It's Time For Lou Whitaker To Be Inducted To The Hall of Fame.

The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum prides itself every year to induct the very best baseball players who have ever graced the diamond. Even with this, year in and year out debates of players who should be in the hall reside with the fans who believe a player is not being honored the way they should be. One of the most egregious cases of a player not in the hall is that of former Detroit Tigers second basemen Lou Whitaker.

Lou Whitaker was born on May 12, 1957 in Brooklyn, New York and fell in love with the sport of baseball. He graduated high school in 1975 and commited to Ferrum College to play college ball. The Detroit Tigers though saw the chance to draft a skilled player in the fifth round of the 75 draft and decided to roll the dice and select "Sweet Lou" with the 99 pick of the draft. Lou decided to sign with Detroit rather than attend college and after two and a half years in the minors where he exceeded expectations, The Detroit Tigers decided to call him up along with his hall of fame teammate and half of the greatest double play tandem of all-time: Alan Trammell.

Starting in 1978, Lou Whitaker would be the primary second basemen for the Detroit Tigers all the way to his retirement in 1995. Lou Whitaker would have an outstanding rookie season sporting a .285/.361/.357 triple slash with an ops+ (on base plus slugging adjusted for fair evaluating) of 101 which is 1% above average. These stats,along with his amazing defense, helped Lou win the American League Rookie of the Year Award. Lou would continue to be productive for Detroit for the next few years before entering his prime which started in 1982 and went to 1991. During these years we saw Lou take his game from very good to one of the best in the league. During this span, Lou would average a .275 batting average and would start to hit for power hitting way more home runs than he did before and after his prime years.

Lou's prime coincided with the success of the Detroit Tigers, who would win the 1984 World Series over the San Diego Padres. Whitaker hit .278 in the Series with a .409 on-base percentage, scoring six runs in the five games, a huge contribution to the cause. The Tigers made it to the AlCS in 1987 after another great season by Lou Whitaker, but the Tigers would lose to the eventual champion Minnesota Twins. In 1992, Lou would have a year full of milestones as he would record his 2,000th game, 2,000th hit, and his 200th home run in this season.

Lou Whitaker would retire in 1995 and many baseball fans thought that he was destined to be enshrined in the hall of fame, but he has not.

When looking at career stats, Lou scored 1,386 runs, drove in 1,084 runs, had 2,369 hits, and slugged 244 home runs. The only two other Major League Baseball second baseman that attained more than 1,000 runs scored, 1,000 runs batted in, 2,000 hits, and 200 home runs at that time were Hall of Famers Rogers Hornsby and Joe Morgan. Furthermore, Whitaker won three Gold Glove Awards and four Silver Slugger awards during his career. To add insult to injury, Whitaker was a five-time All-Star and was, as previously stated, a huge contributor to the Tigers 1984 World Series championship.

In addition to Whitaker’s career accomplishments listed above, the Wins Above Replacement (“WAR”) statistic is another reason why Whitaker needs to be inducted into the Hall of Fame. WAR measures how many more wins a player is worth than a replacement player at the same position. Whitaker’s career WAR was an amazing 75.1. The second basemen with higher career WAR statistics, Joe Morgan, Rogers Hornsby, Eddie Collins, Jackie Robinson, Charlie Gehringer, Rod Carew, and Nap Lajoie, are all in the Hall of Fame. Several other second baseman who have lower career WAR statistics than Whitaker including Ryne Sandberg, Roberto Alomar, Craig Biggio, and Nellie Fox, have been inducted into the Hall of Fame.

Clearly, Whitaker’s career accomplishments are equal to or exceed those of several second baseman already inducted into the Hall of Fame. Whitaker’s next chance to be inducted into the Hall of Fame will not come until 2023. That is next time that the Modern Baseball Era Committee votes on former players whose primary contributions came from 1970-1987. All true baseball fans need to support Whitaker for the Hall of Fame. I encourage you to contact the Modern Baseball Era Committee at the Hall of Fame and let them know that they need to vote for Sweet Lou Whitaker for the Hall of Fame.