A .195 batting average with no home runs and seven RBI in a five-year career with the Oakland A’s are hardly Hall of Fame statistics.
But add on a 33-year career as a manager (10 with Oakland), 2728 wins, six league pennants, and three World Series titles and that was impressive enough to get former A’s manager Tony LaRussa into Cooperstown in 2014.
Five Hall of Famers – Al Kaline, Tom Seaver, Lou Brock, Bob Gibson, and Whitey Ford – have passed away in 2020. They came from a bygone era – before free agency was the norm – where a player began and ended his career with one team.