TWML Champions

Hall of Fame Veterans Committee Closes Book on Real Players

Edgar Martinez

After a two-year (not season, year) hiatus, the TWML Hall of Fame is back. A small Veterans Committee has been constructed to allow the Hall to catch up on all the classes it has missed.

Here’s how it works: TWML Historian Adam Darowski (that’s me) constructs the ballots and makes recommendations for induction. Then, a six person committee (consisting of Mike Wilson, Adam Darowski, Mike Darowski, Robert Frasier, Paul Patrone, and Cory Muzyka) either approves the recommendation or contests them. If they are contested, they go to a vote (this is to speed up the process).

As I started building the ballot, a few things became clear. One was that real players and fictional players are different beings. So, what I’ve decided to do first is close the book on Real players, have one more ballot for the guys still in limbo, then create a separate wing for them and move on. Then we’ll start catching up on the fictional players.

Today, I’m announcing the induction of four new players into the Hall of Fame. All received various levels of write-in support every year. But each have now entered the Hall of Fame uncontested.

But first, we have a couple other men to induct to the Hall.

Mike Linegang

Adam Bailey moved the Jamaica Queens Rastafarians to Plympton, MA for the 2009 TWML season. While Bailey never really dove into ownership headfirst, he did pass the team off to coworker Mike Linegang. Linegang owned the team through the 2027 season. Linegang’s Wrecking Crew won championships in 2017 and 2025.

Trent Bruce

Trent took over for the Oak Street Mafia and moved them to Rock Rapids in 2004. His RiverKats were always one of the league’s top franchises. Known for their Coors Field-esque ballpark, the RiverKats featured TWML legends Manny Ramirez and Brian Giles. Trent won what is, for me, one of the most memorable TWML titles ever. While stationed in Iraq, he lost the first two games of the TKLCS. He then rattled off eleven straight wins to take the 2007 TWML title. Trent operated the RiverKats through the 2030 season (and then briefly again in 2031).

Both owners will be dearly missed, but will forever be Hall of Famers.

Now, on to the players:

Kevin Tolar

Tolar, who played his entire career in the TWML, was the SSL’s Rookie of the Year in 2001. He went on to win the SSLCS MVP two times for the Dakota Destroyers. While he never won a Cy Young Award (or twenty games), he was a consistent performer to won 223 games. He reached 16 victories three times, 15 four times, and 14 three more times.

YEAR ERA W L S G CG SHO IP ER BB K TEAMS
2000 0.00 0 0 0 2 0 0 2.3 0 1 2 CSS
2001 3.87 14 11 0 32 2 1 211.7 91 67 123 CSS
2002 4.06 15 8 0 34 5 1 243.7 110 94 141 CSS
2003 3.79 14 9 0 33 4 1 206.7 87 63 136 CSS
2004 3.81 15 7 0 34 2 0 226.7 96 80 147 CSS
2005 3.96 7 10 0 28 1 0 170.7 75 57 101 CSS
2006 2.88 16 5 0 26 5 4 184.3 59 43 113 DAK
2007 3.38 14 6 0 31 3 2 205.0 77 56 127 DAK
2008 3.59 16 11 0 37 1 0 223.0 89 74 122 DAK, SS
2009 3.41 13 12 0 32 1 0 219.0 83 58 141 DAK
2010 3.45 12 13 0 35 0 0 229.7 88 72 150 DAK
2011 2.44 16 5 0 28 6 3 199.3 54 42 131 DAK, SS
2012 2.56 16 9 0 33 3 1 224.7 64 71 153 DAK
2013 4.17 15 10 0 34 4 2 220.3 102 64 155 DAK
2014 3.79 15 10 0 33 6 2 213.7 90 71 113 DAK
2015 4.14 12 8 0 30 6 2 197.7 91 59 111 DAK
2016 4.41 10 12 0 31 2 0 194.0 95 72 116 DAK, OHA, PWC
2017 5.85 3 2 4 30 0 0 40.0 26 26 23 PWC
TOTAL 3.63 223 148 4 543 51 19 3412.3 1377 1070 2105

Mike Hampton

Hampton, the ace of the Fort Worth Stray Cats, won an SSL MVP Award during the Cats playoff run in 2001. He won 22 games in MLB in 1999, then paked at 17 wins in 2007 in the TWML. He fanned 200 twice in the TWML. Despite injury troubles (he threw 190 innings just once from 2002 to 2011), he won 224 games with a solid 3.55 ERA.

YEAR ERA W L S G CG SHO IP ER BB K TEAMS
1993 9.53 1 3 1 13 0 0 17.0 18 17 8 Sea
1994 3.73 2 1 0 44 0 0 41.0 17 16 24 Hou
1995 3.36 9 8 0 24 0 0 150.0 56 49 115 Hou
1996 3.60 10 10 0 27 2 1 160.0 64 49 101 Hou
1997 3.83 15 10 0 34 7 2 223.0 95 77 139 Hou
1998 3.37 11 7 0 32 1 1 211.0 79 81 137 HOU
1999 2.90 22 4 0 34 3 2 239.0 77 101 177 HOU
2000 3.00 15 7 0 32 0 0 213.3 71 78 205 CAL, FWS, SS
2001 3.09 15 6 0 35 0 0 230.0 79 77 216 FWS
2002 2.74 13 6 0 28 3 1 174.3 53 46 140 FWS, SS
2003 3.19 12 8 0 29 0 0 163.7 58 64 129 FWS
2004 3.87 14 7 0 34 0 0 188.3 81 75 177 FWS
2005 3.93 8 2 0 22 0 0 112.3 49 37 111 FWS
2006 3.94 14 9 0 34 1 0 187.3 82 66 173 FWS
2007 3.00 17 7 0 29 1 0 177.0 59 68 170 FWS
2008 3.02 16 7 0 33 1 0 211.3 71 60 193 FWS
2009 4.57 14 6 0 26 1 0 130.0 66 66 100 FWS
2010 4.20 10 5 0 27 0 0 130.7 61 49 127 FWS
2011 6.17 6 11 0 25 0 0 109.3 75 48 98 FWS
TOTAL 3.55 224 124 1 562 20 7 3068.7 1211 1124 2540

John Rocker

One of the most dominant relievers in TWML history, Rocker has received more write-in support than any other player. In 2022, he returned to the main ballot after being written in on 50% of all ballots. Rocker was an electric setup man for the early Rats dynasty. His righty setup partner, Matt Mantei, and closer, Armando Benitez, have already been enshrined. Rocker fanned a staggering 1396 batters in 1049 innings (12 Ks per nin innings).

YEAR ERA W L S G CG SHO IP ER BB K TEAMS
1998 2.13 1 3 2 47 0 0 38.0 9 22 42 ATL
1999 2.50 4 5 38 74 0 0 72.0 20 37 104 ATL
2000 2.39 1 5 35 57 0 0 64.0 17 35 91 RIR, TK
2001 0.53 5 0 13 28 0 0 33.7 2 12 44 RIR
2002 1.71 3 0 1 34 0 0 58.0 11 23 79 RIR
2003 1.70 6 1 3 37 0 0 63.7 12 27 77 RIR
2004 2.89 7 2 3 69 0 0 93.3 30 52 138 RIR
2005 4.71 4 5 4 63 0 0 63.0 33 41 91 RIR
2006 4.24 10 0 1 42 0 0 63.7 30 39 78 RIR
2007 1.36 8 1 1 63 0 0 92.3 14 42 142 RIR
2008 2.11 7 4 4 62 0 0 98.0 23 42 136 RIR
2009 3.04 6 5 1 84 0 0 106.7 36 69 125 RIR
2010 3.29 9 5 3 59 0 0 87.7 32 37 106 RIR
2011 5.57 8 3 1 42 0 0 64.7 40 35 81 RIR
2012 1.95 2 1 1 33 0 0 50.7 11 18 62 RIR
TOTAL 2.74 81 40 111 794 0 0 1049.3 320 531 1396

Edgar Martinez

Edgar Martinez, the TKLCS MVP in 2001, has been viewed as one of the Hall’s most egregious snubs for quite some time. His .922 OPS trails only Manny Ramirez, Brian Giles, Mark McGwire, Barry Bonds, Frank Thomas, and Jeff Bagwell (while tying with Chipper Jones). That’s it, among dozens of Hall of Famers. Because of his late start and surprisingly early retirement, Edgar doesn’t have the career totals other players have. But he still has over 2000 hits and 267 homers. With those rate stats, that is definitely enough for induction.

YEAR AVG HR RBI G AB H 2B 3B R SB CS BB K OBP SLG OPS TEAMS
1987 0.372 0 5 13 43 16 5 2 6 0 0 2 5 0.400 0.581 0.981 SEA
1988 0.281 0 5 14 32 9 4 0 0 0 0 4 7 0.361 0.406 0.767 SEA
1989 0.240 2 20 65 171 41 5 0 20 2 1 17 26 0.309 0.304 0.613 SEA
1990 0.302 11 49 144 487 147 27 2 71 1 4 74 62 0.394 0.433 0.827 SEA
1991 0.307 14 52 150 544 167 35 1 98 0 3 84 72 0.400 0.452 0.852 SEA
1992 0.343 18 73 135 528 181 46 3 100 14 4 54 61 0.404 0.544 0.948 SEA
1993 0.237 4 13 42 135 32 7 0 20 0 0 28 19 0.368 0.378 0.746 SEA
1994 0.285 13 51 89 326 93 23 1 47 6 2 53 42 0.385 0.482 0.867 SEA
1995 0.356 29 113 145 511 182 52 0 121 4 3 116 87 0.475 0.628 1.103 SEA
1996 0.327 26 103 139 499 163 52 2 121 3 3 123 84 0.460 0.595 1.055 SEA
1997 0.330 28 108 155 542 179 35 1 104 2 4 119 86 0.451 0.554 1.005 SEA
1998 0.322 29 102 154 556 179 47 1 86 1 1 106 96 0.431 0.567 0.998 SEA
1999 0.337 24 86 142 502 169 35 1 86 7 2 97 99 0.444 0.554 0.998 SEA
2000 0.305 23 99 154 570 174 33 0 89 11 6 73 145 0.384 0.484 0.868 SHI, RIR
2001 0.299 28 105 154 552 165 28 0 86 9 3 57 129 0.365 0.502 0.867 RIR
2002 0.287 18 77 148 513 147 28 0 64 6 4 50 137 0.360 0.446 0.806 RIR
TOTAL 0.314 267 1061 1843 6511 2044 462 14 1119 66 40 1057 1157 0.410 0.512 0.922

Double Martin; Double Rios (All the Way)


Fall River’s Rod Strub won the Cy Young Award, finished a close second in the MVP race, and (interestingly) took a third place vote for the Manny Ramirez Award (one vote for every hit he collected this year).

When the TWML introduced the Manny Ramirez Award, it was to allow pitchers a better shot at the MVP award. While this year’s MRA winners also happened to win the MVP Award, pitchers did have a decent showing (with the SSL runner-up and TKL third place finisher being hurlers). But the voters decided that hitters were again the most valuable this season and Anthony Martin of Brooklyn and Vinny Rios of Fall River took both MVP and MRA honors.

Martin’s MVP win was nearly unanimous (he took 7 of 8 votes) while his MRA win was completely unanimous. Patrone’s Lydon Brunstetter, the second place finisher in both races, took the final first place MVP vote. Seattle pitcher Jerry Simms finished third in the MVP race while Mike Morton (RRR) and Rick Loden (PWC) tied for third in the MRA voting.

Rios, however, narrowly edged teammate (and pitcher) Rod Strub for the MVP award, taking 22 points (4 first place votes) to Strub’s 19 (2 first place votes). Fall River’s Craig Wilson also finished tied for third with Chicago’s Ernie Hernandez, each taking one first place vote. In the MRA race, it was Rios over Toribio Fontañez of Long Beach, 34 points to 27. Rios took five first place votes while Fontañez took the other three. Somewhat curiously, Strub managed to receive a third place vote in the MRA race (despite going 1-for-73 on the season).

It was Rod Strub and Jerry Simms taking Cy Young honors, with Strub missing unanimity by one vote (on a ballot he was completely left off) while Simms took six first place votes. In The Kid League, Steve Johnson finished second and Ken Ensminger finished third, each taking a first place vote. Strub finished ahead of Reggie Blizzard, who was a unanimous second place choice—except that he too was left off the ballot Strub was left off. Ken Bollaert and Ernie Hernandez tied for third in the SSL.

Despite the fact that Brent Bakin of Rhode Island took 5 of the 8 Rookie of the Year votes (and was the only player with more than one), he narrowly defeated Brooklyn’s Rigoberto Muñoz for the award, 28-24. Carolina’s Neil Tomaszewski finished a distant third (and collected a first place vote along with Rhode Island’s Oro DeSalvo). In the SSL, Cristian Martinez (then of Denton, now with Vancouver) won the award 34-14 over New York’s Terri Conquer. Fall River’s Willie Gratton finished a point behind Conquer.

Finally, in the Executive of the Year voting, Brooklyn’s Max R prevented a Darowski sweep of the award, beating Mike Darowski of the Rats by two points. Each took four first place votes and were named on all eight ballots. The difference was the Max getting three seconds to Darowski’s two. Adam Darowski of Fall River took the award unanimously in the SSL with Knuckleball Lover of Nagano taking five second place votes and Darren Bertini of Chicago taking three.

See the entire voting results at this Google Spreadsheet.

Class of 2023: Hall of Fame Welcomes Juan Hernandez

The TWML Hall of Fame Class of 2023 invites one more new member today. Longtime Rhode Island Rat Juan Hernandez received just enough votes (11 of 14) to gain induction with 79%. Hernandez, who owned a career slash line of .273/.357/.479 (.836 OPS), clubbed exactly 400 home runs in his career while driving in 1427 runs. He also drew over 1000 walks. Hernandez joines Chipper Jones, Eric Chavez, La-Vel Payne, Adrian Beltre, Troy Glaus, Scott Rolen, and Dave Hernandez as Hall of Fame third basemen.

Vida Williams and Carlos Carraway, who both finished with 69% of the vote in 2022, had strong showings. Williams increased his percentage to 71% (10 votes) while Carraway took a dip to 64% (9 votes). John Rocker, who worked his way back to the ballot with 50% of the vote via write-ins last season, upped his percentage to 57% (8 votes). The last player to remain on the ballot is Monte Brown (7 votes, 50%), who will return to the ballot for a third time. Among the remaining names on the ballot, only Chico Claytor managed more than 25% of the vote (4 votes, 29%).

Complete Voting:

Player Votes Percentage
Juan Hernandez 11 78.6
Vida Williams 10 71.4
Carlos Carraway 9 64.3
John Rocker 8 57.1
Monte Brown 7 50.0
Chico Claytor 4 28.6
Billy Robinson 3 21.4
Darryl Kreutzer 2 14.3
Roy Maughan 2 14.3
Isidro Hopkins 2 14.3
Edgar Martinez (write-in) 2 14.3
Ron Offutt 1 7.1
Hal Rodriguez 1 7.1
Jesse Bob (write-in) 1 7.1
Mike Hampton (write-in) 1 7.1
Kevin Tolar (write-in) 1 7.1
Johnny Damon (write-in) 1 7.1
Charlie Herd 0 0.0
Tim Haynes 0 0.0
Tommy Pepper 0 0.0

2023 Hall of Fame Ballot

It’s that time of year again! Here are the 2023 Hall of Fame candidates:

* denotes returning candidate

Hitters

Name Pos G AB H 2B 3B HR RBI R BB K SB CS AVG OBP SLG OPS
Hernandez, Juan 3B 2293 8082 2210 372 45 400 1427 1265 1048 1817 39 9 .273 .357 .479 .836
Carraway, Carlos * CF 2516 9311 2590 448 87 445 1542 1384 554 2165 421 219 .278 .319 .488 .807
Robinson, Billy 3B 1959 7068 1732 328 42 485 1227 1019 658 1583 41 30 .245 .309 .509 .818
Rodriguez, Hal CF 1963 6655 1963 461 30 111 714 1069 998 1564 288 166 .292 .384 .420 .804
Herd, Charlie 2B 1829 6756 1832 278 18 330 974 955 597 1649 207 73 .271 .330 .464 .794
Offutt, Ron RF 1782 6241 1719 319 47 240 859 834 569 1392 18 15 .275 .336 .457 .793
Hopkins, Isidro SS 2061 7273 2039 357 46 213 874 1007 703 1351 182 149 .280 .344 .430 .774
Haynes, Tim LF 1749 6221 1498 302 25 357 956 858 354 1251 90 77 .241 .282 .470 .752
Kreutzer, Darryl SS 2677 9800 2635 470 17 328 1264 1180 892 2681 60 36 .269 .330 .421 .751
Pepper, Tommy CF 2016 7157 1865 309 10 204 781 978 750 1661 296 267 .261 .331 .392 .723

Pitchers

Name G W L SV CG SHO IP ER BB K ERA
Rocker, John * 794 81 40 111 0 0 1049.1 320 531 1396 2.74
Brown, Monte * 1174 100 77 231 0 0 1479.2 513 305 1325 3.12
Maughan, Roy 873 66 64 364 0 0 959.2 354 309 904 3.32
Claytor, Chico 1061 69 84 381 0 0 1174.2 460 389 1341 3.52
Williams, Vida * 593 223 191 0 59 19 3826.2 1514 863 2507 3.56

Award Winners

The following players earned a major award in their careers:

Carlos Carraway
2006 SSL ROY
2011 40/40

Juan Hernandez
2008 TKL ROY
2018 SSLCS MVP

Billy Robinson
2016 TKL MRA

Ron Offutt
2011 SSL ROY

Charlie Herd
2014 WS MVP

Season-by-Season Stats

Want to see the yearly stats? Check ‘em out.

Compare to the Current HOFers

Remember, I have a sortable list of the current Hall of Famers. Use it to see where these guys stand.

Email Adam, not KL

Send your votes to adarowski@gmail.com. Thanks!

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