Wednesday October 10, 2001

Sean Joyce

On Sunday, an amazing baseball season came to a rousing conclusion when Barry Bonds hit home run No. 73, Rickey Henderson got his 3000th hit, and baseball saw two of its greatest statesmen, Tony Gwynn and Cal Ripken, leave the diamond for good.

As Gwynn and Ripken prepare for their deserved induction into the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y., in five years, I would just like to illuminate some of the lesser moments in their careers that may have you question just how "great" these two players were.

Cal Ripken, who saved baseball after the players strike in 1994, milked his consecutive-games-played streak for everything it was worth. That's the No. 1 reason why he's going to be a Hall of Famer.

In Ripken's highly publicized 21-year career, he managed to win two things that Tony Gwynn never did: a World Series ring and a Most Valuable Player trophy. What people forget is that, in the prime of his career, between 1987 and 1990, he failed to hit above .265, never drove in 100 runs and never hit more than 27 home runs in a season. But he did play every game in that four-year stretch.

I would be hard-pressed to find one Hall of Famer to produce such mediocre numbers in the supposed prime of his career.

I would also like to compare Ripken's all-time numbers to a player no one considers an offensive juggernaut - Todd Zeile.

Yes, Mets fans, I know there have to be a few of you reading this. Todd Zeile has comparable numbers to the national hero.

Ripken has him by nine points in the batting average, but Zeile has a better RBI to at-bat ratio and on-base percentage than the mighty Cal, who I have seen on television non-stop for the last three months and listened to everyone fawn over.

He's not that great! For that matter, neither is Tony Gwynn.

After finishing his career the way every storied player wants to - grossly overweight and unable to play his position - let's try to knock this "all-time great" off his pedestal.

His career .338 lifetime batting average is indisputable. It ranks 17th all-time, and most people ahead of him are names you wouldn't recognize unless you were alive before World War I.

With that said, where do the rest of his offensive numbers stand in comparison to baseball's all-time brass?

The few recognizable names on the list ahead of him - Babe Ruth, Ted Williams and Ty Cobb - all have other impressive offensive numbers.

Gwynn is a contact hitter who didn't have the opportunities to drive in runs because of the terrible teams he played for. But these terrible teams managed to make two World Series during his career.

The Padres may have been bad, but they weren't the Devil Rays.

His career RBI total is pathetic when compared to most other Hall of Famers, or even All-Stars in the past decade. He averaged an RBI every eight at-bats in his 20-year career.

Here's just a little information on how truly terrible that is: Danny Bautista, an Arizona Diamondbacks platoon outfielder, has a better RBI per at-bat ratio than Tony Gwynn.

Granted, their careers took two different paths, but I think the point stands on its own. Bautista does have a significant number of years in the league to make a comparison.

Gwynn's once-fabled speed is also overrated, as he hasn't stolen a base since those delicious Krispy Kreme doughnuts became a fixture in Southern California.

I hope that - if I haven't bored you to death by this point - you learned something other than: I don't get enough sleep, and I have a plethora of useless knowledge. I will win on Jeopardy! one day.

Ripken is a borderline Hall of Famer without his streak, and Gwynn is a one-time great athlete who turned into a doughboy.

Truth be told, I'm glad that these two are going into the Hall.

But does Todd Zeile? Probably not.