Former MLB star pleads with Hall of Fame voters to reconsider candidacy: ‘I didn’t get credit for what I did’

The National Baseball Hall of Fame The Class of 2025 has been announced, as CC Sabathia, Ichiro Suzuki and Billy Wagner will head to Cooperstown to be enshrined forever with the greats of the game.

While the baseball world celebrates these three incredible players, there are some who have real cases for the Hall of Fame who have seen another year go by without a chance to make the Hall.

One of them is Kenny Lofton, a six-time All-Star and four-time Gold Glover who spent 17 seasons in the MLB amassing 2,428 hits and 68.4 WAR in 2,103 games.

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Now, when a day like Tuesday comes, when the Hall of Fame ballots are counted and the results come in, Lofton isn’t hit wrong. He knows that after not securing at least 5% of the vote in 2013, he no longer has the right to vote regularly.

But there’s no doubt that Lofton still feels hurt that he didn’t get what he believes is a fair chance to be in Cooperstown.

“I didn’t get credit for what I did. It’s kind of sad. I still don’t get credit,” Lofton told Fox News Digital while discussing his advisory role with Sluggball, a new approach to the game of baseball.

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“I can only say all the time that, from my era and my time, I did what I was supposed to do. I thought at the time that it was very important for me to do my job as a teammate, and that was Now you look at how I do my job and being a team player it kind of hurt me, instead of being selfish like the other guys, three and four forwards, it was all about them eating. I served and they ate but I didn’t get credit to them served food.”

Lofton’s first year on the Hall of Fame ballot was perhaps one of the most voted of all time, even though there were no living inductees for the first time since 1965. There were 10 players, including Craig Biggio, Jeff Bagwell, Mike Piazza and Edgar Martinez, who ended up getting 75% of the votes needed to get in, but guys like Lofton and Bernie Williams were left off the ballot next year because they need at least 5% to get through. votes.

And as Lofton mentioned, the era of baseball he played in, infamously known as the Steroid Era, had players like Barry Bonds (36.2%), Mark McGwire (16.9%), Sammy Sosa (12.5%) and Rafael Palmeiro (8.8%) also on the ballot with him.

Ichiro also played in that era, entering the MLB at the late age of 27 in 2001 and still hitting 3,089 times over 19 seasons. Only one Hall of Fame voter left him off the ballot despite, like Derek Jeter, making a very strong case for a unanimous vote.

Lofton likes that Ichiro got his due, and so does Tim Raines, whose 23-year career has seen the speedy outfielder hit for average rather than home runs. But he feels he is in the same conversation.

“That’s what hurts me to see this and to see Ichiro with an opportunity to show, OK, here’s some smaller guys who aren’t just about home runs can come into the game, and then compare my numbers to Ichiro, we’re not too far off,” Lofton explained .

On a related note, Wins Above Replacement (WAR) is a marker that many voters use to see if a player should be in the Hall of Fame. Ichiro had a 60.0 WAR, while Lofton was at 68.4 over his career.

And when you look at their career season averages side by side, Lofton was better in stolen bases (48 to 31), home runs (10 to 7), RBI (60 to 48) and runs (118 to 87). Ichiro beats Lofton in batting average (.311 to .299), but only by two in hits (189 to 187).

Then there’s Jay Jaffe’s “The Cooperstown Casebook,” which describes the JAWS metrics for determining who should and shouldn’t be in the Hall of Fame. JAWS is a player’s WAR averaged with their 7-year highest WAR.

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Lofton is 10th all-time for center fielders with a 55.9 JAWS rating. Every player above him is in the Hall of Fame except for Mike Trout (fifth), who is still playing, and Carlos Beltran (ninth), who remained on the ballot and just missed getting in this year with 70.3% of the vote.

Richie Ashburn, Andrew Dawson, Billy Hamilton, Larry Doby, Earl Averill, Max Carey and Kirby Puckett are all players with lower JAWS ratings who are in the hall.

Finally, Lofton’s ability to steal bases—he’s 15th all-time with 622 steals—made him a threat when he got on base. In fact, he is one of only nine players with 600 career steals and 600 extra-base hits, yet is the only one not in Cooperstown.

“All I’m asking people is to look at their numbers a little more,” Lofton said. “… That was all I wanted, because when you look at the stats and what people are saying, I have one of the highest WARs in history, especially for a middle infielder.”

If the numbers aren’t enough, Lofton talked about his peers reminiscing about their time in the league.

“I spoke with [Hall of Famer] Barry Larkin and he says, ‘When you played, Kenny, you were the best thing,'” Lofton said. you were in the outfield.’ It made me feel good for another player to say that about me.

“When David Justice said during the World Cup, ‘Kenny, our main thing was to keep you off the bases.’ He said, ‘We didn’t have a big meeting. We had a meeting that said keep that damn Kenny Lofton off the bases and we’re going to win this series.’ That made me feel good to hear things like that from the players you played with.”

There is still a way for Lofton to get into the Hall, as the Contemporary Committee votes in December 2025. But the ballot is only eight candidates, where 75% of the vote must also be tallied to get into the Hall.

Lofton already went through that in 2022 when the board elected Fred McGriff. McGriff finished his 19-year career with 493 homers and 52.6 WAR.

Again, Lofton isn’t knocking any of these players out for getting a Hall of Fame plaque. All he wants is the attention he feels he deserves.

Because it has gotten to the point where he wonders if his efforts were worth it.

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“Sometimes I look back on it like, ‘Dude, did I play the game the right way?'” Lofton asked. “People are getting all these accolades for what they’re doing now. I’m like, wait a minute, I guess what I did was nothing at this point looking at how they perceive the game and how they look at it. How Look, the leadoff hitter doesn’t means nothing I thought that’s what your guy was doing because he was helping the team so all these big guys get all these accolades for their runs but how would that happen if the guy didn’t get on base to get that RBI I? he didn’t get credit, that’s sad.

“All I want people to do is look at my numbers and compare them. And when they say you were the best during your era at your position or whatever, were you the best? At this point, they’re looking around that. I just want for the committee to look at it and say, ‘He’s the best at it.’

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