Alan Trammell belongs in the Baseball Hall of Fame

I love the Detroit Tigers...there, that's out of the way.

I stated my love of the Tigers, my favorite baseball team since I was a little kid growing up in Western Michigan in the late 1960s, stated my love of the Tigers so people don't have to say that I'm biased about Alan Trammell ... its all out in the open...not that I've ever hidden it.

Alan Trammell belongs in the Basebal HOF, not because I'm a biased Tigers fan, but because I'm a baseball fan 50 years now....and a biased Tigers fan.

In the debate about the HOF... Trammell's stats... are easily found on his baseballreference.com page...I don't need to give them to you...not right now anyway.

Here's why Alan Trammell is a Hall of Fame baseball player... I saw him play.

Yes, that's it, I saw him play...and that seems to be lost in today's Sabrmetrics analytical baseball writing and TV.

OK, I am no fan of Sabrmetrics, and you're gonna say I'm unfair in criticism of the numbers...and you'd be wrong. 

I love the passion of Sabrmetrics fans, but for the majority of them, they want most of the stats I grew up on eliminated in favor of the new stats, instead of trying to add the Sabrmetrics too go in addition to the traditional stats.

You want a stat...OK...here goes...Alan Trammell played 1,918 games at shortstop with fellow Tigers second baseman Lou Whitaker for 19 years...BOTH...BOTH are big league records.


Trammell and Whitaker...19 years...

Trammell and Whitaker were the BEST DOUBLE PLAY COMBO in the American League for over a decade...they were in the lineup every day...Whitaker and Trammell, Trammell and Whitaker...for 19 years.



Trammell was the Captain of the Detroit Tigers...he was the BEST SHORTSTOP in Tigers history...and he was the BEST SHORTSTOP to play baseball in the American League in the 1980s.

What didn't Trammell do to be a HOF player?



1977-1996...all wearing the Olde English D of the Detroit Tigers.


.285 batting average, 2,365 hits, 185 home runs, 1003 RBI, 4 Gold Glove Awards, 4 Silver Slugger Awards, 6 All-Star teams, 1984 World Series MVP.


1987...


.343, 28, 105.. Batting Average, HRs, and RBIs for Trammell, who took a veteran Tigers ballclub, put them on his back, and led them to an amazing come from behind American League Eastern Division Championship over the Toronto Blue Jays.





The answer is that Alan Trammell did everything he could,  everything he was asked to do for 19 years, 2,393 games.




Baseball is a game of stats, that's what's built the game...but we also watched baseball games, and we used what we saw with the stats, instead of coming up with some stat to try and make a player look better.


I don't know what Trammell's WAR is...well, actually, I do, it was zero...WAR didnt exist, neither did OPS, or OPS+, or BABIP.


Let me say this in closing... I'm saying that Alan Trammell should be in the HOF...Trammell...not Travis Fryman, or Kiko Garcia, or Tony Phillips, or Eddie Brinkman...all good infielders....but not HOF players.


I'm not trying to sway Carlos Guillen to the HOF, I'm writing about Alan Trammell, and he belongs in Cooperstown.

Trending... #tramforhof ...

#tramforhof is a new hashtag I saw on Twitter tonight...there are many, many Tigers fans...and baseball fans, who would live to see Trammell enshrined in Cooperstown next Summer...but we also know it's probably not going to happen.




What we are doing, is laying groundwork for a few years from now when ghe Veteran's Committee starts their next deliberation and voting...and we're hoping that both Trammell and Lou Whitaker...and pitcher Jack Morris...all make the Baseball Hall of Fame.



Good Luck Tram!


Play Ball!