Omar Vizquel pursues Hall of Fame recognition: despite a record number of games at shortstop, 11 Gold Gloves and productive numbers as a hitter, some question his ranking

Baseball Digest, August, 2008 by Henry Schulman

OMAR VIZQUEL IS A GRAB BAG OF surprises and no doubt will be until the day he cedes his territory on the left side of the infield for good and enters his new life as a painter or sculptor or musician or bon vivant at large.

Last May 25, Vizquel passed Luis Aparicio's all-time record of 2,583 games at shortstop. He has 11 Gold Gloves and is regarded as one of the greatest defensive shortstops ever. Yet, he promises that when he looks back at his career, he will be most proud of what he did at the plate.

As Vizquel sat by his locker, he was asked if breaking Aparicio's longevity mark will be his platinum achievement.

"That obviously will be one of the most important ones," Vizquel said, "but I think I'll be more proud of the amount of hits I'm going to get by the time I retire because people always doubted I could hit in the big leagues. Little by little, I just became a better hitter, more experienced. I don't consider myself an easy out."

The question to be asked five years after Vizquel retires is whether he will be an easy "in" when the baseball writers receive their first Hall of Fame ballot that lists Vizquel.

When he signed with the Giants before the 2005 season, there was much debate over his qualifications to be a first-ballot Hall of Famer.

Certainly it would have been a reach to say three of every four writers, the ratio needed for election, felt he was a shoo-in. But now that he has spent three seasons in the National League, displaying his defensive panache to a large group of writers who had not seen him play every day, and added his 10th and 11th Gold Gloves, the debate seems to be swinging Vizquel's way.

Breaking Aparicio's record for games played by a shortstop could be the exclamation point.

"No doubt in my mind," said Rick Hummel of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, who not only votes for the Hall of Fame but is enshrined in the writers' wing and chronicled Ozzie Smith's career. "I hope he does well in the balloting the first time around, or otherwise we're not going to see a player more acclaimed for his defense get into the Hail of Fame for a long, long time."

Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe said a first-ballot vote for Vizquel is "a no-brainer. The fielding percentage, the Gold Gloves, the show he puts on in the field, and add the more than 2,600 career hits, it's a slam dunk."

Hummel and Cafardo responded to a small straw poll of Hall of Fame voters, who overwhelmingly said Vizquel deserves a first-ballot vote.

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Larry Stone of the Seattle Times was one of the dissenters.

"I have a hard time visualizing Omar as a first-ballot Hall of Famer," Stone said. "I haven't crunched the numbers yet, but I don't think he has quite the same reputation that Ozzie had as a transcendent fielder, which is what it would take to overcome his offensive deficiencies. That's probably not fair, but it's just the way it is. Maybe he needs to do some back flips."

Shortstops have had a rough go with Hall voters. They represent 19 of the 234 major league and Negro Leagues players who have been enshrined. Only five shortstops who played in the last half-century got in: Aparicio, Smith, Ernie Banks, Robin Yount and Cal Ripken Jr. Banks, Yount and Ripken not only entered on the strength of their offense, they were not shortstops their entire careers.

Aparicio won nine Gold Gloves in 18 seasons and had 2,677 hits, yet was not elected until the sixth ballot in 1984.

Hall voters have had a tough time gauging middle infielders who were known primarily for their gloves. That changed with Smith, whose grace and carnival exploits at shortstop could not be ignored. He had 2,460 hits and batted .262--same as Aparicio--but he won 13 Gold Gloves and was elected on the first ballot with 91.7 percent of the vote in 2002.

"I don't know if it's a matter of Aparicio disappearing after a while after he stopped playing baseball," Vizquel said. "I don't know if he had the same publicity support as Ozzie Smith had. It could have been that way. I'm not quite sure."

Surely voters will try to compare Vizquel to Smith when Vizquel appears on the ballot.

Retired second baseman Rex Hudler played with Smith in St. Louis and, when he moved to the Angels, against Vizquel. Hudler said they are two peas in a pod.

"I have a museum in my home," he said. "I have two position-player jerseys I'm very proud of. One of them is Ozzie Smith's and one of them is Omar Vizquel's. They are the greatest shortstops of our era, of all time. There will never be anybody better than them."

Asked to compare the two, Hudler said, "Ozzie was a little more athletic, but Vizquers feet were so quick. To be a shortstop, you have to have quick feet. He could avoid me when I slid so easily. I was a fast and physical player who liked to knock guys down. Omar would jump over me or trick me.

"Ozzie got into the Hall of Fame because he redefined the position because of his athleticism. He made plays nobody else could make. He was special. He stood out. He was a flashy player. Vizquel is more of a grinder, the kind of guy who could make that play ten times out of ten."