Gibson makes pitch for '84 Tigers to fill a Hall of Fame void

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- From the first World Series in 1903 to the final pre-wild card World Series in 1993, nearly every championship team included at least one player who has made the Hall of Fame.

Nearly every one. Eighty-eight out of 90.

Kirk Gibson hopes it will soon be 89 of 90. He wants to see the 1984 Tigers represented. He thinks the 1984 Tigers should be represented (and I think he's right).

"No question in my mind," Gibson said Monday, when asked whether he considers '84 teammates Jack Morris and Alan Trammell to be Hall of Famers. "Remember when I played behind those guys, and comparing them to all the guys I played against, I think they deserve strong, strong consideration."

Gibson's own Hall of Fame chances ended after one year on the ballot, when he received only 13 votes (two fewer than '84 teammate Lou Whitaker) in 2001. But Morris and Trammell have remained on the ballot, with Morris receiving 66.7 percent of the vote last year, the most of all the candidates who didn't make it.

Morris has been on the ballot 13 years, giving him just this year and next year to jump to the 75 percent required for election. Trammell, who has been on the ballot for 11 years, received 36.8 percent of the vote last year.

"If you look at Tram and Barry Larkin [who was elected last year], they're very close," Gibson said. "And with Jack, people had to see the way he pitched to win. And when you get in the postseason, he was the best there was."

The only other pre-1995 champion without a player in the Hall of Fame is the 1981 Dodgers, who no longer have any candidates on the ballot. Steve Garvey came closest from that team, and he was never named on even 50 percent of the ballots.

Most of the more recent champions don't yet have a Hall of Famer, and it's possible that one or more won't. But many stars from the championship teams from 1995 on have yet to even appear on the ballot.