Alan Trammell’s longtime double-play partner won’t be joining him in Cooperstown anytime soon.
Lou Whitaker, the Tigers’ longtime second baseman whose career stats stack up against some of the best players of his generation, was not included on the latest veterans committee ballot for the Baseball Hall of Fame.
The Hall of Fame released its Contemporary Baseball Era player ballot Monday, and it includes Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Carlos Delgado, Jeff Kent, Don Mattingly, Dale Murphy, ex-Tiger Gary Sheffield and Fernando Valenzuela.
The eight candidates were selected by an overview committee of 11 baseball historians; they considered players who made their biggest impact on the game post-1980.
A 16-member board, set to be approved by the Hall of Fame, will meet later this year to review and vote on the candidates. Any players elected will be announced at Major League Baseball’s Winter Meetings in Orlando on Dec. 7.
Whitaker, 68, has been considered by the Contemporary Baseball Era committee once before, in 2019 for the 2020 Hall of Fame class, but he received just six votes, when 12 was needed for induction. Ted Simmons, a Southfield native and catcher for the Milwaukee Brewers, St. Louis Cardinals and Atlanta Braves, was elected by the committee that year.
On that ballot, Simmons received 13 votes, Dwight Evans received eight, Dave Parker (eventually inducted in 2025) received seven, and Whitaker and Steve Garvey received six.
After Whitaker came up short in December 2019, the Tigers made the rare (and popular) decision to retire his No. 1. The Tigers, traditionally, have mostly reserved that honor to players who’ve been elected to the Hall of Fame. Whitaker’s number was formally retired in 2022, after delays from the COVID pandemic.
Whitaker was not on the ballot, then examined by the Modern Era Committee, when Tigers greats Alan Trammell and Jack Morris were elected together in December 2017, for 2018 induction.
Whitaker appeared on the writers’ ballot just one time, in 2001, when he received just 2.9% of the vote, when 5% was necessary to stay on the ballot for future consideration. It’s considered a great gaffe by the Hall-of-Fame voters. He proved a victim of a stacked ballot that featured 10 men who would eventually make the Hall of Fame.
Whitaker played his entire major-league career with the Tigers, from 1977-95, winning a World Series in 1984. He was a five-time All-Star, four-time Silver Slugger and three-time Gold Glove winner. He was the American League’s rookie of the year in 1978, and he finished with 2,369 hits, 244 home runs and 143 stolen bases.
His career WAR, a player-value metric calculated by Baseball-Reference.com, was 75.1, higher than most players who’ve made the Hall of Fame, including even Trammell (70.1), who has publicly lobbied for Whitaker’s election for years, as well as Derek Jeter (71.3) and fellow second basemen Ryne Sandberg (68.0), Roberto Alomar (67.0) and Craig Biggio (65.5). Kent, a second baseman who made this year’s ballot, has a career WAR of 55.4.
Murphy (46.5 WAR) and Mattingly (42.4) are on a veterans committee ballot for a fourth time. Sheffield, Delgado and Valenzuela are on a veterans committee ballot for the first time. Whitaker has a higher career WAR than those five.
Bonds and Clemens, who have slam-dunk Hall-of-Fame resumes but fell of the writers’ ballot because of suspicions of steroid use, are being considered by a veterans committee for the second time. They each received fewer than four of the 16 votes necessary for election on the 2022 ballot, ahead of the 2023 induction ceremony.
Whitaker still can be considered for future committee ballots, the earliest now in 2028, for the Class of 2029.
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