As of right now, the Baseball Hall of Fame doesn't really have a place for a candidate like Dave Righetti.
Righetti threw a no-hitter at 24 but didn't remain a starter long enough to get into Cooperstown as one. He became one of the best closers of the 1980s for the Yankees, even holding the single-season save record at one point, though his 252 saves won’t get him enshrined as a reliever.
Then there’s Righetti's career for nearly two decades thus far as pitching coach for the Giants. Righetti has worked with a number of standout pitchers, helmed staffs for three World Series winners and has a reasonable case as one of the better pitching coaches in baseball history. But the Hall of Fame has yet to enshrine anyone as a pitching or hitting coach.
Only rarely in Hall of Fame history, in fact, have candidates been enshrined as hybrid selections for both their playing careers and what they did thereafter. The few times this has happened, arguably with Hughie Jennings in 1945, John Montgomery Ward in 1964 and Al Lopez in 1977, the inductees each had managerial experience.
On Sunday, as he sat in the Giants’ clubhouse before San Francisco’s game against the visiting Cardinals, 57-year-old Righetti offered an idea for Cooperstown to address this.
"Maybe they should have a coaches wing," Righetti said.
It's a great idea. It's also fairly unlikely to happen anytime soon.
Chances of Cooperstown implementing a coaches’ wing: 10 percent
Why: Certainly, there’d be no shortage of candidates for a coaches’ wing at the Hall of Fame.
At the top of the list could be the legendary Johnny Sain, who followed a superb pitching career in the 1940s and ‘50s by coaching a number of 20-game winners in the 1960s. There’s Sain’s disciple, former Braves pitching coach Leo Mazzone, who helped make Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine and John Smoltz Hall of Famers.
"Any of those guys," Righetti said, hearing Sain and Mazzone’s names. "Dave Duncan, look at him. He caught a number of World Series games and what he did (coaching) with three different franchises, the White Sox, the A’s and of course the Cardinals."
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There could be other worthy candidates for this wing, as well, such as baseball’s first great hitting coach, Charley Lau, who tutored George Brett and others while with the Royals in the 1970s. The list goes on.
But at this point, establishing a new wing at Cooperstown probably remains a pipe dream. The Hall of Fame is a conservative institution, where change moves at a glacial pace. It’s why there are no position coaches enshrined, no scouts, no fans.
There’s not even a writers wing, much as the myth persists, though the Hall of Fame maintains an exhibit that features writers who’ve won the J.G. Taylor Spink Award and broadcasters who’ve won the Ford Frick Award, equivalents of lifetime achievement awards for each group.
Granted, Righetti never gave any of this much thought as a player.
"To say you’re thinking about the Hall of Fame when you’re 24 years old, that means someone’s doing some bad hyping," Righetti said. “You probably shouldn’t pay attention to it.”
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Righetti doesn’t spend a lot of time these days, either, thinking about his Hall of Fame case.
"It pretty much left my mind about 30 years ago,” Righetti said.
But aside from great coaches who might deserve a Hall of Fame nod, Righetti thinks more about other closers who’ve been passed over by Cooperstown.
"It’s still very hard for the greatest relievers in baseball to get a nod or get it right away,” Righetti said.
He’s absolutely correct. As of this juncture, only five closers have been enshrined, namely Hoyt Wilhelm, Rollie Fingers, Dennis Eckersley, Bruce Sutter and Goose Gossage. Trevor Hoffman rose to 74 percent of the vote last year and looks poised to get in this year. Mariano Rivera will almost certainly be a shoo-in when he becomes eligible with the writers in the fall of 2018.
Otherwise, though, it might be awhile before another closer gets in.
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Righetti thinks of two men he played against in the minors, Lee Smith and Jeff Reardon. He thinks of the ageless John Franco, who finally wrapped up his career in 2005 at 44 with 424 saves.
"To me, it starts with Franco, Lee and Reardon,” Righetti said. “That was that group.”
Reardon was briefly baseball’s all-time saves leader in the early 1990s but has long since been buried on the all-time leader charts. Of Reardon’s closing prowess, Righetti said, “I’ll bet he had 10 good years in a row of trying to do that job.”
Were it not for what’s come since his playing career ended, Righetti might have faded into baseball obscurity by this point as well.
Righetti happened into a roving instructor job with San Francisco somewhat by chance, going to a Giants' game not long after his career ended to see former teammates and others. Brian Sabean, then general manager of the Giants, called Righetti the next day.
"Well, Robby Thompson is going to go down to the instruction league with the Giants in Arizona and we’d like to have you go down," Sabean told Righetti. "Robby said he’d go down if you go down."
"He told us both that,” Righetti said. “He got us both to go down that way. Once you go down, you’re hooked.”
A couple years of roving instructional work for the organization led to Righetti’s job as pitching coach, now in its 18th year. He doesn’t know how much longer he’ll do the job.
"The travel’s just not healthy,” Righetti said. “But if you’re going to live in California, you’ve got to earn a paycheck. It don’t matter how old you are. So we’ll see. I’m taking it really one year at a time."