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Moose Tracks – Mussina worthy of the Hall of Fame?

mike mussina after having thrown pitch during baseball
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So last night/this morning I was looking at the ballot for Hall of Fame induction for 2014. Three names jump off the list at first glance: Greg Maddux with his 355 wins, Tom Glavine with his 305 wins, and Frank Thomas with his 524 home runs.

After an embarrassing 2013 induction class of zero (living), Major League Baseball and the Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA) need to hit a home run with this year’s crop of Hall of Fame talent. To me, this means Maddux, Glavine and Thomas all get inducted in their first year of eligibility. But there was one other name that I saw on the ballot that brought back memories and quite the quandary: Mike Mussina.

I spent ten years of my adolescence watching Mike Mussina take the hill every fifth day for our hometown Baltimore Orioles. He wasn’t flashy. He wasn’t eye-popping. He was just good. Damn good.

The Moose with the Orioles was as good as anybody in the game. He won 15 games or more in a season six times in his ten seasons, including two 19-win seasons and one 18-win season. One could argue that had 1994 and 1995 not been strike-shortened seasons, and if the O’s could have won any of his last four starts in 1996, that he could have had three straight 20-win seasons.

After completing the 2000 season, Mussina signed a 6-year, $87 million contract with the division rival New York Yankees. After ten seasons and 147 wins in Baltimore, Mussina was leaving the perennially rebuilding Orioles for greener pastures.

In New York, the Moose would go on to win 123 more games over eight seasons while appearing in the World Series in 2001 and 2003. In 2008 he would win 20 games for the first time in his career, becoming, at age 39, the oldest pitcher in MLB history to record his first 20-win season. Mussina would retire at season’s end, becoming the first pitcher since Sandy Koufax to retire following a 20-win season.

So is Mike Mussina Hall of Fame worthy? Well, let’s look at the numbers as a whole.

Mussina went 270-153 with a 3.68 ERA in 18 seasons pitching in the AL East—in the peak of the Steroid Era. He tossed four one-hitters and one two-hitter in his career and twice came within four outs or less of a perfect game.

Of pitchers with at least 250 wins, his .638 winning percentage ranks sixth all-time, putting him ahead of Hall of Famers Jim Palmer, Eddie Plank, Carl Hubbell, Bob Feller and Tom Seaver, as well as soon-to-be Hall of Famers Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine.

Mussina holds the American League record with 17 straight seasons of at least 11 wins. He was a five-time All-Star, a seven-time Gold Glove award winner and finished in the top six in Cy Young voting an astounding nine times, including six top five finishes, three top four finishes, and one second place finish.

In 1997 he had one of the greatest postseasons a pitcher has ever had. In four starts covering 29 innings, Mussina allowed just four runs (1.24 ERA) on 11 hits while striking out 41.

Is Mike Mussina Hall of Fame worthy? He didn’t get to 300 wins, but that milestone is an anomaly these days with five man rotations and a greater emphasis on the bullpen. To me, the Moose is most definitely a Hall of Famer, though he probably won’t get in on the first ballot. The only question is, does he get a silver number on Eutaw Street and a bronze statue next to Earl, Eddie, Jim, Cal, Frank and Brooks, or does he get a plaque in Monument Park? We should know soon enough.

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