Cooperstown Chances examines the Baseball Hall of Fame case of one candidate each week. This week: Alan Trammell.
Who he is: Alan Trammell might have been on a golf course near his San Diego home when word came in January that, once again, he’d fallen short of the Hall of Fame.
The Tigers legend, arguably the best eligible shortstop not enshrined, knew he didn’t have a chance for Cooperstown through the Baseball Writers Association of America. Induction from the writers requires 75 percent of their vote. In his 15 years on the ballot, Trammell hung mostly in the 15-20 percent range before peaking at 40.9 percent on his 15th and final ballot in January.
“There’s nothing else I can do,” Trammell said. “The numbers are there. As far as my career, I can’t change anything. I’m not going to play anymore. I’ve never been one that would lobby. It’s just not my style.”
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The numbers are definitely there, both by sabermetrics and more traditional measures. There’s Trammell’s four Gold Gloves, three Silver Sluggers, and six All-Star appearances. There’s his .285 batting average and 2,365 hits, both respectable for a shortstop, though Trammell acknowledges that his stats weren’t eye-popping.
“I think that might be one of the reasons why I’m not in, is that when you look at the body of work, there’s no category that stands out,” Trammell said.
At quick glance, Trammell might look, by comparison, like a very good player with impressive longevity. Playing in the same era as a number of iconic shortstops might have hurt his case, too.
“I was at the forefront with Robin Yount, myself to a certain degree,” Trammell said. “Ripken came in, Tony Fernandez was a pretty darn good player, and some others and kind of taking off from there. Ozzie Smith was in that group, but when you look at offensive numbers, his game was a little bit of everything, too.”
Trammell might have been hurt as well by finishing second to George Bell for American League MVP in 1987. He helped the Tigers to an American League East title, hitting .343 with 28 homers and 105 RBI. By contemporary measures, we know that Trammell’s 6.1 Wins Above Replacement were also second-best among AL position players behind Wade Boggs at 6.3 and superior to Bell’s 2.8 Wins Above Average.
But Bell’s 47 homers and 134 RBI were the numbers that counted for that vote.
“Right after the voting came down, Sparky (Anderson) called me, and he was like, obviously, rooting for me to win. One of the first comments he made was that, ‘Gosh, I would have helped you for the Hall of Fame,’” Trammell said.
Trammell continued, “Sparky, as a coach and manager at that particular time, he’s thinking a little differently than I was. I kind of just brushed it off. Obviously, years later, you’re like, ‘That would’ve been nice.’ George Bell had a heckuva year, so I’m not trying to take anything away. Would I have liked it? Sure, absolutely.”
It’s advanced stats where Trammell’s case shines and where it starts to look like he should have been enshrined years ago. According to Baseball-Reference.com, for all players who aren’t in the Hall of Fame and whose careers ended 1996 or before, Trammell ranks fourth with 40.2 Wins Above Average, behind only Bobby Grich, Lou Whitaker, and Shoeless Joe Jackson. Trammell’s also a Hall of Famer by JAWS and Hall Rating, both of which rank him better than Derek Jeter, a shoo-in inductee.
By various advanced measures, Trammell is somewhere around the 10th-best shortstop in baseball history. But it could be a while before he gets in Cooperstown.
Cooperstown chances: 65 percent
Why: Trammell’s next avenue to get into the Hall of Fame would be what’s historically been called the Veterans Committee. But the Hall of Fame has dramatically changed the way its committees operate over the past decade, which complicates Trammell’s chances of getting in anytime soon. It’s also left Trammell confused about his Hall of Fame chances going forward.
“Things have changed here recently, the way the Veterans Committee is now voting, so I’m not really clear,” Trammell said.
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In 2010, the Hall of Fame split the Veterans Committee into three groups: the Pre-Integration Era Committee covering before 1947, the Golden Era Committee covering 1947 to 1972, and the Expansion Era Committee covering candidates since 1973 retired at least 16 years. The committees vote on a rotating basis, with one meeting each year.
Trammell retired in 1996, so he falls under the purview of the Expansion Era Committee, which will meet this fall. However, as Jon Morosi of Fox Sports explained in January, Trammell won’t be eligible for consideration by the committee for another three years. This is due to a Hall of Fame rule which states that a player can’t be considered for Cooperstown by two different voting blocs in a calendar year.
Morosi wrote that the rule goes back to the 1940s, though in an email to Sporting News, Hall of Fame president Jeff Idelson wrote:
Can’t speak about the 1940s, as our current rules were drafted in the last 10 years.
Yes, our current rules state that if a player falls off a ballot, they are out a year and then become eligible. So Tram fell off in 2016, is eligible in 2017 and Expansion Era ballot would be reviewed again at Winter Meetings 2019, as committees meet every three years.
It’s unlikely Trammell will be inducted alongside teammates Jack Morris or Lou Whitaker, as nice of a ceremony though that might be. Trammell isn’t bitter, though.
Asked if he thought Morris was a Hall of Famer, Trammell said absolutely, adding, “I’m glad you asked that, because in my book, out of the guys that I’ve played with or one of my teammates, he’s number one. I appreciate the love and the support that I’ve been given. But I think that above myself and any of the other players, even Lou, Jack would be number one. To me, he was more of a dominant guy. During the ‘80s, he was the number one pitcher in the American League.”
Trammell weighed in on the oft-repeated assertion that Morris’s 3.90 ERA lifetime was the result of him pitching to the score. Baseball writers like Joe Sheehan have long decried this claim, though Trammell, Morris’s teammate for 14 years, said it happened.
“Oftentimes, if the game was 7-1, it was probably going to be 7-3, 7-4,” Trammell said of Morris. “He was going to go after the hitters, and there might be a few more runs. But if it was 3-2, 4-2, that game was going to stay that way. He was the ultimate competitor… I didn’t play with anyone better to be honest with you. In my time, my teammates, there was none better than Jack Morris.”
For a player revered by sabermetricians, it seems a little ironic that Trammell is decidedly old school. He’s not hugely into advanced stats.
“When you kind of go back to your roots and how I grew up, that wasn’t the nature of the game,” Trammell said. “I respect it. I understand it. I think more information is good, no question about it. I’m still trying to figure some of this stuff out.”
In praising Morris, though, Trammell isn’t taking anything away from Whitaker.
“His numbers are pretty damn good in themselves, and he never gets any love,” Trammell said. “I’m not sure exactly why that his name is never even mentioned in the best second basemen.”
Trammell called it “bizarre” that Whitaker lasted just one year on the BBWAA ballot for Cooperstown, getting 2.9 percent of the vote in 2001. It’s one of the more egregious snubs by the writers in recent voting history. Trammell knows the next question readers might ask, by the way.
“Everyone asks, if I was to make it — and I know Lou feels the same way — for us to be inducted together, that would be very cool,” Trammell said.
To Trammell, the Hall of Fame is a baseball story. He’s quick to note that he and Whitaker played more games together than any two players in American League history.
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“Just the fact that we are the longest running double play combination, by far, and both put some pretty decent numbers up, that’s a baseball story which for me would be appealing to the Hall of Fame,” Trammell said.
However long it might take for him to get in the Hall of Fame, Trammell has other things to occupy his time. He turned 58 on Feb. 21 and works as a special assistant to the general manager for the Tigers. He managed Detroit from 2003 to 2005 and spent three games as interim manager of the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2014, though he doesn’t have any plans to manage again.
Instead, Trammell said he functions as something of a roving instructor and jack of all trades during the season, occasionally popping into Detroit and spending most of his time working with minor leaguers. He conducted this interview by phone from spring training in Florida, an hour before a game, his cell phone reception cutting out occasionally because he was sitting in the dugout.
“I’m still living the dream,” Trammell said. “I have a baseball uniform as we’re speaking, spring training. Since the day I signed out of high school, I’ve been in professional baseball. I’ve never done anything other than this. I’m still a big, little kid.”
Cooperstown Chances examines the Baseball Hall of Fame case of one candidate each week. Series author and Sporting News contributor Graham Womack writes regularly about the Hall of Fame and other topics related to baseball history at his website, Baseball: Past and Present. Follow him on Twitter: @grahamdude.