So former cigarette smoking, doubles hitting, gold gloving Cubs first baseman Mark Grace is on the Hall of Fame ballot for the first time.
While its certainly an honor to be even have your name mentioned in this conversation, a million doubles won't get him into the hall.
I loved the guy as a Cub, though.
When the Cubs made the playoffs in '89, he was truly "amazing", getting 11 hits in 17 at-bats with 3 doubles, a homer and a triple (a triple?), and knocked in 8 runs.
He had more hits than anybody else in the bigs through the '90's, was an all-star a couple times (3, actually), and was a big part of that lineup with Ryno and Dunston and Andre.
Today, when you go to Wrigley, you'll still see a bunch of Grace jerseys in the crowd.
But in 2,245 games over his career, he only hit 173 balls out of the park.
That won't cut it for a first baseman trying to get in the hall.
On the other hand, you've seen him as an announcer - he's awesome.
When the Brenly-to-Milwaukee rumors were happening and we were hearing Grace would maybe take Bob's place behind the mic for the Cubs, I thought that would be perfect.
Guy speaks his mind, and maybe that'll be his true ticket to the hall.
In the meantime, I believe it's on Monday that we'll hear if Andre Dawson and Ron Santo finally make it.
(Every time I google hall of fame voting, I get goopy longwinded crap and I can never find the actual dates, but I think that's right.)
Much more realistic chances there, guys.
