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Hall of Fame Class 19

- Voters Send Three More to the Hall -

Vlad Guerrero, Jim Thome and Billy Pierce

 

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Kilkenny’s Billy Pierce

 

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Portsmouth’s Vladimir Guerrero

 

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Jim Thome

 

 

 

 

 

Voting for the TCBA Players’ Hall of Fame Class 19 concluded this week with voters selecting three more players to join the elite club. In a continuation of a theme from recent ballots, voters seemed willing to recognize the contributions of Retro league players. This time it was Billy Pierce, who joined contemporary players Vlad Guerrero and Jim Thome to the hallowed halls.

 

After missing out by a mere 80 votes in Class 18 balloting, Billy Pierce finally got his Hall invitation with 71% of the vote, just enough to push him through the doorway. Pierce’s career totals put him in the top 50 in Wins (207), and Strikeouts (2248), with an ERA of 3.01.

Billy played his entire career with the Kilkenny Gaelics, where he learned to swill Guinness and win ball games. Ove 18 seasons, Pierce averaged nearly 12 wins per season. He twice led the Gaelics to the post-season. In 1956, Pierce was 17-7, leading the Gaelics to the playoffs; and his 16 wins in 1961 helped Kilkenny claim the Brown Division crown.

Vlad Guerrero arrives in the Hall on the strength of his bat. In his 15 seasons, all with Portsmouth, Guerrero smacked 450 home runs, 28th on the all-time list. His 1536 RBI is the 26th most collected by a TCBA player. Four times Vlad helped the Pubdwellers to the post-season, including a 2000 Wildcard appearance during a season in which he batted .360 and belted 51 home runs.

 Voters liked sluggers in this round of voting, opening the Hall doors for another home run guy, Jim Thome. Like Guerrero, Thome’s name appears all over the All-time lists. But it is his 579 career homers, just 21 behind Babe Ruth, that created room for Thome. So feared was he as a batter that Thome was walked 1651 times, just eight less than Lou Gehrig. Thome sits comfortably among some legendary players. Unlike Pierce and Guerrero, Thome played for six different teams in his 19-season career. Originally drafted by Horseshoe Bay in 1994, Thome’s impact was felt immediately as the Polos claimed a Division crown. However, Thome moved quickly to Hoboken for two seasons, where he returned to the playoffs in 1996, and then on to Newmarket. It is for Ed Hebscher that Thome accumulated 280 of his homeruns. In 2003, Jim’s 67 homers led the EH’s to a second consecutive Wildcard spot. In 2004 he moved on to Pennsylvania/Brooklyn, where he played for six seasons, including four consecutive playoff appearances and a league championship with the Keystones in 2006 before ending his career in Newark, where he had one more post-season fling.

Two catchers, Ivan Rodriguez and Roy Campanella, each received solid support and will appear in a future class for reconsideration, as will outfielder Larry Doby. All but one of the others, including Jamie Moyer, have been removed from future Hall of Fame consideration due to lack of support. 

Voting for Class 20 will be held in January 2019. The vote totals for Class 19 are listed below:

Class 19 Voting Totals:

Player

70% Needed

Guerrero,Vladimir

78.0%

Thome,Jim

77.0%

Pierce,Billy

71.0%

 

 

Rodriguez,Ivan

64.6%

Campanella,Roy

49.0%

Doby,Larry

21.4%

Rolen,Scott

6.6%

Moyer,Jamie *

3.2%

 

 

*Appeared on the list for the final time.

Source: TCBA Encyclopedia

 

 

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