Harold Baines Marquee Hall of Fame 2019

Baines batted .289 with 2,866 hits, 384 home runs and 1,628 runs batted in across twenty-two seasons, and led the American League in nothing at all. He reached 20 home runs eleven times and 30 never, drove in 100 runs three times, and was picked for six All-Star teams, the first in 1985 and the last in 1999, fourteen years apart.

He came up as a right fielder and spent the back half of his career as a designated hitter, 1,643 games of it, more than anyone but David Ortiz. He won the Outstanding Designated Hitter award in 1987 and 1988 and a Silver Slugger in 1989. Chicago traded him that year, took him back twice, and he finished in a White Sox uniform in 2001.

The era committee elected him in 2019 and the argument began the same day: no Most Valuable Player award, no season in which he led the league, six All-Star teams in twenty-two years. What he has is the accumulation itself. He stands 47th on the all-time hit list, ahead of a long row of players nobody argues about.