Health & Fitness
Military, Shmilitary, Hodges in the Hall of Fame
A tribute to Gil Hodges, who should be in the Hall of Fame
Hey baseball fans!
Since the Baseball Writers Association of America is now voting on who should be in the Hall of Fame, I wanted to talk a little bit about a certain player who probably did not make it into the Hall of Fame because of military service:
From 1943-1963, Gil Hodges had a very solid career with the Dodgers and Mets. He hit 370 homers, had 1,275 RBIs, and had an on-base percentage of .359. That's pretty good. The only problem was that he did not play in 1944 or '45 because of World War II, and then was retooled and missed more time. If he had played those seasons, he probably would have had like 450 homers and 1,400+ RBIs.
And to top off this should-be Hall of Fame career, Hodges led the Amazin' Mets to their first ever World Series in 1969 and ended up winning the contest as the manager!
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If that doesn't spell "Hall of Fame" to the Veterans Committee (the committee that elects players into the Hall of Fame around 20 years after retirement), then I don't know what does.
And while we are still on the subject of Gil Hodges, my friend, the famous sports songwriter, Joe Pickering Jr., wrote the song Gil Hodges which was performed by Phil Coley and published by Joe's company, King of the Road Music. Anyway, here is my favorite verse:
The boys of summer look down from the sky
In disbelief they shake their heads and ponder why
The Hall of Fame vote for Gil Hodges fell one vote shy
Why make the baseball world and Gil's widow cry?
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Hope you liked this and hope Gil Hodges makes the Hall one day.