Column: By the way, two players elected to Hall
By By Tony Krausz/assistant sports editor
January 10, 2004
Here's something that might have been over looked during this whole Pete Rose brouhaha baseball's Hall of Fame elected two new members this week.
Shocking, isn't it?
Take a moment, we know that baseball news not including Rose may have thrown you for a loop. Go ahead sit down and soak it in these words will still be here when you get over the shock.
Everybody better now, good. We hope this didn't cause any undue harm. It seems pretty unimaginable that news about the nation's past time has something not to do with Rose, but it is true.
It seems that baseball's hallowed club, that Rose will apparently do dang near anything to join, has opened its doors to Dennis Eckersley and Paul Molitor.
Two of the best examples of baseball chameleons will now join the ranks of Babe Ruth, Ted Williams, Yogi Berra and the rest of baseball's immortals in the Hall.
Eckersley began his career as an overpowering starter winning 151 games before current Cardinals manager Tony La Russa changed his job description.
In 1987, Eckersley arrived in Oakland to join his fourth club, the Athletics, in what was becoming a vagabond career.
He had pitched a no-hitter with Cleveland, won 20 games for Boston and was one of the few people breathing that could claim to be part of a Chicago Cubs' playoff team.
Yet, he was moving around more than a schizophrenic squirrel.
La Russa took the once promising starter and developed the modern day closer. Eckersley moved to the bullpen to become the A's hammer coming in for one inning to finish a game.
Reluctantly, Eckersley excepted the role his new manager in Oakland gave him and went on to save an American League best 324 games and pick up the 1992 MVP and Cy Young Award.
Eckersley, who didn't just overcome struggles in baseball but also alcoholism, proved to be the bench-mark player for this strange new role of closer.
The sight of his free-flowing hair from the back of his cap and swashbuckler mustache in the ninth inning was baseball's equivalent to the fat lady singing.
And just for good measure, Eckersley became a new pitcher on the mound as a closer. Just ask fellow new Hall of Famer Molitor.
Molitor morphed his game as well when injuries caught up with the patient hitter.
He became the first player to enter the Hall of Fame who spent more time as a designated hitter. than any where else on the field.
Molitor smacked 3,319 hits, eighth best of all time, playing in 1,174 games as a DH, and just for good measure, he was a competitor until the end.
In August of 1998, Eckersley, playing for Boston, was staring down Molitor from the mound of the Metrodome in a meaningless game for the struggling Minnesota Twins.
Molitor bunted on his fellow Hall of Famer to drive in the winning run for the Twins.
Weasel or not, Molitor shifted from third base to second to first to shortstop to the outfield in his career while playing for Milwaukee, Toronto and Minnesota.
The seven-time All-Star's ability to move around and finally settle into the DH role for his last six seasons allowed him to play until he was 42.
So in between apologizing for or condemning Rose for his latest in a series of public-relation snafus over the last 14 years, remember baseball also named two greats to the Hall of Fame, and they are most deserving.
