World Series 2022 possible future Hall of Fame candidates


You don’t reach the World Series with a bunch of scrubs. So an interesting game to play, at the start of each Fall Classic, is to look at the rosters (and front office and managers) involved and ask, “How many future Hall of Famers do we have here?”

Before you get your hopes up, we can tell you with relative certainty that this Series between the Astros and Phillies — like every other one in the last 89 years — will not be a record-setter. The most Hall of Famers on the field in a World Series was 13, way back in 1932, when Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Earle Combs, Bill Dickey, Lefty Gomez, Tony Lazzeri, Herb Pennock, Red Ruffing and Joe Sewell suited up for the Yankees and Kiki Cuyler, Burleigh Grimes, Gabby Hartnett and Billy Herman were with the Cubs.

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Heck, both managers in that Series are in the Hall of Fame (the Yankees’ Joe McCarthy as a manager, the Cubs’ Rogers Hornsby as a player). And so is umpire Bill Klem!

The 1996 Series between the Yankees and Braves holds the more modern (Divisional Era) record, with eight players (Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, Wade Boggs and Tim Raines for the Yankees, and Greg Maddux, John Smoltz, Tom Glavine and Chipper Jones for the Braves), plus managers Joe Torre and Bobby Cox.

We probably won’t be challenging that one, either.

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But just for fun, let’s take a look at what we’ve got to work with:

As if Verlander weren’t already a Cooperstown lock, he is coming off a jaw-dropping 2022 season in which he came back from Tommy John surgery — at age 39! — and crossed the 3,000 career innings threshold, went to the All-Star Game for the ninth time and, in all likelihood, cemented his third Cy Young honor (with three second-place finishes).

All told right now, Verlander ranks 27th among pitchers in Baseball Reference’s wins above replacement, he’s got 244 wins and 3,198 strikeouts and is one of just six pitchers with three no-hitters (he was pulled from three no-hitters in progress just this year). With Verlander, it’s not a question of if but when, because he’s telling people he wants to pitch until he’s 45 years old. So we might have to wait a while for that speech. That would give people time to debate whether he should go in as a Tiger or Astro.

One of the most respected executives in the game, Dombrowski might be in the Hall of Fame already if he didn’t keep joining new teams and taking them to the World Series. The Phillies are now the fourth franchise (joining the Marlins, Tigers and Red Sox) that Dombrowski has guided to a pennant, with five trips to the World Series overall. He assembled the Marlins’ first World Series winner in 1997 and captured his second crown with the 2018 Red Sox. If the Phillies get the job done in this Series, Dombrowski will have guided 10% of the 30 teams to glory.

Dombrowski has pulled off seismic swaps for the likes of Miguel Cabrera, Max Scherzer and Chris Sale and overseen the scouting squads that drafted future Hall of Famers Cabrera and…



Read More: World Series 2022 possible future Hall of Fame candidates 2022-10-29 12:48:08

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