Ted Simmons, U of M Graduate, inducted into MLB Hall of Fame
There was a very short thread posted yesterday by Rob F on the MLB Hall of Fame in general, but in my catching up on the ceremony, I found out some cool U of M info on Ted Simmons that I think deserves highlighting.
I knew he was from metro Detroit (e.g., went to Southfield High) and was supposed to attend & play baseball at U of M in 1967, but he was drafted by the Cardinals so he never played college ball and just briefly attended classes in Ann Arbor before starting his MLB career. I thought that's where his time with U of M ended.
Turns out, he stuck with it and over the next 30 years (mostly in the 1990s, attending in-person classes), eventually graduated from the University of Michigan with a BA in Sports Management in 1996.
https://www.kines.umich.edu/news-events/student-profiles/ted-simmons
Half this ~4 minute video is about him going to U of M and how important it was to him. Really impressive guy, athletically and intellectually.
September 9th, 2021 at 11:18 AM ^
His similarity scores on Baseball Reference always put him in the non-existent SABR HOF - in late-20's prime, he was an OPS+ god. This is a much deserved award that wouldn't have been possible without modern metrics.
September 9th, 2021 at 2:48 PM ^
top 5 in hits and rbi in the 70s is pretty impressive, especially for a catcher.
September 9th, 2021 at 4:26 PM ^
Good era for two-way catchers - Carlton Fisk, Thurman Munson, Simmons, Gary Carter, Johnny Bench.
September 9th, 2021 at 11:21 AM ^
Thanks for the post. I didn't realize the UM connection. With Derek Jeter having attended Michigan as well, I wonder if there has ever been a Hall of Fame induction with two players having a connection to the same university?
September 9th, 2021 at 12:30 PM ^
2 Michigan men at the same time. Very cool.
September 9th, 2021 at 11:24 AM ^
Baseball HOF is a sham without Lou Whitaker as a member.
With that said, congrats to Mr. Simmons and the other inductees.
September 9th, 2021 at 11:34 AM ^
I agree.
Also Bill Freehan should be in the HOF as well. 11 out of 15 seasons an All Star. No time to check but I can’t imagine anyone with more All Star appearances not being in the HOF.
September 9th, 2021 at 12:01 PM ^
FWIW, Ted Simmons agrees completely. (And you're right about most All-Star games w/o being in HOF)
“For people who have waited for this and it’s never happened — take, for example Bill Freehan — it must have been very, very hard for him prior to his illness,” said Simmons “This guy had five or six Gold Gloves, he hit 200 home runs, he was second in the MVP, a world championship, 11 All-Star teams ... that makes it hard to wait.
“For what I’ve waited for — and it’s about to happen here — I’ll always be in a position to say it was worth the wait because I got in. But for Freehan, it wasn’t worth the wait for him — because it didn’t happen for him. And it’s really too bad because he was a great athlete, and he was a great catcher.
September 9th, 2021 at 12:16 PM ^
Technically, there are guys with more All Star appearances not in the Hall of Fame, but they're not in the Hall for other reasons(Rose, Bonds, Clemens). Freehan's 11 is the most for any player without separate baggage.
It will be interesting to see if Freehan gets a second look in a few years, between people taking another look at what he did due to his death, and the likelihood that Yadier Molina gets elected after he retires. Right now he's right about at the cutoff line of best eligible catcher not in the Hall, but if Yadi gets in, the case for Freehan becomes much stronger.
September 9th, 2021 at 1:56 PM ^
Don't forget that McGuire guy.
September 9th, 2021 at 2:53 PM ^
this is what pisses me off about the HOF. they began to realize their errors after the person has died. santo and buck o'neil are recent examples. they deserve to enjoy their moment!!!
September 9th, 2021 at 2:46 PM ^
yep, the 60s dampened his hitting #s. he was on the back end of his career when they lowered the mound in 1969, though he still put up some good #s. that made bench's #s dwarf freehan's by even more. so he doesn't get the credit he deserves.
September 9th, 2021 at 10:29 PM ^
Do you think it might have had to do with what happened when he managed Michigan baseball that is keeping him out?
September 9th, 2021 at 12:56 PM ^
This may be corrected by the Eras Committee (formerly the Veterans Committee) who considers players previously bypassed by the baseball writers association. Remember, it is the BBWA who votes for the players, not the hall of fame, and it can be argued that they often don't get it right, or carry personal or regional grudges (Joe DiMaggio did not garner the necessary 75% of the votes his first year on the ballot allegedly because he was a reluctant interviewee).
The Eras Committee is comprised of members of the hall of fame, among others, and 3/4 of the 16 members need to vote for the player. The committee focuses on players of a specific era and one can assume that players like Lou Whitaker and others have a decent shot of getting their just recognition.
Not that it is a factor, but the next several years of eligible players are somewhat light on the sure things, which may bring focus on the greats that have been overlooked.
September 9th, 2021 at 1:03 PM ^
This is a reply to FishGoBlue1 on Sweet Lou:
Ditto!
And ditto on the HoF group.
And reply to Go Blue Eyes on Freehan:
Ditto!
September 10th, 2021 at 3:41 AM ^
Along with Whitaker and Freehan, Mickey Lolich should be in the HOF.
September 9th, 2021 at 11:26 AM ^
"Really impressive guy - athletically and intellectually". Add this as one more description of a player you will never see on the RCMB.
But you are spot on, OP. Ted Simmons was a great player, a true professional and seemed to be a good dude. Catchers like him never seem to be remembered - the damn position just wears down so many players.
Love it that he is getting this recognition. Even better that he is a Michigan Man - another example of the Leaders and Best. Thanks for posting - Go Blue!
September 9th, 2021 at 11:42 AM ^
He definitely is an interesting guy. If you want to go down a little bit of a Ted Simmons rabbit hole, here is an article from Sports Illustrated in 1978; I read it when it was posted on Twitter or something by someone when he was elected to the HOF in 2020.
The dude is an All-Star baseball player and decides that's not enough, especially in terms of intellectual pursuits, so he gets appointed to the St. Louis Art Museum's board of trustees!
"I was wild and carefree when I started going to school at Michigan," he recalls. "I was the jock stereotype, interested in only one thing—playing baseball. You could have showed me a Cezanne then, and I would have said, 'That's nice.' Maryanne changed all that." The Simmonses had known each other in high school, but it was not until they were students together at Michigan that he realized Maryanne was "the girl I wanted to marry." She was a fine arts major, whose concerns obviously extended beyond the baseball diamond. "Her interests rubbed off on me," Simmons says. "I guess you could say I opened the door for him," she agrees, "but now I seem to be riding on his coattails."
September 9th, 2021 at 9:19 PM ^
Interesting, indeed. Says here that he and his then-future wife once hitchhiked with Bob Seger:
https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/bull-pennings-rock-and-roll----and-baseball----never-forgets/
September 9th, 2021 at 11:54 AM ^
Ted Simmons' HOF induction speech is worth a few minutes of time:
https://www.mlb.com/news/ted-simmons-inducted-into-hall-of-fame
September 9th, 2021 at 11:56 AM ^
I agree, it's definitely worth a listen. IMO, It was the best of the 4 speeches yesterday.
September 9th, 2021 at 11:55 AM ^
Nice find, Rob P! I didn't know about Simmons returning to U of M for his degree until your post. And I agree, Simmons is intellectually very impressive---during yesterday's HOF broadcast one of the TV guys referred to him as "a true renaissance man" in tribute to his many interests.
Being that Simmons was a '67 grad of Southfield High School, I wonder if he returned and was in attendance for this famous event:
https://www.hourdetroit.com/the-way-it-was-articles/the-way-it-was-the-who-1967/
September 9th, 2021 at 12:19 PM ^
It's funny how our memories work. I always think of him as a Brewer and Hernandez as a Met, but Ted and Keith were both absolute beasts in St Louis. They both gave great speeches at their Cardinals Hall of Fame ceremonies. And the White Rat is still kicking!
September 9th, 2021 at 9:12 PM ^
Yes, but for me it's the opposite. As a kid growing up in St. Louis, Ted Simmons was the only catcher I knew until Darrell Porter came along. He lived 5 minutes from us. And Keith Hernandez was a beast at 1B, a Gold Glover, and man, could he hit for average. (he hit .344 in 1979)
Being at Games 6 and 7 in '82 vs the Brewers were two of my greatest sports memories ever.
September 9th, 2021 at 1:29 PM ^
Just an aside
Ted was the star quarterback for the Southfield High School Bluejays.
The Southfield baseball field is named after him
September 9th, 2021 at 1:45 PM ^
I was on two teams that won district titles on that field back in the olden days of the late 80s. The infield was in rough shape back then.
September 9th, 2021 at 2:53 PM ^
Too much jackhammering, maybe?
I'll show myself out...
September 9th, 2021 at 3:00 PM ^
It's in much better shape now, probably thanks to them putting up a sign for Ted Simmons Field.
September 9th, 2021 at 7:52 PM ^
Ted Simmons hit a homer to the gas station across 10 Mile as a senior in HS. Only other person known to do so at that field is Kourtney Thomspon--incidentally also a UM baseball player in mid-80's.
September 9th, 2021 at 1:55 PM ^
His son was on the UM baseball team and lived in my hall my freshman year. One day we were sitting in the TV lounge and Ted Sr walked in. Me, being a baseball fanboy, was completely dumbstruck. I was like "that's TED SIMMONS" Everybody else was like, big deal that's his dad.... Anyway, I met Ted once.
September 9th, 2021 at 2:04 PM ^
Not related to the thread, but before we moved to Saline when I was 13, we lived in Northville - five doors away from Mike Henneman, in fact. I still remember being one of maybe six or seven people at a block party who knew who he was - there were not a lot of sports people around us, oddly enough. He was a nice enough guy though, even worked one of the grills for a bit.
September 9th, 2021 at 2:29 PM ^
Henneman had quite the butt chin.
September 9th, 2021 at 2:30 PM ^
The Hall of Fame is incomplete without Lou Whitaker, Bill Freehan, and Mickey Lolich.
September 9th, 2021 at 3:53 PM ^
One of the rules that they should drop or at least modify is this one:
"Candidates eligible if named on 5% of ballots cast in preceding election."
https://baseballhall.org/hall-of-famers/rules/voting-rules-history
That rule was modified in the early 80's to allow for players to stay on the ballot until they fell below 5% of cast ballots twice. A few years later it resumed being: below 5% once = off the ballot for good. Ted Simmons, as deserving as he is of the HOF, was cast aside after one ballot because in his first shot at election, Simmons only showed up on 3.9% of the ballots.
Whitaker and Freehan were also victims of that rule. I may be wrong, but I think Lolich stayed on the ballot for at least a few years.
I'd be strongly in favor of a pre-screening committee to eliminate the names of those who are eligible but have absolutely zero chance of ever being elected (the Tom Brookens/Brandon Inge/Brad Ausmus level guys who were eligible only due to longevity of service, solid but replaceable players) in favor of a minimum of 2 or even 3 years on the ballot, to prevent situations where there's an overload of stars who block the borderline guys.
Freehan only got a couple of votes largely because, in his first year of eligibility, the ballot was jam- packed with players who eventually made the HOF (and there's a limit per ballot of 10 players).
September 9th, 2021 at 4:10 PM ^
Here's the list of future HOF'ers and other baseball stars on that one ballot Freehan was listed and forever de-listed due to the 5% rule:
"...Freehan’s fate was even worse. His only year on the ballot was in 1982, and he received just 0.5 percent of the vote—two measly votes. For reference, Hank Aaron and Frank Robinson were elected on the first ballot that year. That year’s ballot also included (in order of votes) Juan Marichal, Harmon Killebrew, Hoyt Wilhelm, Don Drysdale, Luis Aparicio, Jim Bunning, Red Schoendienst, Nellie Fox, Richie Ashburn, Billy Williams, Orlando Cepeda, and Bill Mazeroski. All would eventually be elected.
"Yet Freehan also finished behind non-Hall of Famers Maury Wills, Roger Maris, Tony Oliva (though he has come close), Harvey Kuenn, Lew Burdette, Frank Howard, Don Larsen, Thurman Munson, Roy Face, Vada Pinson, Tommy Davis, Dave McNally, Rico Petrocelli and Lindy McDaniel."
--------------------
That's one helluva list. As much as I admittedly have a pro-Tigers bias, even I would have skipped over voting for Freehan that year unless I consciously was thinking one thing and one thing only: keeping Freehan's name on the ballot. A mere 2 voters did so, and away went his chances.
September 9th, 2021 at 4:20 PM ^
I hadn't realized Simmons went back and got his degree. That would've been during the Freehan years, so I assume he hung out with Freehan some, although Simmons had a pretty active post-playing career.
September 9th, 2021 at 9:22 PM ^
Good interview with Ted Simmons at the HOF:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7snQPoBYCo
September 9th, 2021 at 9:25 PM ^
I remember Simmons as DANGEROUS hitter. Selective, smart, and absolutely crushed baseballs. Glad he's in.
September 9th, 2021 at 10:31 PM ^
Remembered him as being the guest of the Baseball Bunch. He could sign his name with both hands the exact same way.
September 9th, 2021 at 11:55 PM ^
I remember him being the favorite player of the main character in the children's book Jelly Belly.