STUFFY MCINNIS

Too bad Barry-Collins-McInnis didn't have quite the same ring as Tinkers-Evers-Chance, because those three, along with third baseman Frank "Home Run" Baker, Connie Mack's $100,000 infield (who can even imagine what they'd be worth today?) were a much better infield. Eddie Collins and Baker are Hall of Famers and a good case could be made for our man Stuffy. He may not have been the best, but his stats match up with many in the Hall. He was a money player, who played in 5 World Series. His lifetime average was .307 and he bashed out 2,405 hits, including 312 doubles and 101 triples. He is in the 1,000 rbi club, with 1060 and he stole 172 bases. In addition, he was a great fielder and still is among the all-time leaders in certain fielding categories.

He broke in with the Philadelphia A's just as Connie Mack's first great dynasty was being built, was a key part of that team (as well as the infield, they had some of the greatest pitchers of all-time: Chief Bender, Eddie Plank, Jack Coombs, and the catcher was Wally Schang, who has at least as good stats as Ray Shalk, who seems to have made the Hall mostly because he was one of the few "Clean Sox" regulars.) Then came the Federal League and Mack, who claimed both that he couldn't keep up with Federal League salaries and that people wouldn't keep coming out to see a championship team yearly, that it would get boring, sold off his team, a la Mr. Huizenga. McInnis, Mack's pet, was one of the last to go, shipped out to the Red Sox in 1918, just in time to play with the great Boston assemblage. Their owner, Harry Frazee, who loved producing his Broadway plays more than his ballclub, sold all the luminaries off that team, including Babe Ruth. With Wally Pipp, then Gehrig at first, the Yankees didn't need McInnis, so he hung around in the ghostly Red Sox dugout as they sunk deep into the second division. In 1922 he went to Cleveland, which was still a good club, two years after their incredible run in 1920 when they won the World Series. In 1923 Stuffy was 33, but still playing regularly and hitting .300, but they traded him to the N.L., where he finished out his career, two years with the Boston Braves and two with the Pirates just in time for the 1927 World Series.)