% of the vote to get into the Phungo Hall of Fame.


I was a little disappointed as I thought I made some compelling arguments for Rice's candidacy. The only comment on the post was for Rice. But even if I counted my vote five times and gave Night Owl's comment a weight of five votes that would have given Rice only 19 Yea's to 7 Nay's still short of the requisite 75%.

11/18 votes(61%) is enough to keep Rice on the Phungo Ballot and perhaps we will bring him back next year for another vote.

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This was an interesting exercise and I would like to bring up another borderline HOF candidate up, Tommy John.

Tommy John, unlike Rice was rejected by the BBWAA on his final ballot. John posted 288 career wins, 294 if you count the post season. He was the part of three World Series teams, and played for three different teams in the playoffs (Dodgers, Yankees, and Angels).

And of course, Tommy John is the first player to successfully recover from the surgery, that bears his name, to pitch again - and pitch very effectively. Check out the list of names under that surgery link - pretty impressive.

To your right you will see a new Hall of Fame Poll on Tommy John - Team Phungo is interested in your opinion.