On Tuesday it was announced that (brief) former Dodger Andruw Jones had been elected to baseball’s prestigious Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York – the single greatest honor a former MLB player or executive can receive in our National Pastime.
Within minutes of the formal announcement by Hall of Fame President (and former Dodgers employee) Josh Rawitch came an immediate flood of posts on social media, a good many of which cannot be repeated for obvious reasons.
Allow me to start by saying that the (now) 48-year-old Willemstad, Curacao native is absolutely worthy of this enormous honor – except for the 75 games in which he appeared as a member of the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2008. Prior to that dismal season, Jones showed up for Spring Training grossly overweight and clearly out of shape for a (then) 31-year-old professional baseball player.
As Dodgers fans well know, the franchise created it’s Ring of Honor on June 4, 1972, with Dodger greats and Hall of Famers Roy Campanella, Sandy Koufax, and Jackie Robinson as their inaugural honorees. As Dodgers fans also well know, former Dodgers players, managers, executives, and radio personalities achieving baseball immortality in Cooperstown also have their respective uniform numbers (or names) added to Dodger Stadium’s Ring of Honor.
personalities in Dodger Stadium’s Ring of Honor. (Blake Williams)
In his 75 games while wearing Dodgers uniform number 25 (which currently belongs to Dodgers utility infielder/outfielder Tommy Edman), Jones slashed a dismal .158 / .256 / .247 / .505, with 21 singles, eight doubles, one triple, and three home runs while driving in only 14 runs and scoring only 21. Here’s the kicker, he also struck out in 76 of his 207 official at-bats while wearing Dodger Blue, which equates to striking out 36.7149758% of the time.
The burning question is, although Andruw Jones meets the Dodgers criterion of having played for the Dodgers and is now a Hall of Famer, is he deserving of having his uniform number 25 added to Dodger Stadium’s prestigious Ring of Honor?
(LA Dodgers)
Fire away.
Play Ball!
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