In further support of our position, the compelling facts that appear in
our Petition to the Hall of Fame Veteran's Committee are elaborated upon below:
Probably
the most telling statistic is Rocky's career OPS (on-base percentage + slugging average). Below, Rocky's OPS
is compared with the OPS of players already in the Hall of Fame whose careers overlapped with Colavito's and with the
2008 HOF nominees:
Hall of Fame Members | OPS | 2008 HOF Nominees | OPS |
|
|
|
|
Ted Williams | 1.116 | Dick Allen
| .912 |
Mickey Mantle | .977 | Rocky Colavito | .848 |
Stan Musial | .976 | Gil Hodges | .846 |
Willie Mays
| .941 | Tony Oliva | .830 |
Hank Aaron | .928 | Ron Santo | .826 |
Frank Robinson | .928 | Joe Torre | .817 |
Duke Snider | .919 | Al Oliver | .795 |
Willie McCovey | .889 | Vada Pinson
| .769 |
| Willie Stargell | .889 | Maury Wills | .661 |
Eddie Mathews | .885 |
|
|
Harmon Killebrew | .884 |
|
|
Jackie Robinson | .883 |
|
|
Roy Campanella | .860 |
|
|
Al Kaline | .855 |
|
|
Billy Williams | .853 |
|
|
Orlando Cepeda | .849 |
|
|
Rocky
Colavito | .848 |
|
|
Reggie Jackson | .846 |
|
|
Carl Yastrzemski | .841 |
|
|
Roberto Clemente | .834 |
|
|
Enos Slaughter | .834 |
|
|
Ernie Banks | .830 |
|
|
Yogi Berra
| .830 |
|
|
Rod Carew | .822 |
|
|
Joe Morgan | .819 |
|
|
Johnny Bench | .817 |
|
|
Tony Perez
| .804 |
|
|
Richie Ashburn | .778 |
|
|
Lou Brock | .753 |
|
|
Pee Wee Reese | .743 |
|
|
Red Schoendienst | .724 |
|
|
Brooks Robinson | .723 |
|
|
Nellie Fox | .710 |
|
|
Phil Rizzuto | .706 |
|
|
Bill Mazeroski | .667 |
|
|
Luis Aparicio | .653 |
|
|
As stated on the Petition, Colavito ranks 17th
when added to the list of 35 already Hall members of his era. He ranks ahead of Reggie Jackson,
Carl Yastrzemski and Roberto Clemente. Rocky ranks 2nd when applied to the list of 2008 candidates.
Longevity has been cited, but let’s take a look at a valid short-career Hall member comparison with
Ralph Kiner. Kiner played 10 years; a little less than Colavito. But, taking Colavito’s first couple and
last couple of years away, we compare Colavito’s ten consecutive year run with Kiner’s ten consecutive year run.
Colavito’s numbers are right there with Kiner's; perhaps better:
Player
Hits 2b
HR RBI
Slugging Average
Ralph Kiner (1946-55)
1,451 216
369 1,015
.548
Rocky Colavito (1957-66)
1,506 252
337 1,020
.501
Wikipedia reports that Kiner sustained a back injury in 1955 that forced his retirement from baseball.
Kiner had played somewhat injury-free up until then as did Colavito up until 1966. We believe these facts support the
validity of these comparisons.
______________________
Facts and figures from: Baseball-Reference (http://www.baseball-reference.com) and can also be found at The Baseball Library (http://www.baseballlibrary.com) and the Baseball Almanac (http://www.baseball-almanac.com).