Lou Whitaker on the Hall of Fame: 'I didn’t even get daylight'

[Guest Kurt]

Feb. 14, 2017

Who he is: Hall of Fame committees seemingly exist for candidates like Lou Whitaker.

Whitaker, who played from 1977 to 1995 with the Detroit Tigers, ranks among the best second basemen in baseball history by various sabermetrics — sixth by Wins Above Replacement, seventh by Wins Above Average, and 12th by JAWS according to Baseball-Reference.com. But Whitaker drew just 2.9 percent of the vote for Cooperstown in 2001, his only year on the Baseball Writers’ Association of America’s ballot, disqualifying him from future consideration by the writers.

Sixteen years since his snubbing, Whitaker expounded about it in a recent phone interview from his North Carolina home.

“I had the opportunity to play in the major leagues,” Whitaker said. “I did it, I played there. I gave it my best. When my career was over, well, that’s all I could have done. What good is it for me to go to people and be whining or crying or saying, ‘I deserve to be in the Hall of Fame. Y’all wrong.’”

He added, “If you deserve something, they always say if you deserve it, you’ll get it.”

But Whitaker acknowledged teammate and longtime double play partner Alan Trammell (who spoke to Sporting News last year) managing to hang on the writers' ballot for 15 years before exhausting his eligibility in January 2016.

“Tram had the opportunity to be there for a long time,” Whitaker said. “He came off, what, last few years or whatever. But Lou, I didn’t get, I didn’t even get daylight.”

“Now that’s unfair right there,” he said.

Daylight could finally come this fall, though. Whitaker, Trammell, and teammate Jack Morris will all be eligible with the Modern Baseball Committee, a 16-member group of veteran players, executives, media members and historians that meets twice every five years and considers players who made their most significant contribution to baseball between 1970 and 1987.

There’s a chance — not a great one, but a chance — that Whitaker, Trammell, and Morris could all be voted into the Hall of Fame in December.

Asked of the possibility, Whitaker said, “Tell you what, it’d be great.”

So can it happen?

Cooperstown chances for Morris: 75 percent

Chances for Trammell: 60 percent

Chances for Whitaker: 40 percent

Why: Morris, who had 254 wins, pitched a 10-inning shutout in Game 7 of the 1991 World Series and topped out at 67.7 percent of the BBWAA vote in 2013, doesn’t need too many people to make his case at this point. He might have the best chances of anyone on the committee’s ballot this fall. He’s an underwhelming candidate by sabermetrics, but that seems unlikely to work too much against him with the committee.

Asked whether he considered Morris a Hall of Famer, Whitaker said yes.

“Jack was a dominating pitcher during his era,” Whitaker said. “Jack was probably the best starter in the game. You had some quality starters during those years but Jack pretty much dominated, was the ace. He was going to go long in the games. He was going to take you to the eighth or ninth inning.”

Trammell has something of a similar case to Whitaker, rating as one of the top shortstops in baseball history by sabermetrics but having less impressive traditional stats partly because of his era. That said, Trammell did considerably better with the writers, peaking at 40.9 percent of the vote his final year on the ballot. By extension, he could have better odds with the Modern Baseball Committee.

Asked whether he considered Trammell a Hall of Famer, Whitaker said, “Of course.”

“To me, he’s one of the best shortstops to ever play the game,” Whitaker said.

So what’s taken Trammell and Whitaker so long? Why haven’t the 1984 Detroit Tigers, who won 104 games and the World Series, had a single Hall of Famer?

“We were just consistent,” Whitaker said. “We were a team with consistent players. We played, we won.”

The Hall of Fame, though, isn’t always great about rewarding consistent players who are good in a number of areas but seemingly not elite at any. Just ask Trammell, Dwight Evans or Bobby Grich.

Baseball researcher and Cooperstown enthusiast Adam Darowski made note of this in an email and also offered a theory for Trammell and Whitaker’s differing popularity.

“It probably comes down to shortstop being a bit more glamorous and Trammell having a couple seasons that put him in the MVP mix,” Darowski wrote. “Whitaker was also remarkably consistent. If he had a few 8 WAR years and fewer 3 WAR years, he'd be in.”

Sports Illustrated writer Jay Jaffe isn’t optimistic about Whitaker’s chances. In his upcoming "Cooperstown Casebook," which will be out in June, Jaffe writes, “Like Grich, Whitaker faces an uphill battle, because as longtime Tigers beat writer Tom Gage reminded his supporters in 2015, ‘reconsiderations don’t start at the bottom.’”

Traditional stats also don’t shine as much of a light on Whitaker as sabermetrics do. His 2,369 hits, .276 batting average and 244 home runs were outstanding for his era and position. But those raw numbers might have seemed to have Whitaker coming up short with many voters.

Whitaker might have gotten to 3,000 hits if he’d stuck around baseball beyond age 38. He said he spurned an offer from the New York Yankees shortly after walking away from the game in 1995.

“I’m sure I could’ve played another four years, if I wanted to be there for numbers and whatever other things that might dare to come,” Whitaker said. “But I knew when I was through with the game, I was through.”

Whitaker’s numbers need contextualizing, not just for his era or position, but also the ballpark in which he played. Tigers Stadium long had a reputation as being something of a bandbox, but the sandy infield and thick grass might not have helped Whitaker.

“Sparky Anderson, he loved to play with this big grass because he thought he had groundball pitchers — which we had nothing but fly ball pitchers with Morris and Gullickson,” Whitaker said.

Detroit fans, for their part, haven’t forgotten Whitaker or Trammell.

“Everytime I go to Detroit, the fans there say, ‘Lou, you and Tram, you all deserve to be in the Hall of Fame. Can’t wait ‘til you guys get there. You all deserve it.’ I’ve been hearing that since 20 years now,” Whitaker said.

It's up to the Modern Baseball Committee to make sense of Whitaker's case, and there aren't great odds of that this year — perhaps in 20 years when more sabermetrically inclined people are on the committee.

Whitaker, it’s worth noting, doesn’t appear to be losing sleep over his Hall of Fame chances. Remarried since 2010, he’s active as a Jehovah’s Witness, “back in line, back in step (and) attending my meetings.”

End of day, Whitaker knows what he and Trammell did together.

“You would’ve had to watch us day in, day out to appreciate what a second baseman and a shortstop accomplished playing for the Detroit Tigers,” Whitaker said.

“You would have had to watch us play the game — game, not just defense, but the whole game, the full game (and) you would see that Tram and I were definitely worthy of being in the Hall of Fame.”

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