​The induction ceremonies are over at the National Baseball Hall of Fame, and already fans are looking ahead to the election of the Class of 2018. Debating the merits of players as Hall of Famers (or Hall of Fame candidates) is a discussion I enjoy.

When I worked in The Tampa Tribune sports department, we’d be watching a baseball game during the summer. A colleague would usually call out something like this: Mike Mussina: Hall of Famer? Then the debate would begin.

Arguments are not limited to potential candidates. Plaques in Cooperstown are scrutinized carefully by fans. For example, how is former commissioner Bowie Kuhn enshrined, while baseball labor pioneer Marvin Miller is not? Who are Ross Youngs, George Kelly, Jesse Haines and Fred Lindstrom, and why are they in the Hall? Answer: It helps to have a former teammate like Frank Frisch or Bill Terry on the Veterans Committee. How are Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens, suspected of using performance enhancing drugs, finding it tough to gain election — while the commissioner who looked the other way when it was all happening was enshrined Sunday?

All are legitimate questions, and subjects that Jay Jaffe addresses in The Cooperstown Casebook: Who’s in the Baseball Hall of Fame, Who Should Be In, and Who Should Pack Their Plaques (Thomas Dunne Books; hardback; $25.99; 446 pages). This is a fun book, full of statistics that will please fans brought up on the Baseball Encyclopedia while also providing plenty of fodder for advanced stat lovers who religiously follow WAR, ERA+, OPS and OPS+.

Bill James, the godfather of sabermetrics, got the ball rolling in 1985 with The Bill James Historical Abstract and put Cooperstown to the numbers test in 1994 when he published The Politics of Glory. He followed with a revised edition of his 1985 book,  The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract, in 2001. In 2009, Zev Chafets took a more irreverent look in Cooperstown Confidential: Heroes, Rogues and the Inside Story of the Baseball Hall of Fame, calling its members “the closest American equivalent to knighthood.”

 Jaffe’s work combines James’ cerebral approach with Chafets’ humor, but he is more conversational in his prose than James and a heck of lot funnier than Chafets.

Jaffe, a contributing writer for SI.com and a former columnist for Baseball Prospectus, invented his own statistic — JAWS, or Jaffe’s WAR Score — “a tool for objectively measuring a candidate’s Hall of Fame worthiness” by comparing him to players at his position that already own a plaque. A large portion of the book does just that, as Jaffe compiles a list of players by position, breaking them down by the elites, rank and file, the basement (the most dubious honorees) and further consideration.

The final category includes players who will be eligible soon, like Chipper Jones in 2018; and candidates who have been overlooked or simply did not garner enough support from voters (examples include Dwight Evans, Gary Sheffield and Fred McGriff).

Every chapter in the second part of the book (called “Around the Diamond”) begins with one or two case studies, where Jaffe explores the Hall of Fame merits of players not in Cooperstown. He studies in detail the careers of  Dick Allen, Alan Trammell, Bobby Grich, David Ortiz, Andruw Jones, Larry Walker, Minnie Minoso, Ted Simmons and Curt Schilling. How do they stack up? The conclusions are interesting.

A chapter about Bert Blyleven and Jack Morris is instructive, and the case of Ron Santo and his posthumous selection to the Hall is worth reading. Jaffe writes clearly, and while serious about his subject, allows himself to not take it seriously at times. So as baseball fans continue to debate about the merits of some players — what about Tommy John? Jim Kaat? Tony Oliva? Bill Madlock? Don Mossi? (just checking to see if you’re still reading …) — they can use The Cooperstown Casebook as a nice reference to bolster their arguments.

Here's a story I wrote for Sports Collectors Daily about a marble slab from the famed ticket rotunda at Ebbets Field that will be part of a Heritage Auctions sale on Aug. 19:

www.sportscollectorsdaily.com/consignment-of-the-week-1913-marble-slab-from-ebbets-field-rotunda/

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Here's a story I wrote for Sports Collectors Daily about Topps phasing out the Chief Wahoo logo on its baseball cards:

www.sportscollectorsdaily.com/topps-phases-out-chief-wahoo-from-its-card-logos/

Here's a story I wrote for Sports Collectors Daily previewing the 2017 Bowman's Best baseball set, which is due out in late December:

www.sportscollectorsdaily.com/previewing-2017-bowmans-best-baseball/​

Here's a story I wrote for Sports Collectors Daily about the Dick Butkus rookie card, which remains tough to find in high grade:

www.sportscollectorsdaily.com/dick-butkus-rookie-card-still-tough-to-find-in-high-grade/

Here is a story I wrote for Sports Collectors Daily about Hall of Fame shortstop Lou Boudreau, who would have turned 100 on Jul 17.

www.sportscollectorsdaily.com/boy-manager-turns-100-5-fun-cards-of-lou-boudreau/

Time sure flies. It’s hard to believe that it has been 22 years since Cal Ripken Jr. became baseball’s Ironman, as he broke Lou Gehrig’s consecutive games streak. The number “2,130” had been ingrained in baseball lore, much like Babe Ruth’s 714 career home runs and Joe DiMaggio’s 56-game hitting streak.

Ruth’s record was toppled by Hank Aaron, who in turn was topped by Barry Bonds. But don’t look for any player, any time soon, to break Ripken’s mark of 2,632 consecutive games played. A player needs to be lucky, good, and impervious to pain to achieve a mark like that — plus, he needs a manager who is willing to put his name on the lineup card every day without fail. Most managers now believe in resting players and do not want to risk injury from the fatigue that inevitably comes from playing so many games in a row.

It is a credit to Ripken’s endurance and competitiveness that he not only played so many games in a row, but also remained a productive member of his team. The same can be said about Gehrig.

There have been plenty of books written separately about Gehrig and Ripken; earlier this year, Richard Sandomir wrote about the 1942 film tribute to the Iron Horse in his book, The Pride of the Yankees.

But longtime Baltimore sportswriter John Eisenberg takes a fresh angle, putting Ripken and Gehrig side by side for an absorbing comparative study. In The Streak: Lou Gehrig, Cal Ripken Jr., and Baseball’s Most Historic Record (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; hardback; $26; 299 pages), Eisenberg uses excellent research and a smooth narrative to educate and entertain the reader. Gehrig and Ripken are the main subjects in the book, but Eisenberg delves into history with richly detailed prose that includes some quirky stories about consecutive-game streaks in major-league baseball history.

Ripken broke Gehrig’s record on Sept. 6, 1995, at Baltimore’s Camden Yards, and that’s how Eisenberg opens The Streak. Eisenberg, who covered the Orioles for the Baltimore Sun and saw most of Ripken’s career, is uniquely a Baltimore guy. He wrote for the Sun for two decades, currently contributes columns to the Baltimore Ravens’ website, and still lives in Baltimore. His perspective about Ripken is unique and refreshing.

Eisenberg interviewed 26 people for this book, including Ripken. He also spoke with other players who had consecutive streaks of note, including National League record-holder Steve Garvey and Billy Williams, whose record he broke. Eisenberg also gleaned quotes from five members of the Orioles thanks to research for 1999’s From 33rd Street to Camden Yards, one of nine books he has written.

What emerges is the sheer doggedness of both men. While it’s true that Gehrig once opened a game at shortstop and batted leadoff to preserve his streak, that does not diminish his achievement. Gehrig also was fortunate to receive a few breaks when he was injured; one time, a game was rained out to preserve his record. According to records Eisenberg quotes from Raymond J. Gonzalez of the Society for Baseball Research, Gehrig was relieved by a pinch hitter eight times, by a pinch runner four times, and by a defensive replacement 64 times.

Ripken, meanwhile, started every game of his streak, and unlike many modern players he did not used a pinch-hitting appearance or appeared as a defensive replacement to prolong his streak. What is even more mind-boggling, though, is that Ripken once played in 8,264 consecutive innings before missing the final two innings of a Sept. 14, 1987, game. His replacement was Ron Washington, who would later manage the Texas Rangers to back-to-back American League pennants in 2010 and 2011.

Some of the quirky stories Eisenberg unearths include how an injured Stan Musial kept his streak intact by not actually playing in the game, but by simply being written on a lineup card. Everett Scott, whose record of 1,307 straight games was broken by Gehrig, once paid a man to drive him from a desolate area in Indiana to a trolley in South Bend, Indiana, where he would take a trolley to reach Comiskey Park in time to get into that day’s game.

Eisenberg also revisits the story of George Pinkney, who held the 19th century mark of 578 consecutive games from 1885 to 1890. Pinkney’s feat was buried for several years but was rediscovered when Fred Luderus played in more than 500 straight games during the last few years of the dead ball era. Scott would break Pinkney’s record on June 21, 1920.

Despite Eisenberg’s wonderful and detailed research, there are a few glitches. He refers to the Washington Senators winning the American League pennant in 1932 (they won it in 1933), and writes that the Boston Red Sox faced the Philadelphia Phillies in the 1918 World Series (the Sox faced the Chicago Cubs, although Boston and Philadelphia met in the 1915 World Series). He also writes that Joe DiMaggio played four full seasons with Gehrig, when he in fact played three (1936, 1937 and 1938 — Gehrig only played eight games in 1939 before benching himself).

From a stylistic standpoint, the only bump appears to be Eisenberg’s penchant to note that a certain player was “interviewed for this book.” It’s important, I suppose, to let the reader know that a certain player spoke to Eisenberg — at least from a credibility standpoint. But Eisenberg earned his writing and integrity chops long ago, so while it seemed necessary to make the point, it just did not read smoothly. Perhaps mentioning the people whom he quoted outside of the interviews he conducted would have worked better. It’s not worth quibbling about.
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The Streak is an enjoyable read, full of history and anecdotes, lively quotes and a narrative that bounces between Ripken, Gehrig and other players who achieved ironman status during their careers. Gehrig’s record seemed unbreakable when he set it; Ripken’s now seems even more formidable. It probably will stand for all time.