As I mentioned earlier, the Illowa APBA League annual All-Star weekend is rapidly approaching. Since the All-Star Game is all about recognizing IAL players’ performances, it only makes sense that we also vote for new IAL Hall of Fame members at this time.
Our league’s rules state that a player must be retired for one year before being considered for our Hall. With that in mind, the 2011 nominating class is quite impressive. League VP Rob Moore hasn’t sent out the official ballot yet but he did send us a preview of what to expect.
Take a look at the career IAL stats just a few of the nominees:
| Player | Years Played | Key Stats |
| Greg Maddux | 1988-2009 | 354-232, 3.59 ERA, 3925 K, 63 Sho |
| Tom Glavine | 1988-2009 | 247-202, 4.15 ERA, 2797 K |
| Pedro Martinez | 1994-2009 | 200-130, 3.72 ERA, 2767 K |
| Mike Mussina | 1993-2009 | 204-180, 4.18 ERA, 2870 K |
| Carlos Delgado | 1995-2009 | 466 HR, 1174 rbi, 1287 r, .538 slg |
| Frank Thomas | 1991-2009 | 475 HR, 1431 rbi, 1368 r |
And that’s just the cream of the crop. Others worth considering, says Rob our resident league historian, are Ray Durham, Luis Gonzalez, Jim Edmonds and Mark Grudzielanek.
Greg Maddux is a shoo-in. His 354 wins is tops in the IAL by 40 over #2 Roger Clemens. And there’s no chance of anyone catching him soon. Livan Hernandez is tops among active pitchers with 198. Maddux is also #2 in strikeouts all-time. Count him in.
I have a soft spot for Tom Glavine for many reasons chief among them that he was my main starter for over 17 years. But I think he’s got the goods to get in.
It’ll be a pitching heavy ballot and already managers are joking if they’ll have enough votes to go around. Admittedly in the past, I haven’t always used my allotted number of votes but this year I don’t think that will be a problem.
Vote Glavine in 2011!
