Bill Dahlen: Pre-Integration Era Veterans Committee Hall of Fame Candidate

Bill Dahlen is one of ten candidates eligible for the Pre-Integration Era Hall of Fame vote that will take place during December's Winter Meetings in Nashville.  The Pre-Integration Era Committee votes on candidates who made their biggest contributions to the game between 1871 and 1946.  The Committee is a 16-member panel made up of retired Hall of Famers, major league executives, and veteran media members.  Each member of the panel can vote for up to four of the ten candidates.  A candidate must carry 75% of the vote to be elected.

Bill Dahlen (1870-1950) 2,444G 2,461H 1,590R 84HR 1,234RBI .272BA .358OBP

Career (’91-’11) 70.9WAR 39.4WAA 110OPS+ 139Rfield

Dahlen '09 White Borders Sovereign

Bill Dahlen made his major league debut in 1891 for the Chicago Colts, helmed by player/manager Cap Anson.  Initially Anson split Dahlen between third base, shortstop, and left field.  Dahlen immediately made an impact and finished among the '91 league leaders in several categories including home runs, triples, and runs scored.  Dahlen backed up his impressive rookie season with an excellent sophomore campaign, finishing with a 5.9 WAR, good enough for 5th highest among position players.  In 1894, Dahlen set a major league record when he hit safely in 42 consecutive games.  After his hitting streak ended, Dahlen immediately started another hitting streak which lasted 28 games, giving him hits in an incredible stretch of 70 of 71 games.  However, Dahlen's impressive hitting streak is largely forgotten since "Wee" Willie Keeler would eclipse Dahlen's record three years later.

Dahlen had what was probably his best season in 1896, finishing in the top-5 in several offensive categories including runs scored, doubles, triples, home runs, and Position Player WAR.  In addition to his exploits with the bat, Dahlen, who had been moved permanently to short, was also making his mark with his glove and began putting up double-digit seasons in WAR fielding runs.  Dahlen's impressive '96 campaign also marked the sixth season in a row that the shortstop scored over 100 times.  However, despite Dahlen's superb work with both the bat and glove, Chicago was unable to contend for the NL Pennant and Dahlen was, at times, criticized for both his volatility toward umpires--which led to several poorly timed ejections--as well as his commitment to the team--as others felt his interests in gambling on horse racing diverted too much of his attention away from baseball.  Yet, in spite of Dahlen's troubles in Chicago, perennial Pennant contender Baltimore was very interested in the hot-tempered shortstop's services and prior to the 1899 season, Dahlen was traded to the Baltimore Orioles.

The Orioles had been the 1890's most dominant franchise, winning three straight NL championships from 1894 to 1896, followed by two runner-up finishes in 1897 and 1898.  However, Orioles owner Henry Von der Horst was not satisfied with dwindling attendance in Baltimore, so he bought into the Brooklyn Superbas franchise.  Before the '99 season began he transferred his best players, including Dahlen, from Baltimore to Brooklyn.  Also reassigned from Baltimore to Brooklyn were future Hall of Famers Willie Keeler, Hughie Jennings, and Joe Kelley.  Von der Horst's strategy worked and the Superbas took the '99 NL championship with a 101-win season.  Dahlen performed well in his first season with Brooklyn, finishing among the team's top position players with a 4.4 WAR, despite missing 27 games.  The following season proved less impressive for both Dahlen and his Superbas teammates, nevertheless, Brooklyn won their second straight NL crown.  Dahlen played for the Superbas for three more years and while his offensive numbers were never quite as strong as they were with Chicago, he was able to finish in the top-10 in NL Position Player WAR in both '02 and '03, due in large part to his increasingly strong work at short.  Dahlen helped Brooklyn stay competitive but the team failed to follow up its back-to-back NL titles and after the '03 season, Dahlen was traded across town to the New York Giants.

The '04 Giants were in their second year under fiery manager John McGraw and coming off a 2nd place finish.  The addition of Dahlen helped push the team to the next level and the Giants dominated the NL, winning 106 games and easily taking the division title.  Dahlen himself had an impressive season, finishing 3rd in NL Position Player WAR, 2nd in stolen bases, and leading the NL with 80 RBI.  Due to bad blood between McGraw and American League president Ban Johnson, the Giants chose not to play in the World Series against the AL champion Boston Americans.  New York and Dahlen followed up their excellent '04 season with an equally impressive '05 campaign.  Dahlen finished 6th in NL Position Player WAR while the Giants grabbed their second straight NL title with a 105-win season, faced the AL champion Philadelphia Athletics in the World Series and dominated Connie Mack's White Elephants, winning the best-of-seven Series in just five games.  Two years later, after a poor '07 season, Dahlen was shipped to the lowly Boston Doves.  Despite being the third oldest player in the NL, the 38-year old Dahlen rebounded with a fine season, matching a 1905 career high with 18 WAR fielding runs and finishing 6th in NL Position Player WAR.  The following season, old age finally seemed to get to the better of Dahlen, who played just 69 games for the Doves in what would be his final season as a full-time player as he opted to return to Brooklyn for 1910 as the club's manager.

Dahlen took the helm as manager for a franchise that had fallen on hard times since their 1899 and 1900 Championship days.  In fact, Brooklyn hadn't had a winning season since 1903 and had become accustomed to finishing in the bottom half of the eight-team NL.  Unfortunately, in Dahlen's four years as manager he was unable to change the franchise's fortunes as the team finished either 6th or 7th each year with sub-.500 winning percentages of between .379 and .436.  After the 1913 season, Dahlen was replaced by Wilbert Robinson.  Robinson restored the club to its winning ways, led them to Pennants in 1916 and 1920, was so popular that the club was briefly nicknamed the Robins in honor of him, and was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1945.  Conversely, the most notable thing about Dahlen's managerial career was the large number of ejections, which only seems to reinforce the negative stories about his foul disposition as a player.  Dahlen's unsuccessful four year stint as manager of Brooklyn was his only foray into management at the major league level.

Since 1937, the Veterans Committee and its predecessors, the Centennial and Old Timers Committee have elected over 100 players to the Hall of Fame, yet have never chosen to honor Dahlen.  While he was a very talented player, his volatile on the field temperament and off the field gambling habits may have caused many voters to pass on his candidacy based on character.  Dahlen last appeared on a Hall of Fame ballot in December 2008 when the Veterans Committee voted on players who started their careers prior to 1943.  Despite his strong career, Dahlen was a non-factor on the ballot, picking up less than 25% of the vote.  However, since that election, several sabermetric statistics have come to the forefront as popular ways to evaluate Hall of Fame candidacies.  No statistic does a better job of backing up Dahlen's candidacy than his 70.9 career WAR.  Based on his impressive career WAR, Dahlen should have been elected to the Hall of Fame a long time ago as the mercurial shortstop has a higher career WAR than many Hall of Famers who were voted into Cooperstown by the BBWAA on their first ballot including Reggie Jackson, Tony Gwynn, Eddie Murray, Ernie Banks, and Willie McCovey.  Moreover, Dahlen has more than double the career WAR of several Hall of Famers voted into the Hall by the Veterans Committee including George Kell, Pie Traynor, Jim Bottomley, Bill Mazeroski, and Ray Schalk.

Bill Dahlen's lengthy career started in the high scoring 1890's and stretched well into the pitcher dominated 1900's, a time that is often referred to as the "Deadball Era."  Honus Wagner, Hughie Jennings, Bobby Wallace, and George Davis, each contemporaries of Dahlen's at short, have all been enshrined in the Hall of Fame.  Aside from the dominant Wagner--who was one of the five original Hall of Famers elected by the BBWAA--Dahlen matches up very well in both sabermetric as well as traditional statistics when measured against his peers:

	From	To	WAR	dWAR	WAA	Rfield	OPS+
Dahlen	1891	1911	70.9	28.5	39.4	139	110
Davis	1890	1909	79.8	24.1	47.9	146	121
Jennings	1891	1918	39.7	9.0	23.2	60	118
Wallace	1894	1918	71.6	28.7	37.7	133	105
Wagner	1897	1917	126.1	21.3	91.6	85	151
	G	PA	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BA	OBP	SB	BB
Dahlen	2444	10405	1590	2461	413	163	84	1234	0.272	0.358	548	1064
Davis	2372	10178	1545	2665	453	163	73	1440	0.295	0.362	619	874
Jennings	1284	5648	992	1526	232	88	18	840	0.312	0.391	359	347
Wallace	2383	9612	1057	2309	391	143	34	1121	0.268	0.332	201	774
Wagner	2794	11748	1739	3420	643	252	101	1733	0.328	0.391	723	963

And, when you compare his stats to the average Hall of Fame shortstop, Dahlen is on par in traditional stats and stands tall in sabermetric stats:

	WAR	dWAR	WAA	Rfield	OPS+	G	R	H	HR	RBI	BA	OBP
Dahlen	70.9	28.5	39.4	139	110	2444	1590	2461	84	1234	0.272	0.358
HOF SS	62.8	22.5	36.1	97	109	2191	1219	2335	102	1036	0.288	0.359

An impressive blend of power, speed, technique, and durability, at the time of his retirement, Dahlen was 13th all-time with 84 home runs, 10th with 548 stolen bases, 1st with 4,856 putouts at short, and 2nd with 2,444 games played.  Strong with the glove and more than adequate with the bat, Dahlen retired with 139 WAR fielding runs and a 110 OPS+, both excellent totals for a shortstop.

Commenting on controversial slugger Dick Allen's Hall of Fame candidacy, Bill James wrote "As time passes, the evaluation of a player comes to rest more and more on his statistics....everything else tends to be forgotten...and eventually the statistics become the central part of the player's image."  While James' quote may have referred to Allen, it just as easily could be applied to Dahlen.  It is likely Dahlen's controversial personality colored many a Hall of Fame voter's opinion of him.  However, with WAR and other sabermetric statistics becoming more and more mainstream, the Pre-Integration Era Committee is likely to reexamine Dahlen's career from not just a character driven and traditional statistical standpoint but also from a sabermetric one as well.

----by John Tuberty

Sources:  Baseball Reference, Baseball Reference Play Index, SABR, Lyle Spatz- Bad Bill Dahlen:  The Rollicking Life and Times of an Early Baseball Star (Mcfarland & Co Inc Pub), Bill James- Whatever Happened to the Hall of Fame (Simon and Schuster)

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