Gil Hodges, the Hall of Fame, and how managers are judged

In recent years with respect to baseball statistics, some new stats have been created, and some older ones downgraded. A prime example of this is pitcher wins, at one time it was probably the most important stat in grading pitchers, but not so much lately. There is a trend to advanced metrics like FIP and BABIP becoming more important than wins.

There is one other group of uniformed baseball personnel who are judged by wins, and that would be managers. Arguably the quality of the starting pitcher has a huge effect on the game, far more than the manager. Take last year with the Mets. The Las Vegas odds in favor of the Mets with Noah Syndergaard would have been far better as opposed to say Jon Neise against the same team. But if a manager were to miss a game, it would be unlikely to affect the odds at all.

This article is going to look at how managers are evaluated with respect to admission to the Hall of Fame, whether a new metric is needed to judge their suitability for admission, and we are specifically going to look at the case for Gil Hodges to be admitted to the Hall of Fame as a manager.

Currently baseball managers are judged primarily by regular season won-loss percentage, post-season success, and to a lesser extent longevity and character. What if a new metric was introduced, one that measured the improvement a manger provided for his team?

Hodges became manager of the lowly Washington Senators part way through the 1963 season, the third year of the franchise’s existence. His record then for each full season as the manager of the Senators:

Year Won-Loss Percentage Finish
1964 62-100 .383 Ninth
1965 70-92 .432 Eighth
1966 71-88 .447 Eighth
1967 76-85 .472 Sixth (tie)

Please note the consistent improvement in the record over this time frame. This was in the pre-free agent signing days, so it was not possible to load up on free agents to beef up your team quickly. Washington was a relatively small market and the team was under financed, so Hodges was really in a hole when he took over. Yet he produced a virtually unprecedented record of continued improvement.

In 1967 the Mets had a dismal 61-101 last place season. In the off season they swung a rare trade for a manager and thus acquired the services of Hodges. His record as Mets manager was:

Year Won-Loss Percentage Finish
1968 73-89 .451 Ninth
1969 100-62 .617 First
1970 83-79 .512 Third
1971 83-79 .512 Third (tie)

Notice the big jump in 1968 and the even bigger jump in 1969, which of course resulted in a playoff sweep of the Atlanta Braves and a four game to one triumph over the powerful Baltimore Orioles in the World Series. The magic of 1969 was not repeated in 1970 and 1971, but they were good seasons. If there was some metric that could capture the value of improvement a manager provides, that would greatly benefit the legacy of Gil Hodges.

Hodges falls in the Golden Era category of eligibility for the Hall of Fame, so he will not be considered until 2019. Perhaps someone (not me) could develop this new stat before then.

Hodges of course was also a player, a slugging first baseman who fell just short of the threshold of votes required to be voted into the Hall as a player. He sadly died of a heart attack just before the 1972 season.

According to the Hall of Fame criteria, “ Those whose careers entailed involvement in multiple categories will be considered for their overall contribution to the game of Baseball” So if the Hall were to evaluate Hodges on his managerial merits, they could also consider his many other contributions as a player, and as a human being. Virtually every player on the 1969 Mets credited Hodges with a huge role in that championship, it is almost impossible to conceive of any other manager accomplishing what he did with that team in 1969.

One other point. If Hodges were to be inducted into the Hall of Fame as a manager, his plaque would not feature the uniform of the Brooklyn Dodgers, instead it would be in New York Met pinstripes.