Monday, November 20, 2006

Is The LPGA Tour Hall of Fame Qualification Process Better Than The MLB One?

Musa D. might think it blasphemy to compare the LPGA Hall with the MLB one. I'm going to do it anyway:

I used to think that gaining entrance to a Hall of Fame before being a retired player was like having a funeral before dying. It seemed to me that if I ever went to a pre-death funeral, I'd feel awkward and sad around the Should-be-deceased-because-we-had-a-large-get-together-celebrating-your-death-and-yet-here-you-are-recommending-that-I-put-back-my-cantaloupe-and-select-a-better,-more-ripe-one when I bump into him at the, say, grocery store. And whenever I see the Should-be-deceased-etc. some part of my brain will be thinking, "die already!"

When seeing Vijay or Annika (two hall of famers) on TV, I couldn't help but think that they should just retire already!

After looking at the LPGA Tour Hall of Fame qualifying guidelines, however, I think I might favor their straight numbers approach over the more nebulous baseball hall requirements. Certainly the fact that pitchers and hitters have different skill sets (and the fact that there are sub-skill sets like RP, SP, or Catcher) makes it more difficult to have a straight numbers selection process, not to mention a million other difficulties and complications (rule changes, "live" baseballs, etc.). I'm not saying that the MLB should adopt a Hall criteria like the LPGA. Rather, I'd prefer to be selected by a process like the LPGA one over the MLB one.

To gain entrance to the LPGA Tour Hall of Fame:

1. "Active" LPGA Tour member for 10 years;
2. Must have won/been awarded at least one of the following - an LPGA major championship, the Vare Trophy or Rolex Player of the Year honors; and
3. Must have accumulated a total of 27 points, which are awarded as follows - one point for each LPGA official tournament win, two points for each LPGA major tournament win and one point for each Vare Trophy or Rolex Player of the Year honor earned.

There is also a "Bob Hope" rule, whereby someone can gain entrance to the Hall if they have "had an extraordinary career that significantly impacted the growth of the LPGA Tour."

There is the argument that the MLB HOF essentially follows the Bob Hope rule for all its selections (at least the "extraordinary career" part).

3 comments:

Musa D said...

Don't worry about me, I think the MLB HOF has blasphemed itself so many times that it is below blasphemy by now.

The great thing about baseball stats, though, is that they're simple enough to tell a story and too complicated to fully understand. Finding an equivalent set of HOF criteria for a catcher and a closer is basically impossible (though I'd like to see Bill James try it). Maybe you'd find the lines above which you have equal numbers of HOFers doing each job (per year the job exists), with an understanding that it should total a few per decade? That could be fun.

Bob Hope. No one born after 1965 ever found that guy funny, right?

I predict that, when all is said and done, Michelle Wie will be the Shawn Kemp of the LPGA. Which is better than being, say, the Tony Mandarich.

Musa D said...

Wait, are you saying that Bob Hope is in the LPGA Hall of Fame?

DrGravitee said...

Hope in the LPGA Hall?

Yes and no (mostly no). In golf, the men and women share a hall of fame in St. Augustine, FL. So technically Annika and Bob are both in the "World Golf Hall of Fame."

Bing Crosby is also in the world golf hall of fame.