That’s true. So are bullpen catchers abd middle relievers and pinch-hitters. And the Hall should recognize them – just not as a fully fledged Hall of Fame member.
As far as me being in the minority opinion on the inclusion of closers (or any other failed starters) in the Hall, that’s just not true. From a recent column from Rob Neyer:

“About relief pitchers, anyway. I’ve been as vocal as anyone about the relative value of relievers, and I could make the argument that Hoyt Wilhelm (because of all the innings) and Mariano Rivera (because of all the Octobers) are the only relievers who belong in the Hall of Fame.”

There’s no reason why the Hall can’t recognize these specialists without enshrining them as full Mickey Mantle/Walter Johnson/Andre Dawson (heh) members.

MW: I don’t understand why you have such an issue with DHs, but we’re going to have to agree to disagree here.

You are making a large qualitative assumption that these players “knew how to take a walk.” In fact, all you know is that they had a higher on-base percentage.

You are taking quantitative statistical analysis and using it to make a qualitative assumption about a player based on comparing one statistical category.

Looking back, maybe the Expos were better off with Sixto Lezcano or Ruppert Jones in right field all those years, because those guys took three more walks than Dawson every 100 at-bats.

MW: Now you’re taking the argument to an absurd level (though thank you for mentioning Sixto Lezcano, maybe the best name ever). You had said that perhaps the reason Dawson didn’t walk much was because his managers told him not to, but that argument would seem to be dismissed by the fact that other players on the same team, under the same managers, did walk.

MW: No one will ever know. Of course, no one really knows if Fred McGriff played his entire career clean, either.

MW: Huh?

Those guys didn’t have Jim Fanning or Bill Virdon in their ear telling them to “swing the bat.”

MW: Well, except that guys like Gary Carter, Tim Raines, Al Oliver and even Warren Cromartie knew how to take a walk. Stunningly, under the same managers.

MW: English, please!

MW: Hardly the end of the story. And I love how revisionist historians will say that McGwire was a “decent” power hitter. He’s the all-time leader in home runs per at-bat.

One last thought about Dawson . . .

When Live-Aid was broadcast on July 13, 1985, I made sure to record Billy Ocean singing Caribbean Queen, but didn’t bother recording Ozzy Osborne on my Beta machine . . . During prime time, the ABC network cut in halfway through Led Zeppelin’s reunion and only broadcast four minutes of Stairway to Heaven, but ABC made sure that Hall & Oates anchored the final hour of the broadcast, with Maneater and Method of Modern Love bringing America to its knees.

In the 1980s, nobody batted an eye that Led Zeppelin opened for Hall & Oates and Tina Turner. Perceptions change over 25 years.

It’s the same with baseball. Using the Billy Beane/Theo Epstein sabermetric statistical analysis of the 2000s to look back on a career from the 1970s and 80s when the game was played AND MANAGED differently might not be fair to Dawson.

Every time Dawson came to the plate for the Expos, he had Jim Fanning or Bill Virdon in his ear telling him he’s there to “swing the bat” and “drive in runs.” It’s how he came up through the minor leagues and the style he adopted in his prime. Perhaps he would have adopted a different approach had he come around 20 years later and worked with people in the era of Gary Denbo and John Gibbons.

There is no arguing your point that Dawson’s OBP is 20 points lower than any other HOF outfielder. Just pointing out the fact that it was a different “old-school” era and Dawson might have been “raised” differently. The OBP emphasis of the 2000s was not so trendy in the 1980s.

Rather than using the latest sabermetric trends for statistical analysis, BBWAA writers also have the advantage of judging a player against his peers from the same era.

MW: And against his peers from the same era, Dawson’s OBP is still 20 points lower than any other HOF outfielder. I understand the whole “he may have been raised differently” argument, but how does that explain the fact that his contemporary stars like George Brett, Mike Schmidt, Reggie Jackson, Rickey Henderson, etc., etc., etc., all understood the value of not getting out?

MW: The DH hasn’t really been around long enough to prove your point. Before Edgar, the only real DH even in the conversation was Hal McRae, and he wasn’t nearly a Hall of Famer. Paul Molitor was almost exclusively a DH for the last eight years of his career and hurt all the time for the first 12. The Hall of Fame is supposed to be a museum of baseball history that honours the history of and the people who played the game. The DH is a part of baseball history.

MW: Hee hee – sorry I missed that!