Harold Baines - What To Do?

[NetShrine]

Coming into this season, Baines has 2,855 hits and 384 HRs (along with 1,622 RBI).

When he's done, he will be close to (or have):
3,000 hits
400 HRs
1,700 RBI

Granted, he can walk through the NetShrine front door :rolleyes: with those numbers.

What about that place in Cooperstown? Does he get in?

Keep in mind, he's never had a 30-HR season, only had 100+ RBI in a season three times (in 21 tries), and hasn't played in the field every day in 14 of his 21 seasons.

Still, *if* he gets the 3,000 hits, imagine not having a 3,000 hit guy in Cooperstown (besides Rose)?

[BuzzBuzzard]

Being in Cooperstown has become such a watered down accomplishment, is there really a question over whether or not Baines would get in? He may not get voted in by the writers, but eventually the old-timers would get him in. 3,000 hits all but guarantees it

More interesting to me is Winfield's announcement last week that he will go in wearing the cap of the Padres. How well does that sit with Steinbrenner? So much for the Yanks retiring that number later this year!:D

[NetShrine]

Big Stein has planned a day for Winny @ the Stadium this summer. It will be real interesting to see the fan reaction.

Back to Baines - - Shame, if he had been a CF or a Gold Glove RF, he could write his own ticket to Cooperstown.

Which leads to Frank Thomas - - if the Big Hurt ends up being a DH for something like 12 years in his career, and continues to hit, does he just walk in to C-town?

[nyy26wc]

1) I run my own Hall of Fame, at Baseball Immortals, so for me, the question of what to do with Harold Baines isn't just a hypothetical one. I still haven't decided what to do with him yet.

2) Several in the New York press are already hinting that George might cancel Winfield's day. Meanwhile, at least 1 NY writer pointed out that the Yankees never officially said Winfield's number would be retired. My guess is someone in the front office is putting that idea out as a trial balloon.

3) I expect Thomas to go into Cooperstown, regardless of how much he plays as a DH. I've also done some work preparing areas for active players (sorry, they are not online at the moment) and have seen what a Baseball Immortal area for him would look like, even without him adding more to his credentials. There is no doubt that Thomas will be inducted into BBI the moment I hear that he's retired.

[BuzzBuzzard]

When Glen Allan Hill has #31 taken away from him in spring training, I think it became pretty clear that George was planning on retiring the number later this year.

[NetShrine]

Originally posted by BuzzBuzzard
When GlenAllen Hill has #31 taken away from him in spring training, I think it became pretty clear that George was planning on retiring the number later this year.

Ditto. It *will* be interesting to see what happens with this.............

[nyy26wc]

Originally posted by BuzzBuzzard
When Glen Allan Hill has #31 taken away from him in spring training, I think it became pretty clear that George was planning on retiring the number later this year.

It was pretty clear that, at that particular moment, George was planning on retiring the number. Whether he's still planning on doing it could go either way.

He's not as bad as he used to be, but George still has his moments of vindictivness. For example, last year, he got GM Brian Cashman's case for giving too many interviews and getting too much press attention, while in reality, Cashman gets much less attention than anyone would expect.

[NetShrine]

A friend of a friend used to work for the Yanks - close to the Big Stein. From him, I always got the feeling that all GS cared about was exposure - - even more than winning.

[nyy26wc]

There used to be no rule against making major announcements during the World Series, until Peter Ueberroth came up with it in the mid 1980s.

Monday, October 19, 1987 was the off day in between Games 2 & 3 of the World Series. That was the day the stock market crashed and that same day, George defied Ueberroth, fired Lou Piniella and hired Billy.

My theory is George's ego is so big, he wanted to see if he could upstage the stock market.