Lefty should not be left out of the Hall of Fame

He began his professional baseball career way back in 1917, but it was 1956 and Vancouver Mounties' manager Frank "Lefty" O'Doul thought he still had something left and sent himself up to pinch-hit at age 59.

This was not the majors, mind you. O'Doul was a Triple A icon in the Pacific Coast League, mostly with the San Francisco Seals. All O'Doul proved that day 50 years ago was that it would be his last official at-bat. He lined the ball between the outfielders in right and somehow struggled to third. A triple in Triple A at age 59. How's that for hitting?

Look up baseball's four all-time top hitters in the 20th Century and you come up with: 1. Ty Cobb, .367; 2. Rogers Hornsby, .358; 3. Joe Jackson, .356; 4. Frank "Lefty" O'Doul, .349. Now, we all know why "Shoeless" Joe Jackson isn't in the Hall of Fame. But what I've always found difficult to understand is the exclusion of O'Doul, known as the father of baseball in Japan. The guy who named the Tokyo team the Giants way back in 1933. O'Doul made his first trip to Japan in 1931 and started making annual trips back after that. He showed the Japanese how to organize their leagues with the same set-up as our own majors. And the Tokyo Giants became the Giants because O'Doul named them after his own New York Giants, with whom he was playing at the time.

So, why isn't O'Doul in the Hall of Fame? The main knock on him seems to be that his career was too short. Yeah, too short. Here's the guy who started playing in 1917 and hit a triple 39 years later.

But 11 years in the majors. Hmm. Let's see now. Max Carey played 10 years, Earle Combs played 11, Kirby Puckett played 11, Jackie Robinson played 10 as did Ross Youngs and Addie Joss pitched just 9 seasons. They are all in the Hall of Fame.

O'Doul had as great a career in the PCL as he did in the majors. Many players often spent a great many years on the West Coast where the pay was good, the baseball was very good, the caliber of play just short of the majors and the weather was even better. There is an attraction for April and September games in Los Angeles or San Diego that doesn't exist in Detroit or Cleveland.

If you follow the career of O'Doul, you see a little bit of Roy Hobbs, except nobody shot Lefty.

In 1921, at age 24, O'Doul won 25 games for San Francisco and was purchased by the Yankees, who seldom used him and sold him to the Red Sox the next year. Same story, second verse. He had an arm injury, which would have ended the career of many a player. But like Babe Ruth, Stan Musial, Ted Williams, and others, he could also swing a bat. Yet he lost more major league time learning to be an outfielder at age 27 with Salt Lake City in the PCL. You might think 17 triples, 191 RBIs and a .375 average in 1925 would earn him a trip to the bigs. Nope!

Finally, in 1928 the Giants purchased his contract and sold him to the Phillies after a year where he batted .398 and won the batting championship. He had 254 hits and had he had 255, O'Doul, who came the closest to missing .400, would have had that magic number.

In 1932 with Brooklyn, O'Doul hit .368 and won his second hitting championship. In all, O'Doul hit over .300 seven times.

In the minors, mostly with PCL teams and usually San Francisco, O'Doul collected 1,146 hits and batted .352. That's .349 in the majors and .352 in Triple A. Pretty consistent, if you ask me. Overall, it's .351. I know numbers are boring, but those numbers are vital in support of my contention.

Finally, in his book "Whatever Happened to the Hall of Fame?" author Bill James described the O'Doul case thusly:

"Earned his way to the majors as a pitcher.

"Stopped by an arm injury, went back to the Pacific Coast League and had a number of sensational years in the salt air.

"Got to the majors late, hit .349 in the major leagues, winning two batting titles with averages of .398 and .368.

"Was one of the founding fathers of professional baseball in Japan.

"Managed in the Pacific Coast League for more than 20 years after his career.

"Was a big influence on the California players from 1935 to 1960 -- the DiMaggios, Bobby Doerr, countless others.

"Popular personality and raconteur, established a restaurant which still bears his name and thrives in downtown San Francisco."

All I can say for certain is there are players in the Hall of Fame who could not have carried O'Doul's bat. It's too late for Lefty to know about it as he died in 1969, but baseball ought to have room in the Hall of Fame for its fourth best hitter of all-time.