IAL Hall of Fame: Barry Larkin

IAL Accomplishments:

• 7th all-time in career triples with 82
• 1269 career runs and 961 rbis

IAL Hall of Fame: Frank Thomas

IAL Accomplishments:

• 9th all time in career homeruns with 475
• 2nd all time in career walks with 1372
• 6th all-time career OBP with .390
• Highest all time single season OBP with a .501 mark in 1995
• 7th highest all time single season in rbis with 162 in 1998
• Third highest all time single season in walks with 151 in 1995
• World Series Championships:  1998, 2006

IAL Hall of Fame: Greg Maddux

Greg Maddux Gets the Call

Greg Maddux was inducted into the IAL Hall of Fame. He finished his career with a record of 354 wins versus 232 losses. Besides leading all time in wins, Greg also tops the charts in starts 749, complete games 193, 63 shutouts, and innings pitched 5,086’. Maddux is 2nd all time in strikeouts 3,925, compared to only 1,271 bases on balls, over a 3-to-1 ratio. His career ERA of 3.59 is just out of the top ten, #10 currently stands at 3.57.

In 1988 the Chicago Champions drafted Greg Maddux as D-Y, after he’d posted a 5.61 ERA, a 6-14 record, and allowed 181 base hits over 155” innings of work for the Chicago Cubs. He started 42 games for the Champs in his rookie season, finishing with a 4-15 record and a 6.83 ERA, who knew of the greatness that was to come. Maddux was one of several Champions drafted, who shared their birthday, April 14th, with Chicago skipper Tedd Mallasch.

The six-time Cy Young Award winner, relied on guile, grit, determination, along with competitiveness, but his pinpoint control was what defined Maddux as a pitcher. In 1997 he walked only 13 batters in 245 innings worked. In fact from 1996-98, he only issued 59 free passes over 712’ innings pitched. Greg was a winner, winning twenty or more games 1993-96, and then again in 2001.

It wasn’t just about personal performance for Maddux, if the team wasn’t winning Greg wasn’t happy. Fortunately the Champions finished in 1st place in his rookie year and then again in his last season in the bigs, with a lot of reasons to celebrate in between. Four times Chicago finished in first place and five times they won it all.

It’s kind of neat to compare his MLB numbers with his IAL numbers. Here are his real life stats compared to his in the Illowa APBA League:

He came in as the Batboy and went out as the Professor. Here’s to the greatest pitcher in the history of the Illowa APBA League, Greg Maddux!

- Tedd Mallasch, manager of the Chicago Champions

IAL Hall of Fame: Tom Glavine

Tom Glavine had a pretty unexciting start in the Illowa APBA League.  Winning just two games in his first years, I’m not sure anyone paid much attention to him.  After a ten-win season in his third season in 1990, his trade value was as high it would ever get so it seemed.  So Chicago Champion management traded him for an aging Kirk Gibson to the Twin City Thunderchickens.  After that he never looked back. 

After a mediocre 7-9 season, Glavine put together a string of 12 seasons of double digit wins (after a season of injuries in 2004, he won 10 or more for three more years).  That first year in 1996, he showed his talent winning 17 with a 2.96 ERA and struck out 219.  Glavine was a workhorse. For 14 out of 15 years, he threw at least 210 innings for Twin City explaining why he’s in the top ten in so many pitching categories. 

Glavine’s best season was arguably 1999.  That was the year everything just came together for the Twin City Thunderchickens.  Glavine’s amazing performance was almost overshadowed by teammate Mark McGwire’s record breaking 70 homeruns but that year, he simply couldn’t lose.  With a record of 21-7 and a 3.23, he showed why Thunderchicken management had already deemed him “untradeable”.  By the end of the year, Glavine had not only helped the team to their first 100 win season under their current manager’s reign but also brought home a league championship.

After 19 years with the team, Tom Glavine retired a Thunderchicken in 2009.  He will forever epitomize what it means to be part of that team. 

Glavine’s accomplishments

• tied for 3rd all-time in wins with 247
• 5th in strikeouts with 2797
• third in shutouts with 36
• third in games started with 582
• fourth in complete games with 148
• third in innings pitched with 4231 2/3
• 12 years in a row with 10 wins or more
• World Series ring in 1999

Roberto Alomar, No HOF’er???

Despite posting Hall of Fame statistics over his 17 year Illowa APBA League career with the Northside Hitmen, Roberto Alomar has failed for the second consecutive year to get the votes needed to get in, and there can only be one reason for keeping him out.  The Northside Hitmen finished in first place nine times, won four titles, and won 100+ games five times, with Roberto playing secondbase.  Alomar wasn’t just on the field, he was a major contributor to his team’s success, scoring more than 100 runs 6 times (including 134 in 1997), three times he hit more than 20 homers, and six times his batting average was above .300.  All of these offensive accomplishments were achieved while being the best fielding secondbaseman.

Robby ranks right up there with the IAL All Time greats in several categories.  He has 8,982 at bats (5th in IAL History), 1,503 runs scored (4th in IAL History), 2,455 hits (6th in IAL History), and 488 doubles (7th in IAL History).

The incident, which I believe, has kept Alomar out of the IAL Hall of Fame occurred, in real life, September 27, 1996.  Roberto was called out on a pitch, he alleges, was out of the strike zone, by umpire John Hirschbeck.  The two of them got into a heated argument, in which lip readers contend, Hirschbeck called Alomar a faggot.  Roberto lost his cool and spit into the face of Hirschbeck.

Alomar, and other players, contend that Hirschbeck had been on edge since losing his son to ALD and learning that another son also had it.  Roberto was suspended five games and required to donate $50,000 to ALD research, the two shook hands April 22, 1997, when Alomar apologized.  Both Hirschbeck & Alomar took the unfortunate incident as an opportunity to raise awareness and funds to research the disease, and came to regard each other as friends.  Roberto later donated an additional $252,000 to fund ALD research.

On January 5, 2011 Roberto Alomar received 90 percent of the vote required to elect him into the MLB Hall of Fame, it was his second try, after failing to get in one year ago.  It is my hope that the next time Alomar is up for vote into the IAL Hall of Fame that he gets in, he deserves to be there, he’s earned it.

Larry Walker and Dennis Eckersley Voted Into IAL HOF

Larry Walker played for 3 teams over his 16-year IAL career, hitting .291 with a .377 OBA and .554 SLG.   The only player who played longer and slugged higher was Barry Bonds, and only 4 players played longer and had a better on-base.  He hit 407 homer, drove in 1,343 runs, and scored 1,364 times.  He also stole 233 bases and played Gold Glove caliber defense in the outfield.  Walker’s most impressive year was 1998 with the Aurora Gamblers, when he hit .343 with 52 homer, 157 RBI, 156 runs, and 40 steals; this probably ranks as one of the best overall seasons in IAL history.  He topped 40 HR 3 times, 100 RBI 6 times, and 100 runs scored 6 times.  His struggles with injuries kept him to only 2,044 hits.

Dennis Eckersley pitched for 24 seasons, splitting time between starting and relieving; he won 168 games (versus 183 losses) and saved 208 games as a closer.  He played for 10 different teams (made all the more amazing for the fact that for most of his career in the IAL was an 8-team league) which couldn’t have hurt his voting drive!  Eck was a good but not great starter, winning 16 games twice, but it as a closer that he made his mark, mostly with the Dreamteam.  From 1989 through 1993 he saved 154 games, with ERA’s of 2.13, 2.35, 2.45, 2.49, and, in 1993, 1.12!  That year he saved 35 games in 52 appearances, throwing 80.2 innings with a 6-4 record and allowed only 40 hits and 10 earned runs all year

Rock Raines Deserves His Place in the IAL HOF

I don’t know how it happened, but somehow Tim Raines is not in the IAL Hall of Fame.  He is very deserving, his statistics clearly show, and it is a travesty that he is not a member.  In his eighteen seasons Rock scored stole 854 bases (the all-time high) & scored 1,473 runs, that’s what his game was all about, getting on, stealing a base (or two) & scoring.  He has a lifetime batting average of .291, 2,256 base hits, 405 doubles, 1,061 walks, and an OBP of .377.  From 1984 to 1988 Tim scored 113, 101, 124, 151, & 125, for a five year average of nearly 123 runs scored per season.  As a rookie in 1982 with the Davenport Fire Raines stole 104 bases, two years later he topped that with the Mercenaries stealing 109 times.

The best was yet to come, with the Phoenix in 1984, he arguably had his best season, batting .386, 224 hits in 580 at bats, 43 doubles, 8 triples, 9 homers, and 151 runs scored, he also walked 73 times, had 89 stolen bases, & had an amazing OBP of .455.  Of course Raines was a member of the 1985 Mercenaries, who lost 136 games, and was a member of three last place teams with over 100 losses.  But you can’t hold that against him, as he also was a member of four teams which finished in first place, three with 100+ wins, including the 1998 IAL Champion Gamblers.  Interestingly the Gamblers & the Mercenaries are the same franchise, where he experienced the ultimate agony of defeat and the highest pinnacle of the thrill of victory.

Larry Walker and Dennis Eckersley Voted Into IAL HoF

Larry Walker played for 3 teams over his 16-year IAL career, hitting .291 with a .377 OBA and .554 SLG.   The only player who played longer and slugged higher was Barry Bonds, and only 4 players played longer and had a better on-base.  He hit 407 homer, drove in 1,343 runs, and scored 1,364 times.  He also stole 233 bases and played Gold Glove caliber defense in the outfield.  Walker’s most impressive year was 1998 with the Aurora Gamblers, when he hit .343 with 52 homer, 157 RBI, 156 runs, and 40 steals; this probably ranks as one of the best overall seasons in IAL history.  He topped 40 HR 3 times, 100 RBI 6 times, and 100 runs scored 6 times.  His struggles with injuries kept him to only 2,044 hits.

Dennis Eckersley pitched for 24 seasons, splitting time between starting and relieving; he won 168 games (versus 183 losses) and saved 208 games as a closer.  He played for 10 different teams (made all the more amazing for the fact that for most of his career in the IAL was an 8-team league) which couldn’t have hurt his voting drive!  Eck was a good but not great starter, winning 16 games twice, but it as a closer that he made his mark, mostly with the Dreamteam.  From 1989 through 1993 he saved 154 games, with ERA’s of 2.13, 2.35, 2.45, 2.49, and, in 1993, 1.12!  That year he saved 35 games in 52 appearances, throwing 80.2 innings with a 6-4 record and allowed only 40 hits and 10 earned runs all year

IAL Hall of Fame: Barry Bonds

At the time of his induction, Barry Bonds was the IAL alltime leader in HRs, runs scored, and walks.  Bonds was second only to Cal Ripken in games played, was third in RBIs, doubles, and OBP.  Barry was 4th in alltime at bats and 5th in base hits.  He was the Hitman for the Northside Hitmen clubs that finished in first place nine times (five of those teams won more than 100 games) and won four straight IAL Championships from 2000-03.  He was named league MVP in 1994 & 2003.  In addition to his outstanding offensive numbers, he was a Gold Glove caliber outfielder in his prime.

IAL Hall of Fame: Rafael Palmeiro

When Rafael Palmeiro was inducted into the IAL Hall of Fame nobody was better at driving in runs than he was, 1,779 ranked second to none.  In addition Raffy was 2nd in games played & at bats, only Barry Bonds & Mark McGwire had more alltime homers, and there were only three players with more hits & doubles than Palmeiro.  He played the bulk of his career with the Hell’s Kitchen Twelvetrees/Chicago Highlanders organization after being swapped from the Chicago Champions in exchange for Hubie Brooks.  Unfortunately he retired one year before the Highlanders won the IAL Championship.