10 Reasons Why Bernie Williams is a Baseball Hall of Fame Candidate

Bernie Williams was the New York Yankees starting CF for over a dozen years. I'll fully admit here that I am a big time Yankees fan, and was a big time Bernie Williams fan when he played for us. In my opinion, Bernie Williams clearly deserves consideration for the Baseball Hall Hall of Fame.

                                                            (Photo by Jeff Kern)

        

Bernie Williams was eligible for the hall of fame for the first time in 2012, and he received 55 votes, good for 9.6% of the vote. A player must get 5% of the vote each year to remain on the ballot for the next season. So at least enough baseball writers agreed that Bernie deserved hall of fame consideration to keep him his name on the ballot for two years.

I'm not saying here that Bernie Williams is a lock for the Baseball Hall of Fame or anything. Just that Bernie was more than good enough a player in his career to be considered a solid candidate for the hall of fame. 

Too many people just dismiss Bernie from hall of fame talk. As someone who watched him play almost every game, Bernie Williams was a too good a baseball player to just be dismissed from hall of fame consideration.

10 Reasons Why Bernie Williams is a Baseball Hall of Fame Candidate

1. Bernie Williams scored 100 or more runs eight times in his career. He had over 100 RBI's five times.

2. Bernie Williams led the American League in batting average in 1998 at .339.

3. Bernie Williams had a career OBP of .381. Bernie was one of the best run scorers of his generation.

4. Bernie Williams led the American League in intentional walks in 1999 with 17. Leading the league in intentional walks shows how much respect opposing managers had for Bernie Williams ability to hit in the clutch.

5. Bernie Williams won four consecutive Gold Gloves from 1997 to 2000. He lost his mobility as he aged, but for awhile there, Bernie could run down just about anything hit near him. Bernie was an all-star five times in his career.

6. Bernie Williams was the starting CF on four World Series Championship teams in 1996, and 1998-2000. Any starting CF on four World Series winning teams deserves Baseball Hall of Fame consideration. The Yankees made it to six World Series with Bernie Williams as the starting CF.

7. Bernie Williams was a great hitter in the playoffs. In 41 American League Championship Series games, Bernie hit .321, had an OBP of .413, a SLG of .549. In 162 official ALCS at-bats, Bernie hit nine home runs, had 33 RBI's and scored 31 runs.

Bernie was the MVP of the 1996 ALCS, when he hit two home runs and had six RBI's and six runs scored in just 19 at-bats. Bernie Williams hit two walk-off home runs in ALCS games.

8. Bernie Williams scored a run once every 17.4% of the time he had an official at-bat. That is 22% above the average rate that players scored runs at in the American League (.143) over Bernie Williams career (1991-2006).

9. Bernie Williams scored more runs per at-bat in his career than Richie Ashburn (15.8%), Max Carey (16.5%), Kirby Puckett (14.8%), Edd Roush (14.9%), and Lloyd Waner (15.5%) did in their careers. Those five CF's are in the Baseball Hall of Fame.

10. Bernie Williams got a ton of clutch hits in his career. Just ask New York Yankees radio announcer John Sterling how many times he had to make his Burn Baby Bernie Williams call after Bernie got a clutch hit or home run.