[VanillaGorilla]

Home Run Baker and Stan Musial are the 100th and 101st hitters to be inducted. With 101 hitters, the expected number of pitchers in the HOF would be about 43. We now have 42, so we are on target, there. We are pretty much synched up with the RL HOF, at the moment, in so far as the time table of the league ending in the equivalent 2012 season. That would be 2110, here. The addition of 2 teams will slightly hasten the end of the league. I haven't kept track of the number of players who have entered. I could calculate that, but it really doesn't matter. The number of players that have played at the ML level, thus far, is 13221. This includes players drafted in 2085 who are on ML rosters.

The number of players who had played in the ML through 1987 is 13037.

With the induction of Willie Stargell in 1988, there were 158 players in the HOF (not counting players who got in as managers, executives, or Negro League players). This league population had trailed the historical corresponding size of RL in relation to the HOF years, so I figured to be somewhat behind the RL total, at this point. 15 entries is a large number to gain, over the historical number, in 25 years. It can happen. A couple fluky high numbered classes can bring these numbers together.

If the number of players who have entered the draft, but never played in the ML is about 10% of the total pool, then we have about 20 years left in this league.

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Home Run Baker was the chosen by the Royals with the 6th overall pick in the 2060 draft.

At the end of his first Spring Training, Baker knocked his noggin and missed 4 1/2 moths due to PCS. He joined the team in August and batted .310 with 10 HR in 51 games.

There appeared to be no lingering effects from the concussion. Baker would bat over .300 in 13 of his first 14 seasons.

In 2069 he batted well above .300. He slashed 369/427/714 (npa OPS+ 192) and tallied career highs in hits (228), HR (59), RBI (156), R (162), and SB (45).

ADD: The 162 runs scored is the second most in a season in league history, trailing only Ralph Kiner's 170.

He won the league MVP and, more importantly, led his Royals to WS victory. Previously inducted HOF teammates Joe Adcock and Albert Belle welcomed him to the converted tractor shed that is this HOF.

Following the 2068 season, he signed a 6 year deal with the Reds. In 2071, Baker batted .336 with 35 HR and 91 RBI in 100 games, leading the Reds to the WS. Baker is the first member of that WS winning Reds team to be enshrined. He will not be the last.

In 2076, the Cardinals traded a then 35 year-old Home Run Baker to Arizona, in July. Baker was not the player he once was, but Arizona gave up a starter and reliever to acquire him. Baker provided alizing veteran influence for the Diamondbacks as they won the WS. Baker is the first, but not the last, player from this team to enter the HOF.

For his career, Baker collected 2483 hits (59th), 473 of which were doubles (72nd, 1 fewer than Hans Lobert), 62 triples (64th), and 460 HR (87th, one fewer than Gorman Thomas). He drove in 1477 (68th, two more than Ron Cey) and scored 1469 (47th, between Sam Crawford and Ken Griffey Jr). He posted a career slash line of 327/386/587 (26th/*/54th, one spot ahead of Jim Gentile).

He ranks 45th on the career OPS list between Jim Gentile and Jim Wynn.

Home Run Baker was a 9 time All Star and won one GG at 3B. He enters the HOF at the age of 45 on his first ballot.

Black Ink: 20 (26)
Gray Ink: 139 (196)
HOFm: 200.5 (81)
HOFs: 72 (33)

Gorilla Composite: 4.5 (3.5)

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Stan Musial enters the HOF as the the all time leader in triples with 105. This shocked me. Then I looked up his record and learned that he led the league IRL 5 times. I did not know that.

Musial was the top pick in the 2054 draft by Oakland. He did not come to terms with Oakland and went back into the pool for the 2055 draft.

There he fell to the 5th pick and was taken by the Phillies. He would call the City of Brotherly Love home for 17 years.

The Phillies realized they had a good thing, right away.

As a rookie he smacked 200 hits while batting .358 with 26 HR and 86 RBI. He scored 106 runs and took home Rookie of the Year. He would collect 200 hits in a season twice more in his career.

The next time he collected 200 hits was in 2061 when he cracked 220. He slashed 376/461/641 (npa OPS+ 186) with 26 HR and a career high in doubles (53) and triples (12). He would hit double digit triples three times in his career and would lead the league each of those three times.

This output was good for an MVP season. It also powered the Phillies to a WS celebration where he and fellow HOFer George Hendrick celebrated victory.

Musial carried an OBP over .400 in each of his first 9 seasons and 14 of his first 16.

In 2064 he and Hendrick again led the Phils to victory.

In 2065 they were joined by Harmon Killebrew and pulled the repeat.

In 2070 Musial posted a career best 230 hits and a career best 50 HR to go along with a career best 152 RBI. He won his second MVP for his effort, at the age of 34. His slash line of 378/442/691 for a npa OPS+ of 194.

After stops in Chicago and Denver and a 2 year hiatus, Musial closed his career in St Louis. Pinch hitting for the Cards, he batted .291 with 17 HR in 244 AB at the age of 41.

Musial won 4 batting titles on his way to 3096 career hits (9th, one spot behind Larry Doyle). He had 618 doubles (10th, again, one spot behind Larry Doyle) and 553 HR (51st, 2 ahead of Ryan Howard and three behind Ryan Klesko). He posted 1834 RBI (17th, between Manny Ramirez and Billy Williams) and scored 1768 times (10th, one spot behind Chipper Jones).

Musial drew 1165 walks (28th, 3 behind Gavvy Cravath) which contributed to his slash line of 348/425/627 (2nd, behind Shoeless Joe Jackson/7th, one spot ahead of John McGraw/17th, behind Joe Adcock). Musial ranks 12th on the career OPS list, one spot ahead of Kevin Mitchell.

Black Ink: 41 (116)
Gray Ink: 256 (390)
HOFm: 389.5 (454)
HOFs: 77 (76)

Gorilla Composite: 7.4 (11.5)

Musial had an outstanding career here. Comparing these numbers to his RL numbers illustrates just how amazing his RL career was.

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Home Run Baker enters his second OOTP HOF.
Stan Musial enters his first OOTP HOF.

Baker and Musial are the 42nd and 43rd RL HOFer to be inducted.