The National Baseball Hall of Fame class of 2025 has been announced, as CC Sabathia, Ichiro Suzuki and Billy Wagner will head to Cooperstown to be forever enshrined alongside the game’s greats.
As the baseball world celebrates these three incredible baseball players, some have real cases for the Hall of Fame who have seen another year pass without a chance to enter the Hall.
One of them is Kenny Lofton, a six-time All-Star and four-time Gold Glover who spent 17 seasons in the MLB, accumulating 2,428 hits and a 68.4 WAR in 2,103 games.
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Former Cleveland Indians great Kenny Lofton throws out the ceremonial first pitch before a World Series game against the Chicago Cubs at Progressive Field in 2016. (Photo by Elsa/Pool via USA Today Sports)
Now, when a day like Tuesday comes, when the Hall of Fame ballots are counted and the results come in, Lofton is not in a bad place. He knows that after failing to obtain at least 5% of the vote in 2013, he is no longer eligible to be elected regularly.
But there’s no doubt Lofton still feels hurt that he didn’t get what he believes was a good chance to be in Cooperstown.
“I haven’t gotten credit for what I’ve done. It’s kind of sad. I still haven’t gotten credit,” Lofton told PK Press Club Digital when discussing his role as an advisor at Sluggball, a reinvented approach to baseball.
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“I can only say all the time that, in my time and in my era, I did what I was supposed to do. I thought at that time that it was very important for me to do my job as a teammate, and that was an important part of the game. Now you see me doing my job and being a team player, it hurt me a little bit. Instead of being selfish like the other guys, the three and four hitters, it was all because of them that they were eating. I was serving and they were eating, but I didn’t get the credit for serving them the food.
Lofton’s first year in the Hall of Fame may have been one of the busiest elections ever, even though no living inductees were recorded for the first time since 1965. There were 10 players , including Craig Biggio, Jeff Bagwell, Mike Piazza and Edgar. Martinez, who ultimately got the 75 percent of the vote needed to move in, but guys like Lofton and Bernie Williams were left off the ballot the following year because at least 5 percent of the vote is needed to move. on.
And as Lofton mentioned, the era of baseball he played in, infamously known as the Steroid Era, had players like Barry Bonds (36.2%), Mark McGwire (16.9%). ), Sammy Sosa (12.5%) and Rafael Palmeiro (8.8%). also on the ballot with him.
Ichiro also played during this era, entering the MLB at the age of 27 in 2001 and still having 3,089 hits in 19 seasons. Only one Hall of Fame voter left him off their ballot despite, like Derek Jeter, making a very strong case for a unanimous vote.
Lofton loves that Ichiro got his due, and the same goes for Tim Raines, whose 23-year career saw a speedy outfielder hitting for average rather than home runs. But he feels like he’s in the same conversation.
“That’s what hurts me is seeing this and seeing Ichiro with the opportunity to show, OK, here’s some smaller guys that aren’t just interested in home runs can come into the game and then you compare my numbers to Ichiro’s, we’re not too far away,” Lofton explained.
Cleveland Indians center fielder Kenny Lofton bunts during a game at Jacobs Field. (David Richard-USA Today Sports)
In this sense, Wins Above Replacement (WAR) is a mark that many voters use to see if a player should be in the Hall of Fame. Ichiro had a WAR of 60.0, while Lofton had a mark of 68.4 during his career.
And when you look at their career season averages side by side, Lofton was better in stolen bases (48 to 31), home runs (10 to 7), RBIs (60 to 48) and runs scored (118 to 87 ). Ichiro beats Lofton in batting average (.311 to .299), but only by two hits (189 to 187).
Then there’s “The Cooperstown Casebook” by sabermetrician Jay Jaffe, which outlines the JAWS metric for determining who should and shouldn’t be in the Hall of Fame. JAWS is the WAR of a player on average with their maximum WAR over 7 years.
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Lofton is 10th all-time for center backs with a 55.9 JAWS rating. Every player above him is in the Hall of Fame except Mike Trout (fifth), who is still playing, and Carlos Beltran (ninth), who remains on the ballot and narrowly missed his entry this year with 70.3% of the votes.
Richie Ashburn, Andrew Dawson, Billy Hamilton, Larry Doby, Earl Averill, Max Carey and Kirby Puckett are all players with a lower JAWS rating who are in the room.
Finally, Lofton’s ability to steal bases — he’s 15th all-time with 622 stolen bags — made him a threat when he got on base. In fact, he’s one of only nine players to have 600 career steals and 600 extra base hits, and yet he’s the only one not in Cooperstown.
“All I ask people is to look at my numbers a little bit more,” Lofton said. “…It was everything I wanted because when you look at the stats and what people are saying, I have one of the highest WARs in history, especially for center fielders.”
If the numbers aren’t enough, Lofton spoke about his peers remembering his time in the league.
Cleveland Indians center fielder Kenny Lofton in action against the Texas Rangers at Jacobs Field during the 1996 season. (RVR-USA Today Sports photos)
“I spoke to [Hall of Famer] Barry Larkin and he said, ‘Back when you were playing, Kenny, you were the best thing there,'” Lofton said. “He said, ‘Nobody wanted to deal with you when you were coming up to the plate or when you were in the outfield.’ It made me feel good to have another player say that about me.
“When David Justice, during the World Series, he said, ‘Kenny, our main goal was to keep you off the bases.’ He said: “We didn’t have a big meeting. We had a meeting that said keep damn Kenny Lofton off the bases and we’ll win this series.” So it made me feel good to hear that kind of stuff from the guys you played with.”
There is still a way for Lofton to enter the hall, as the contemporary committee will vote in December 2025. But the ballot has only eight candidates, where 75% of the votes must also be counted to enter the hall.
However, Lofton already experienced this in 2022 when Fred McGriff was elected by the committee. McGriff finished his 19-year career with 493 home runs and a WAR of 52.6.
Again, Lofton isn’t knocking any of these players for getting their plaque in the Hall. All he wants is the consideration he feels he deserves.
Because he’s gotten to the point where he wonders if his efforts were worth it.
Former Cleveland Indians Mike Hargrove and Kenny Lofton during a pregame celebration for the 1995 team before the Tampa Bay Rays game at Progressive Field. (Ken Blaze-USA Today Sports)
“Sometimes I look back on it and say, ‘Man, did I play the game the right way?'” Lofton asked. “People are getting all these accolades for what they do now. I’m like, wait a minute, what I did, I guess, was nothing at this point, looking at how they perceive the game and how they look at it. How they Look, it’s the first hitter that doesn’t mean anything I thought that’s what you wanted your guy to do because he was helping the team RBI means running. Big players get all these accolades because of their points. and they get credit for RBIs But how would that happen if a guy didn’t get on base to get that RBI and he didn’t get credit, that’s sad?
“All I want people to do is look at my numbers and compare. And when they say at the time you were in your position or whatever, were you the best? At that point they look around this. I just want the committee to look at him and say, “He’s the best at this. But I don’t know, but look at my numbers and compare me to the people who.” are already in the Hall of Fame.
