Baseball

31 min read

The Golden Hall of Fame: MLB’s All-Time Top-100

Overtime Heroics Editorial

861 days ago

Earlier this year, we revealed MLB’s all-time top 100 baseball players in MLB history with the Golden Hall of Fame. With the new season in full swing, now is as good a time as any to provide the full list in one place, complete with breakdowns by teams, eras, home nations, regions, and states.

Golden Hall of Fame Vs. Hall of Fame

Four critical differences make the Golden Hall of Fame a project distinct from the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown.

Lineups

The Cooperstown Hall of Fame considers candidates without respect to their position. Wide disparities have resulted, with only 17 third basemen being inducted compared to 26 shortstops and 83 pitchers.

The Golden Hall of Fame attempts to mirror the game itself by imagining the best starting lineups possible. Players were grouped by their primary position, and voters cast their ballots accordingly. Ten such starting lineups were created. A bench of ten additional players, regardless of position, supplemented those lineups to arrive at an even 100.

Fans

The Cooperstown Hall of Fame voters are a closed society. Only members of the Baseball Writers Association of America and a handful of selected veterans and baseball long-timers have a vote.

The Golden Hall of Fame recognizes that baseball is more than this, and fans deserve a voice in the process of naming the best of all time. In a series of polls on social media over several months, thousands of fans cast their votes. These were collected to create the People’s Ballot, cast alongside those of Overtime Heroics writers.

Static versus Evolving

The Cooperstown Hall of Fame is a fixed entity. Players are inducted, and decisions are irreversible. Sometimes mistakes are made. Players get just ten years for consideration on the writers ballot and then occasionally another look by a select committee. This process lends itself to some recurring criticisms of the Hall of Fame.

The Golden Hall of Fame is not static. By design, voters will cast ballots every decade. This method provides newer players an opportunity to be included, gives skipped-over players from the previous edition a new chance, and allows for mistakes to be rectified. Voters can use new statistical methods that might be developed in the interim, as well as older analyses reapplied.

Size

The Cooperstown Hall of Fame does not have a fixed size and is potentially limitless in membership. There are certainly positive aspects to this arrangement, as there are many great players who help to tell the story of baseball. The drawback is that sometimes the truly greatest are lost in the shuffle. Inductees currently number at 365, approximately 1.5 percent of big leaguers are in the Hall of Fame.

The Golden Hall of Fame is intended to serve as a supplement to the Hall of Fame, with the 100 greatest players highlighted via ten starting lineups and bench to capture those positions with a plethora of stars. Only the elite 0.4 percent will be honored.

The Golden Hall of Fame Members

Now, in one place for the first time, presenting the Golden Hall of Fame First Edition in its entirety. You can click on each team to read more about the lineups.

Golden Hall: First Team
Golden Hall: Second Team
Golden Hall: Third Team
Golden Hall: Fourth Team
Golden Hall: Fifth Team
Golden Hall: Sixth Team
Golden Hall: Seventh Team
Golden Hall: Eighth Team
Golden Hall: Ninth Team
Golden Hall: Tenth Team
Golden Hall: The Bench

First Team

Second Team

Third Team

Fourth Team

Fifth Team

Sixth Team

Seventh Team

Eighth Team

Ninth Team

Tenth Team

The Bench

How closely did you pay attention? Try this quiz to see if you can name all the Golden Hallers.

Teams Breakdown

Thirty-four teams are represented in the Golden Hall of Fame. Players are assigned based on the team for which they played more games than any other.

Team	Players
Yankees	10
Braves	6
SF/NY Giants	6
Pirates	6
Red Sox	6
Cardinals	5
Reds	5
Tigers	5
Athletics	4
Cubs	4
Dodgers	4
Indians	4
Mariners	4
White Sox	3
Angels	2
Astros	2
Brewers	2
Grays	2
Mets	2
Orioles	2
Rangers	2
Twins	2
ABCs	1
Blue Jays	1
Cotton Farmers	1
Expos	1
Tokyo Giants	1
Monarchs	1
Padres	1
Peaches	1
Phillies	1
Royals	1
Senators	1
Spiders	1

Eras Breakdown

Using Bill James’s eras but with perhaps more refined names, here is the Golden Hall of Fame breakdown with players assigned to the era in which they played more games than any other.

Era	Years	Players
Pioneer	1871-1892	1
Spit Ball	1893-1919	9
Gibson-Ruth	1920-1946	16
Postwar	1947-1968	23
Astroturf	1969-1992	23
Cathedral	1993-2021	28

Nations Breakdown

Astute readers and amateur accountants will notice that the total here is greater than 100. This is because some players held dual citizenship even in their earliest playing days and the double counting of Puerto Ricans as both a distinct nation and as part of the American total.

Nationality	Players
American	88
Dominican	6
Puerto Rican	4
Japanese	2
Panamanian	2
Venezuelan	1
Taiwanese	1
Cuban	1
Curacaoan	1

Regions Breakdown

Broken down by the larger geographic areas where players spent a majority of their youth.

Region	Players
West	23
Northeast	22
South	20
Midwest	19
Caribbean	14
Asia	2

States/Provinces/Prefectures Breakdown

Players are assigned to their country’s primary administrative subdivision (states, provinces, prefectures) based on where they spent most of their youth and not necessarily their birthplace. Bill Dickey, for example, was born in Louisiana but spent his childhood and adolescence in Arkansas. Dickey is included in the Natural State total and not the Pelican State’s.

State/Province/Prefecture	Players
Aichi	1
Alabama	5
Aragua	1
Arkansas	2
California	19
Colon	1
Connecticut	1
Curacao	1
Florida	3
Georgia	3
Idaho	1
Illinois	1
Indiana	1
Iowa	1
Kansas	1
Louisiana	1
Maryland	4
Matanzas	1
Michigan	1
Minnesota	1
Missouri	1
National District	4
Nebraska	1
Nevada	1
New Hampshire	1
New Jersey	1
New York	7
North Carolina	1
Ohio	7
Oklahoma	3
Pennsylvania	7
Puerto Rico	4
Rhode Island	1
San Pedro de Macoris	1
South Carolina	1
Texas	4
Tokyo	1
Washington	2
West Panama	1
Wisconsin	1

So if you are looking to find or raise a Golden Hall of Fame ballplayer, history recommends that you start with the Golden State.

2030 Golden Hall of Fame Edition

The Golden Hall of Fame Second Edition voting will take place in 2030. Fans will once again have a ballot, and writers will likely be joined by Golden Hall and Hall of Fame players in being offered a vote.

So stay tuned, and let the debate over the top 100 continue!

Follow me on Twitter at @GoldenHalloFame for more of my content. Don’t forget to check out our baseball podcast, Cheap Seat Chatter! We’ll see ya there!

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Main image credit Embed from Getty Images