The Fine HOF line: Bunning & Lolich

Wondo

Growing up in Detroit in the mid-late 1960s, I heard tales of the great Jim Bunning and lived Mickey Lolich (I went, as a seven-year-old, to the 68 series). I moved to the Philly area in 1970 and kept following my Tigers and was reaquainted with Bunning, who was finishing a great run with the Phillies. I thought Lolich, at the time, was robbed for the Cy Young in '71 (he wasn't) and followed him through the rest of his career.

Fast forward a couple of decades and Jim Bunning is elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. After a few years of eligibility, Mickey Lolich, although garnering marginal support, is not. Look at their records. Bunning has a slight edge in almost every lifetime category, and I mean slight. Lolich has the edge in peak performance with his World Series heroics and his 1971 season. Of course, Bunning went on to be a congressman and senator; Lolich ran a doughnut shop.

Personally, I believe neither belongs in the Hall. They typefy that stalwart starter club which includes McNally, Pettite, Burdette, JPerry, Tiant, Hershiser, Guidry, etc. of pitchers you want on your club as your ace , but, don't rate with the greats because of longevity or somthing else. Bunning gets in because of his post-baseball career, IMHO.

Anyway, after re-examining their careers in my Baseball Reference Book, I decided that these two contemporaries, who both pitched for Detroit, were a cool study. Discuss.

Justacommeman

Lolich was an absolute horse. Pitching on two days rest to win game 7 (and a complete game) against Bob Gibson in 68 was story book. Actually I believe Lolich pitched 27 innings while going 3-0 in the series. For a power pitcher he had a rubber arm. In his Cy Young season I believe he pitched 370+ innings and averages' 8 1/3 inning per start.

MJ

NVbaseball

Bunning wasn't so much "elected" to the Hall-of-Fame, as put in by the Veterans Committee. Ignore the selections they made and there actually is a smidgen of sense to the Hall-of-Fame

In my eyes, Bunning was clearly better. As awesome as the World Series performance was, three games does not make for a truly great peak

Now that Blyleven is finally going into the Hall-of-Fame, best pitcher not in becomes in interesting question. Definitely not Jack Morris. Tommy John and Bret Saberhagen were my idiosyncratic choices. Might now be Kevin Brown, possibly Schilling next year

alnavman

I don't think Brown or Schilling belong in the HOF.

Tabe

Brown might be the most underrated pitcher of the last 30 years. He was an absolute stud. A headcase? Sure. But you don't put up years like his 1996 (17-11, 1.89 ERA, 0.944 WHIP, 215 ERA+) without being a stud. In his prime (1992-2001), he put up excellent numbers 7 times, very good numbers twice, and bad numbers once. Outside of that 10-year run, he was generally very good except when injured (2002 & 2005). I think he's just a hair outside the HOF but might just be the best non-HOF pitcher.

Tabe

digicat

Kevin Brown is one of the guys named in the Mitchell Report.