Every year, the writer’s ballot for the Hall of Fame gets a ton of attention, and deservedly so. New players who have retired fairly recently and are fresh in our mind are added to the ballot and some even become Hall of Famers. The old veteran’s committee, now called the Eras Committee, gets less attention, but former Cardinals great Ted Simmons is on the ballot, and he is deserving.
The Eras Committee, formerly Veteran’s, gets less attention because they are generally dealing with players who are a bit older and somewhat out of mind. They also tend to get less attention because they stopped electing players like a decade ago. In 2001, they elected Bill Mazeroski. Since then, they have elected six managers, seven executives, and two umpires, but just three players: Deacon White, who last played in 1890, Joe Gordon, who last played in 1950, and Ron Santo, a deserving player who unfortunately wasn’t elected before his death.
The lack of inductions is part of the reason why the Veteran’s Committee was revamped (for more on the eras and consideration, see the HOF explanation). On this year’s ballot are Steve Garvey, Tommy John, Don Mattingly, Marvin Miller, Jack Morris, Dale Murphy, Dave Parker, Ted Simmons, Luis Tiant and Alan Trammell. For Cardinals’ fans, Simmons is the big name.
Ted Simmons played for the Cardinals from 1968 through 1980 and was the Cardinals everyday catcher for a decade. He was often the best position player on some bad teams, but still managed to get MVP votes in six of his ten full seasons with the Cardinals.
Hall of Fame expert Jay Jaffe sums up his Cardinals career (read Jaffe’s full report here, including a nice note on Rick Hummel’s support of Simmons candidacy and not so nice note on Whitey Herzog’s lack thereof and how Simmons’ outspoken nature might have hurt him in earlier votes):
A six-time All-Star during his 13 seasons with St. Louis (1968–1980, though he played only seven games combined in the first two years), the switch-hitting Simmons was known more for his bat (.298/.366/.459, 118 OPS+, 2,472 hits, 248 homers) than his glove. He ranked among the league's top 10 in batting average six times, in on-base or slugging percentage nine times and in position player WAR five times. Behind the plate he was an adequate backstop, maligned for his throwing during his era—particularly by manager/GM Whitey Herzog, who essentially ran him out of St. Louis and later sat on the 2011 and '14 Expansion Era committees that bypassed him—but essentially average via Total Zone (-8 runs career). He threw out 34% of would-be base thieves, equal with the weighted league average of the time, and while he was less adept at pitch blocking, his bat, elite for the position, more than made up for it.
Jaffe says that while Simmons is borderline, he would put him in given his rank among catchers. Derrick Goold agrees (read here for full chat answer):
QUESTION: Ted Simmons is on the "modern era" ballot for the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Will this get him that HOF entrance he deserves?
GOOLD: Ted Simmons belongs in the Hall of Fame, and you're about to get me to go off on a rant here. OK, so one of the reasons why Simmons has had difficulty get through these committees is because committee members keep telling us that Simmons didn't last very long on the writers' ballot. He was one a one-and-done guy, like Jim Edmonds most recently. I've heard this over and over and over again. I've heard this from Johnny Bench. I've heard this from one person who told me they voted for Simmons in the room -- but really they didn't vote for Simmons in the room. It's all very maddening, and I will tell you this: It's absurd.
While the word of Goold and Jaffe should be enough for you, I wrote about Simmons’ candidacy at Fangraphs (Full post here):
Simmons fits in well with the electorate right now. He’s better than any other candidate at his position, and he isn’t in any real danger of being surpassed anytime soon. Simmons’ 116 wRC+ is the exact same mark produced by Gary Carter and just one point lower than Carlton Fisk. Simmons might not have been as good on defense, and the difference in WAR from Carter and Fisk reflects that, but he managed to catch nearly 1800 games in his career, 15th-most all-time. Of the top-20 catchers in terms of games caught, nine are in the Hall of Fame, another one (Yadier Molina) is still active, and the other nine averaged an 89 wRC+. Only Lance Parrish’s 105 wRC+ even breaks average.
Simmons also inspired the name for one of the best websites on Cardinals history, RetroSimba. The committee gets together at the Winter Meetings where the winners are announced. Candidates need 12 of 16 votes to gain election and they are allowed to vote for just four, making it very tough to get elected. Marvin Miller and Alan Trammell deserve to go in, and so does Ted Simmons.