Yogi Berra, the Yankees and the biggest game of catch ever
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Alyssa Roenigk
LITTLE FALLS, N.J. — Yogi would have loved this.
Hundreds of people, young, old and wearing matching commemorative T-shirts, just finished dancing the “YMCA” on the field at Yogi Berra Stadium at Montclair State University. Little League teams, former MLB players and local politicians laugh and clutch their gloves as volunteers hand out souvenir baseballs. Yankees organist Ed Alstrom plays “Charge!” from a stage in center field, and the crowd responds on cue.
“Yogi loved bringing people together,” says Yankees great Willie Randolph, who played for Berra from 1976 to 1988 and later coached the Yankees and managed the Mets. “He made everyone feel like they’re family. He would have been ecstatic. I think he’s looking down on this field and is so proud.”
They have all come here on a Sunday afternoon, from as far away as California and Florida, to celebrate a man who treated every interaction much like a game of catch. Berra cared as much about what he tossed into a conversation as how he received what was thrown his way. So, what better way to honor him than by playing the biggest game of catch? Ever.
The current record is 972 pairs, set eight years ago in Illinois. On its face, breaking the Guinness World Record for the largest game of catch sounds simple: Gather a couple thousand people, pair them up and ask them to toss baseballs back and forth for five minutes. Doing it, however, is anything but easy.
When Eve Schaenen, the executive director of the Yogi Berra Museum & Learning Center at Montclair State, approached Guinness with the idea, adjudicator Michael Empric, who is overseeing the day’s process, told her that many mass-attendance record attempts fail.
“That’s part of why we wanted to do this,” Schaenen says. “There are stakes. Yogi played a game where you could strike out. You could lose. That doesn’t mean you don’t try. He was told he couldn’t so many times and look at what remarkable things he did with his life.”
Berra was born 100 years ago and died before many of the kids gathered here were born. He made his MLB debut in 1946, retired as a player in 1965 and stopped coaching in 1989. Yet, everyone here on this day has a story about a time they were touched by his life. Berra connected deeply with people. It didn’t matter if he was talking to a teammate, a waiter, the president or his postman. With Berra, everyone got the same guy.
That this record attempt is taking place one day before the anniversary of his death (and his MLB debut) on Sept. 22 might have elicited him to create one of his popular Yogi-isms. “Well,” he might have said, “we’re a day early, but right on time.”
TO BASEBALL FANS, Yogi Berra is a legend. An MLB Hall of Famer. A man who played in 75 World Series games and won 10 rings — both records unlikely to be broken — and was one of the best “bad ball” hitters in history. The image of Berra leaping into the arms of Yankees pitcher Don Larsen after calling the only perfect game in World Series history in 1956 is indelible in the minds of baseball fans.
“All Yankees fans are Yogi fans,” says Paul Semendinger, a retired principal and adjunct professor at Ramapo College in Mahwah, New Jersey. He is wearing a replica 1939 Lou Gehrig Yankees jersey. “But you can be a Yogi fan without being a Yankees fan.”
Case in point: Semendinger, 57, is here with his 26-year-old son, Ethan, and 87-year-old dad, Paul Sr., “the world’s biggest Ted Williams fan.” (Paul Sr. is wearing a Red Sox jersey.) “You could root for Yogi even if you’re not a fan of his team,” Paul Sr. says, “because he was a good person.”
Semendinger and his son run a Yankees blog and play on a softball team together. He and his dad still meet up a few times a year to play catch in the backyard. “For 87, he still throws a pretty good knuckleball,” Semendinger says.
When Josh Rawitch, the president of the Baseball Hall of Fame, was 10, he sent Berra a baseball card from his home in Los Angeles and asked him to sign it. “It came back with his signature in this perfect penmanship,” Rawitch says. “I was a big fan of baseball history and although I was a Dodgers fan, he was Yogi Berra.” Over the years, Rawitch met Berra multiple times and became a fan of him as a man. “For someone with 10 rings, he never took himself too seriously,” he says. “He had such humility.”
Rawitch is here to display Berra’s Hall of Fame plaque, which a museum employee drove nearly 200 miles from Cooperstown, New York, to Little Falls on Saturday. It’s the first time the plaque has left the Hall since Berra was inducted in 1972.
“It’s rare that we do this,” Rawitch says. “But we knew we wanted to be a part of something so special.”
Anthony “Uncle Tony” Stinger turned 90 this year. He was in the right-field grandstands at Yankee Stadium on Sept. 22, 1946, when Berra made his MLB debut. “It was a Sunday, the second game of a doubleheader against Philadelphia,” Stinger says. “I took the 4 train from Harlem to the stadium, and the Yankees called Yogi up that day. He could hit anything, even a ball a foot off the ground. They didn’t know how to pitch to him.”
Stinger has lived in the Bronx for 53 years and came here with his nieces. Although he’s only spectating, he says he wouldn’t have missed this event for the world. “Yogi would be amazed,” he says, looking around the stadium.
TO MANY, BERRA was a war hero. The St. Louis native signed with the Yankees in 1943 but delayed his MLB career to enlist in the Navy on his 18th birthday and served as a gunner’s mate in World War II. He provided cover from a rocket boat for the troops who landed on Omaha Beach during the D-Day invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944. He was wounded by enemy fire and earned a Purple Heart, although he famously never received the medal because he didn’t fill out the paperwork. He didn’t want his mother to worry.
Daniel Joseph Clair joined the Marines in 1966 and earned a Purple Heart for his service in Vietnam. He’s here to play catch with his wife, a lifelong Yankees fan. “I met Yogi outside the stadium once,” Clair says. “He took the time to talk to me before he got on the bus.”
To many of the players he coached, Berra was a lifetime friend and confidant.
“I’m getting goose bumps talking about him,” Randolph says, rubbing his arms. “Some of my best memories as a young manager are sitting in my office before games and talking baseball with Yogi. When I think about being the first African American manager in New York history, which I am very proud of, Yogi was very instrumental in that. He taught me so much. I miss him every day.”
Two months after his death, Berra was awarded a posthumous Presidential Medal of Freedom for his military service as well as his civil rights and educational activism, although he would balk at being called an activist. He would say he was just treating people equally, as he would want to be treated.
Berra grew up on The Hill, a heavily Italian area of St. Louis, and later faced prejudice and ridicule for being Italian and not looking like a typical ballplayer. Throughout his life, whether by crossing racial lines or through his work with Athlete Ally on LGBTQ equality — an organization he joined in his 80s — he wasn’t trying to set an example, yet time and again, he did.
Berra befriended Jackie Robinson in 1946 when they played on opposing teams in the International League. The next year, Robinson broke MLB’s color barrier. Before games, Berra would walk across the field at Yankee Stadium to find Robinson and chat with his friend. “I don’t think he was doing it to make a statement, but 60,000 people saw him talking to Jackie,” Berra’s eldest granddaughter, Lindsay Berra, says. “This was 18 years before the Civil Rights Act. He was making a comment, whether he knew it or not.”
When Elston Howard became the Yankees’ first Black player in 1955, Berra began grooming him as his replacement behind the plate. During spring training in segregated Florida, Howard couldn’t ride on the same bus, eat in the same restaurants or stay in the same hotels as his white teammates. So, Berra often joined him at his.
TO PEOPLE WHO never watched baseball, Berra was a cultural phenomenon, a “Jeopardy!” answer, a man they quoted sometimes without knowing who they were quoting.
It ain’t over ’til it’s over.
It’s déjà vu all over again.
You can observe a lot by watching.
If the world were perfect, it wouldn’t be.
Berra was the personification of a cartoon bear, a Yoo-hoo pitchman and, as Wynton Marsalis once said while touring the museum, “the Thelonious Monk of baseball.” He was world famous and as recognizable as any figure in sports, yet he was also the guy his three sons would find downstairs in the mornings having coffee with the postman, garbage man and a few of Montclair’s finest.
Tommy Corizzi is too young to have seen Berra play or coach. In fact, he was born just one year before Berra died. He’s here with his “pop pop,” Tom Corizzi, who loved the idea of spending a Sunday afternoon connecting with his grandson and his favorite team. “Yogi was cool,” Tommy, 11, says. “I want to be in the world record book with him.”
Thirteen-year-old Jake Esarey Elmgart is here with his baseball team. He donated the $2,500 he raised for his bar mitzvah project to this event to help pay for kids with special needs to attend.
Just last week, a local woman handed Lindsay a letter she said she found in a drawer recently. The woman’s son, now in his 30s, wrote the letter to Berra in 2000 — 35 years after he retired — but never sent it. “You were in your car and while you were driving, you pointed at me and put your thumb up,” Justin LaMarca, then 8, wrote in pencil and in cursive. “I yelled to you and said you are my favorite player in the world.”
TO ME, BERRA was my best friend’s grandpa.
I met Lindsay in 2002 when I joined the staff at ESPN The Magazine in New York City, where she worked at the time. We became fast friends. Her family became mine in the way that happens when you live far from your own. Grammy Carmen was chic and sentimental. Grampa Yogi was funny and grumpy and warm and honest, and I think of them every Christmas when I hang the oversized red ceramic ornament they bought for me at New York’s 21 Club. Or at Halloween, because they always answered the door for trick-or-treaters in the same costumes: Grammy Carmen as an adorable witch and Grampa Yogi as Yogi Berra.
A half hour before the record attempt, I’m standing outside the museum with my dad, Fred. We came here in May 2012 to celebrate Berra’s 87th birthday. We toured the museum and watched the Yankees beat the Mariners from a party suite at Yankee Stadium. My dad remembers watching Grampa Yogi interact with fans and former players, singing him “Happy Birthday” and eating pieces of a pinstriped cake.
The previous night, my dad watched a few innings of a game with him in Berra’s living room. “Here’s your chance to ask him anything,” I told him.
My dad was 12 when Berra retired as a player. He grew up on a Belgian horse farm outside of Pittsburgh and never had the chance to see him play in person. He had few opportunities to watch him play on TV because the networks carried only local games back then, plus the Game of the Week on Saturdays. He does, however, remember watching the Pirates beat the Yankees in Game 7 of the 1960 World Series. “I was 7,” he says. “I’m not sure if I remember it as much as I remember the photo of Yogi standing in left field watching Bill Mazeroski’s homer go over the fence. That’s an iconic Pittsburgh picture.”
At the top of the ninth inning in that shocking game (if you’re a Yankees fan), Berra hit a grounder to tie the score 9-9. Then, in the bottom of the ninth, Mazeroski hit a walk-off homer to seal the series for the Pirates. “Yogi said the worst day of his life was watching the ball go over the fence at Forbes Field,” my dad says. (I did tell him to ask the man anything.) “Imagine all he’d experienced in his life, and he said that was his worst day.”
Grampa Yogi died three years after that visit. That weekend was one of many times I watched my best friend share her grandpa with the world. Lindsay had watched her grandmother do so graciously throughout her life, listening with care as people told her how much they loved her husband. But Lindsay didn’t understand how people who had met her grandfather for only a moment, if at all, could feel the same kind of love toward him that she did. After his death, as tributes poured in from around the world, she realized that though their love might not be the same as hers, it is just as real. And it is flowing through this stadium now.
I’M STANDING ON the field precisely 3 meters across from my dad, a baseball glove on my left hand. My dad tosses a baseball my way. I catch it and look around. Baseballs are flying everywhere. People are laughing and dancing and dropping balls. We’re all singing along to John Fogerty’s “Centerfield.”
There’s a mystical quality to the relationship that develops between the two people on either end of a game of catch, and it’s happening for all of us now. Maybe it’s how attuned we’ve become to each other, to subtle shifts in our partner’s body position and the message those movements communicate. I’m ready. Send it my way. Maybe it’s the meditative rhythm of the back-and-forth and how quickly the world narrows to the space between us. Or maybe it’s as simple as the eye contact and focus the act requires.
My dad doesn’t remember the first time we played catch together. I don’t, either. But being here on this day, tossing a baseball methodically with him, I’m transported to a Little League field in Cape Coral, Florida. I am 11, wearing an oversized blue Expos jersey and stirrup socks, and warming up with him before a playoff game. The last time we played catch, I was likely in high school and playing shortstop for the CCHS Seahawks.
Lindsay is playing catch with her boyfriend, Peter, surrounded by her family. She remembers the first time she played catch with her grandpa. “My earliest memories are playing wiffle ball in the front yard at holidays,” she says. “Uncle Dale had broken a window at a neighbor’s house, so we played with something safer.” The real baseballs came out when her grandfather was asked to throw out a first pitch. “He’d call each of the grandkids until someone was available to come up to the house and play catch with him,” Lindsay says. “He didn’t want to embarrass himself on the mound.”
When Berra’s boys were young, he was coaching and away from home during baseball season, so they never had the chance to play catch with their dad. Dale says that while Berra loved to toss the football or shoot baskets with him and his brothers, he believes his dad never wanted them to feel pressure to play baseball. “When I signed with the Mets in 1972, I warmed up with him during spring training,” Larry says. “That’s the only memory I have of playing catch with my dad. But I feel him today.”
Larry is playing catch with his son, Andrew. While Empric watches from the stage, volunteers walk the neatly spaced rows of participants looking for rule breakers: people who are on their phones, rolling the ball rather than throwing it or too young to meet the cutoff (age 7). When the five-minute clock runs out, everyone hoots and cheers and high-fives.
“If Dad were here, he’d probably ask, ‘Why would all these people do this? They don’t have to be here,'” Larry says. “He never understood the impact he had on people just by saying hello, by waving, by inviting them in for coffee. He always said, ‘I just played baseball.’ He never understood the aura he created.”
After several excruciating minutes, Empric walks to the podium to deliver the result. “I can now announce that today … in Little Falls … New Jersey … USA … you had a total of … 1,179 pairs,” he says, and hands Schaenen an oversized plaque, which she thrusts into the air. The crowd erupts. “It’s a new Guinness World Record,” Empric says. “Congratulations! You are officially amazing.”
For a while, no one moves. For nearly an hour, many people stay on the field and soak up the magic flowing between the baselines. Some continue to play catch, others chat with the people they stood next to during the attempt. This is what today was all about. Yogi was many things to many people, and today, he brought us all together.
Sports
Do Don Mattingly and Dale Murphy belong in Cooperstown? Breaking down the contemporary era ballot
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Bradford Doolittle
With the release of the 2026 BBWAA Hall of Fame ballot earlier this week, we’ve officially entered Cooperstown deliberation season.
There are now two ballots up for consideration. While the writers’ process tends to soak up most of the attention, the contemporary baseball era committee ballot — announced Nov. 3 — is more urgent and intriguing. The results will be determined by a yet-to-be-named committee just before the upcoming winter meetings in Orlando, Florida, and announced on Dec. 7.
Though the writers have until the end of the year to determine their choices for the primary ballot, the era committee process will be upon us not long after the coming Thanksgiving holiday. Each of the Hall’s era committees meet every three years, and this year, the contemporary era committee is considering player candidates from 1980 on. It’s the stronger ballot; the eight candidates average 74.1 career bWAR, while the 33 candidates on the primary ballot average 41.3. Even if you just take the top eight on the main ballot, that group averages 70.4.
Much of the attention has been focused on two candidates: Don Mattingly and Dale Murphy. Heck, the Murphy constituency has its own web site, which among other things features documentaries narrated by country singer Jason Aldean and sportscaster Ernie Johnson.
I get it. Mattingly and Murphy were MVPs in the 1980s who attracted legions of fans in their time, many of whom considered one or the other their favorite player. As the captain of the New York Yankees, Mattingly had a huge following, while Murphy’s fan base was national thanks to the Atlanta Braves’ omnipresence on SuperStation WTBS, as it was known then. I have a Murphy model ballglove I got in junior high that I still use all these years later.
Still, the attention sphere around this ballot should be fixed on two other players, who might just be respectively the best hitter and best pitcher who ever played.
Let’s go to the bWAR leaderboard.
2025 ERA COMMITTEE BALLOT
Barry Bonds (162.8 bWAR)
Roger Clemens (139.2)
Gary Sheffield (60.5)
Jeff Kent (55.4)
Dale Murphy (46.5)
Carlos Delgado (44.4)
Don Mattingly (42.4)
Fernando Valenzuela (41.4)
We all know why Bonds and Clemens (and Sheffield) remain Hall candidates rather than Hall members, but that’s all the more reason that we should be on fire, right now, relitigating the issues surrounding their candidacies. It’s as if even those who support the candidacies of Bonds and Clemens in particular have slipped into numb acceptance in a “they should be in, but we all know how it is” sort of way.
The thing about this cycle is that the stakes have changed. Last year, the Hall announced a tweak to their era committee process, something they’ve done many times over the decades. As things stand now, this could be the second-to-last shot for Bonds and Clemens — ever.
The new rule:
“Beginning in 2025, any candidate who appears on a ballot and does not receive votes from at least five of the 16 voters will not be eligible to be placed on the ballot within the Era Committee’s following three-year cycle. Additionally, beginning in 2025, any candidate that does not receive at least five of 16 votes in multiple appearances on Era Committee ballots will not be eligible for future ballot consideration.”
So if Bonds, Clemens or Sheffield fall short of five ballots out of the 16 that will be cast in Orlando, they won’t be eligible the next time their era group comes up in 2028. Then 2031 will be their last chance, if they are nominated.
Most fans are firmly entrenched on this issue. To me, the idea that the Hall of Fame would not include baseball’s all-time home run king and one of the top five pitchers ever, when both are eligible and both have official playing records that are intact, means it will forever be less than what it should be. Given the new guidelines, it’s a shadow that would loom over 25 Main Street forever.
At any rate, only 16 people will comprise the committee that will deliberate over the era ballot in Orlando. We don’t yet know who they are — this will be announced in early December — but the makeup of the committee will tell you a lot about how things are likely to go. It always does, which has always been the primary problem with the various incarnations of the veterans and era committees over the years.
To move from committee to Cooperstown, all of the candidates will need to be named on at least 12 of the 16 ballots. But each member is limited to three names. All eight of the players on ballot have their advocates, so even without the looming presence of Bonds and Clemens, it’s a tough road.
There is no one right way to approach this, but over time, I’ve developed a method to working through how to deal with these ballots — whether it’s an era ballot or the writer’s ballot. These are only exercises to inform my writing about the process, as I have never cast a Hall of Fame vote.
I think of the process as a kind of flow chart consisting of three regions, which are: 1. Eligibility; 2. Objective case; 3. Deep dive.
Each region works as a kind of funnel: You filter out some players, others slip through, unless their cases become clear. At each juncture, you’re asking, “Who’s in?” and “Who’s out?” If the player falls in neither category, he slips through the funnel into the next region.
Let’s apply this approach to the current era ballot.
Region 1: Eligibility
For our purposes as voters (let’s all call ourselves that to get into the spirit), this is done for us. We can only vote for those on the ballot. Write-in votes are not permitted.
So why bother to break this out? It’s all about the character clause:
“Voting shall be based upon the player’s record, playing ability, integrity, sportsmanship, character and contributions to the team(s) on which the player played.”
Some of these things are more concrete than others. We don’t have time for a debate on moral philosophy, but for me the key is simply this: Any baseball writer, commentator, reporter, historian, player, manager, executive or anyone else who finds themselves puzzling over a Hall of Fame ballot is qualified to assess baseball. The rest, as former commissioner Faye Vincent once opined, is “hopelessly vague.”
These things can mean different things to different people, but I believe that the time for deciding whether certain transgressions eliminate a candidate from Hall consideration should fall during the pre-ballot process. You don’t want certain people in your Hall of Fame? Then don’t put them on the ballot. Once they land on the ballot, then it’s all about the baseball part of a person’s story.
The Hall does eliminate from consideration anyone on the ineligible list — those banned from the game — so there are acknowledged limitations. But if the player lands on a ballot, then for me the case moves onto the matters related to winning baseball games and accolades, things that are all a matter of the sport’s official record.
As for this era ballot, obviously the eligibility region neither anoints anyone, nor rules out anyone. So all eight move onto the next region.
Region 2: Objective case
Far more has been written about the objective judgment of Hall of Fame candidates than any other consideration. And let’s face it, this is the fun part.
I want to be clear about one thing: WAR should never be the only consideration for Hall membership. Neither should win shares or home runs or hits or win probability added, or pitcher won-loss record or career saves. You must look at a player’s career holistically and in context, using various criteria and then go from there. In fact, the Hall’s guidelines explicitly prohibit the inclusion of anyone based strictly on some predetermined objective standard.
What we’re looking for are the outliers, both positive and negative — those who are no-brainers to get in, and those whose cases aren’t strong enough to move them into our third region. There won’t be any eliminations in this section today, but this step would help us sort out the primary ballot.
As for no-brainers, you can guess where this is headed.
Bonds: He ranks fourth all-time in bWAR (162.8), first in home runs (762), fifth in OPS (1.051), first in walks (2,558), first in runs created (2,892) … and so on. Recognition in one’s own time is a crucial indicator when looking at an era candidate, and of course Bonds has that too. His seven MVP awards are three more than anyone else and he ranks first in award shares for MVP voting.
Clemens: He ranks eighth in bWAR (139.2) and third in pitching bWAR (138.7), won 354 games, ranks third on the strikeout list (4,672) and ranks first in award shares for Cy Young voting.
Yeah, they’re in. These are the performance records of no-doubt Hall of Famers who should not be on this ballot in the first place. Either they should have been in long ago, or they should have been deemed ineligible. But here they are, and their cases remain as clear-cut as ever.
Everyone else moves onto the final region.
Region 3: Deep Dive (aka The Keltner List)
Now we’re into the gray area — candidates who might be Hall worthy or might not. Because of the presence of two no-brainers on the ballot, and the limitation of only being allowed to list three candidates, we’re down to one precious slot.
The Keltner List is a series of questions developed by Bill James in his seminal book on the Hall of Fame, “The Politics of Glory.” The questions are all closed-ended, so for each we land on yes or no. We’ll run through the questions and list the “yes” players for each one. Then we’ll tally it up and see where we land.
1. Was he ever regarded as the best player in baseball?
Remember, we’ve already anointed Bonds and Clemens above, so they are not subject to any of these questions. As for the rest, I give credit for this one to Mattingly and Murphy.
It’s not clear-cut, but Murphy won back-to-back MVPs and would clearly have been in any “best player” conversation during that time (1982 and 1983) and perhaps beyond. Mattingly was AL MVP in 1985, and from 1984 to 1986 he created 20 more runs than any other player in baseball and won two Glove Gloves. Many would have argued he was baseball’s best player at that time.
Yes: Mattingly, Murphy
2. Was he the best player on his team?
This is a yes for everyone except Kent, whose best seasons came as Bonds’ teammate. Kent did win NL MVP in 2000, but hitting behind Bonds (49 homers, .440 OBP) was a boost to his stat line and Bonds had a higher bWAR even in that season.
Perhaps worth mentioning is Valenzuela, who can at least stake claim to this category for his rookie season (1981) when he won the NL Cy Young Award and led the champion Los Angeles Dodgers in bWAR.
Yes: Sheffield, Murphy, Delgado, Mattingly, Valenzuela
3. Was he the best player in baseball (or in the league) at his position?
Everyone gets a yes here. Kent, Murphy and Mattingly won MVP awards. Valenzuela won a Cy Young. These are strong indicators. Sheffield was baseball’s best right fielder in 2003, at the very least. He was probably the top third baseman in 1992. Delgado was the top AL first baseman once or twice. Frankly, for a ballot like this one, this criteria is a fairly low bar.
Yes: Sheffield, Kent, Murphy, Delgado, Mattingly, Valenzuela
4. Did he have an impact on a number of pennant races?
Increasingly, because of the larger playoff formats of the recent era, I’d fold playoff appearances and performance into this question. The murky part is the “a number of” component. Murphy played on a lot of lousy teams and got into only one playoff series. Same for Mattingly, though he raked when he got there. Delgado had a huge 2006 postseason for the New York Mets but that was his only playoff appearance.
I’m giving a yes here to Valenzuela and Sheffield for coming up big for championship teams. Kent didn’t get a ring but hit well over 49 postseason games.
Yes: Valenzuela, Sheffield, Kent
5. Was he a good enough player that he could continue to play regularly after passing his prime?
This is a yes for all of them, as all played regular roles well into their 30s. Mattingly’s career was truncated because of his ongoing back trouble, but that shortened his peak more than anything. He still played until he was 34 and was the Yankees’ regular first baseman the entire time.
Yes: Sheffield, Kent, Murphy, Delgado, Mattingly, Valenzuela
6. Is he the very best player in baseball history who is not in the Hall of Fame?
As long as Bonds and Clemens are on the outside, this question probably will remain a no for everyone who becomes subject to this inquiry.
Yes: None
7. Are most players who have comparable career statistics in the Hall of Fame?
This is where we turn to Jay Jaffe’s JAWS data as it exists at baseball-reference.com. The answer for all is: No. None of our remaining six really come all that close to the average standards of existing Hall of Famers at their positions. There are some comparable Hall of Famers, but not most. This is not surprising, as an era ballot is by definition a second-chance process.
Yes: None
8. Do the players’ numbers meet Hall of Fame standards?
James’ systematized this question in an ingenious way, and we’ll lean on his standard of a score of 50 for our six hopefuls. We’re left with two players who clear that bar.
Yes: Sheffield, Kent
9. Is there evidence to suggest that the player was significantly better or worse than is suggested by his statistics?
I’m going to focus on peak value, which I’ve always weighed close to equal with career value, though with a higher bar. (Think: Sandy Koufax and his ilk of short-career greats.)
This helps Mattingly. His peak bWAR (35.7) is still below the Hall average at first base, but it’s better than David Ortiz and Orlando Cepeda, and virtually even with Tony Perez, Fred McGriff and Frank Chance. These are all Hall of Famers. Delgado (34.5 peak bWAR) isn’t far back, so it’s really about where you want to draw the lines.
Meanwhile, Sheffield had a higher peak bWAR (38.0) than Hall of Famers Dave Winfield, Dave Parker, Enos Slaughter, Willie Keeler and Kike Cuyler, plus some other 19th century types further down the list. When you consider that Sheffield topped 500 homers (509) and has a career bWAR (60.5) that is borderline, his case is building.
Finally, Murphy gets a similar bump. His peak bWAR (41.2) ranks 18th among center fielders. He’s above quite a few Hall of Famers.
Yes: Sheffield, Mattingly, Murphy
10. Is he the best player at his position who is eligible for the Hall of Fame but not in?
No one can claim to be the best hitter or pitcher not in. Zeroing in on specific positions, using JAWS, you can’t quite get there for any of the six. Even if you discount active players and PED-associated candidates at first base, Mattingly and Delgado still have to deal with the specter of Keith Hernandez, John Olerud, Will Clark and others who, at the very least, are hard to separate. Kent is blocked in this area by Lou Whitaker and Bobby Grich, to start. None of the six clear this bar.
Yes: None
11. How many MVP-type seasons did he have? Did he ever win an MVP Award? If not, how many times was he close?
We’ll fold in Cy Young voting for Valenzuela and defer to the awards-share figures. We have award winners — Valenzuela, Mattingly, Murphy and Kent — and those are enough for a yes. Sheffield had three top-three MVP finishes and had more MVP shares than any of the three who won the award. Delgado just missed winning the AL MVP Award in 2003.
Yes: Sheffield, Kent, Murphy, Delgado, Mattingly, Valenzuela
12. How many All-Star-type seasons did he have? How many All-Star Games did he play in? Did most of the other players who played in this many go into the Hall of Fame?
Delgado played in only two All-Star Games and there aren’t many Hall of Famers with only two ASG appearances. Everyone else played in many All-Star Games and land in peer groups comprising quite a few Hall of Famers.
Yes: Sheffield, Kent, Murphy, Mattingly, Valenzuela
13. If this man were the best player on his team, would it be likely that the team could win the pennant?
Yes: Sheffield, Kent, Murphy, Delgado, Mattingly, Valenzuela
14. What impact did the player have on baseball history? Was he responsible for any rule changes? Did he introduce any new equipment? Did he change the game in any way?
All of these players were historic in different ways, not all of them good. But I’m going to stay positive here and award one yes in a category that I view as extra credit. That goes to Valenzuela, whose impact in Latin America in general and Mexico in particular was immense, and it was pretty significant in Southern California as well.
Yes: Valenzuela
15. Did the player uphold the standards of sportsmanship and character that the Hall of Fame, in its written guidelines, instructs us to consider?
And so we come back, at the end, where many want to begin the discussion. And here, I’m OK with getting into traits such as clubhouse leadership and things like the Roberto Clemente Award and other areas of community impact. When you are comparing similar candidates, those are separating qualities and, I would argue, are germane to the primary task of baseball careers: winning games, pennants, and championships, but also establishing an identity in conjunction with the teams on which you play.
Even so, I’m loath to judge these players in these areas for the most part, so I will seek hard evidence. There, we find that Mattingly was a Yankees team captain. Murphy and Delgado were Clemente Award recipients.
Yes: Mattingly, Murphy, Delgado
So who gets the nod?
The Keltner List is meant to help you arrive at a thumbs-up or thumbs-down for each candidate put through that ringer. But here I’m taking a different approach. We’ve got three spots. Two of those were claimed early on by Bonds and Clemens, leaving me with one slot.
Well, the Keltner List left three players that landed nine yes votes among the 15 questions: Sheffield, Murphy and Mattingly. All of them are worthy Hall of Famers. But we have to whittle it down, so it comes down to picking one.
My pick: Murphy
Murphy had the highest peak value of the trio and had a stint in the conversation as the best player in the sport. He was an all-around player, as his five Gold Gloves will attest. His reputation in the sport, while not the top-line consideration for me, is something I very much honor.
I wish it didn’t have to be only three and I will always believe that all Hall votes shouldn’t be space-limited by rule. Either someone is a Hall of Famer, or they aren’t. But for now, we have only so many lines to fill in and I’d fill mine with Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens and Dale Murphy.
Whether you agree with this approach probably comes down to your stance on the character clause. For me, this is the simple, direct way to approach the murkiest and most glorious of all baseball debates — whether a player’s career merits Hall of Fame induction.
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Greg Wyshynski
The Winnipeg Jets will be without star goalie Connor Hellebuyck for four to six weeks as he undergoes a minor arthroscopic procedure on his knee, a source confirmed to ESPN.
Hellebuyck has been dealing with the injury since training camp. Winnipeg coach Scott Arniel said the goalie has tried to play through it but felt soreness after games. The Jets and their star goalie felt it was best to address it now opposed to having it linger any longer. His surgery is scheduled for Saturday.
Hellebuyck, 32, has won the Vezina Trophy as the NHL’s top goaltender for two straight seasons and was trying to become the first netminder since Hall of Famer Dominik Hasek (1996-99) to win the award three straight times.
Overall, Hellebuyck has three Vezina Trophy wins and has been a finalist for the award five times.
He’s 8-6-0 with a .913 save percentage and a 2.51 goals-against average in 14 games for the Jets, who are third in the Central Division with a .632 points percentage. Hellebuyck last played Saturday at Calgary, stopping 31 of 34 shots and then three more in the Jets’ shootout win over the Flames.
Winnipeg recalled goaltender Thomas Milic from the AHL Manitoba Moose, and he will tandem with backup goalie Eric Comrie in Hellebuyck’s absence.
Hellebuyck is expected to be the starting goaltender for Team USA at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy in February. He served in that role for the Americans at the 4 Nations Face-Off last season, losing in the gold medal game to Canada.
His injury was originally reported by TSN.
With another week of the 2025-26 NHL season in the books, ESPN’s panel of voters continues to believe the Colorado Avalanche are the top team in the league.
Beyond No. 1, there were some major swings this week, including the first top-10 appearance by the Chicago Blackhawks in quite some time, as Connor Bedard & Co. continue to be in the mix for a playoff spot with a quarter of the season complete.
Speaking of the quarter-season mark, as part of this week’s rankings we’ve identified the most valuable player for each team through 25% of the season.
How we rank: A panel of ESPN hockey commentators, analysts, reporters and editors sends in a 1-32 poll based on the games through Wednesday.
Note: Previous ranking for each team refers to the previous edition, published Nov. 14. Points percentages are through Thursday’s games.
Previous ranking: 1
Points percentage: 82.5%
Quarter-season MVP: Nathan MacKinnon. With all due respect to the monster season thus far from Cale Makar, we have to give the nod to MacKinnon, who is leading the league in both points (36) and goals (16).
Next seven days: @ NSH (Nov. 22), @ CHI (Nov. 23), vs. SJ (Nov. 26)
Previous ranking: 4
Points percentage: 70%
Quarter-season MVP: Seth Jarvis. Who else but the Hurricanes’ rising superstar, who continues to play in all situations and hover around a point-per-game pace while doing so.
Next seven days: @ WPG (Nov. 21), @ BUF (Nov. 23), vs. NYR (Nov. 26)
Previous ranking: 3
Points percentage: 64.3%
Quarter-season MVP: Leo Carlsson. The Ducks’ selection of Carlsson at No. 2 overall in the 2023 draft over Adam Fantilli was puzzling to some observers. It is puzzling no more, as the 20-year-old Swede is at the front of the proverbial Flying V for a Ducks team that is in the mix atop the Pacific Division.
Next seven days: vs. VGK (Nov. 22), vs. VAN (Nov. 26)
Previous ranking: 5
Points percentage: 69%
Quarter-season MVP: Mikko Rantanen. The Stars didn’t need to see how well Rantanen would perform on their roster before inking him to a long-term deal; that contract was signed the same day he was acquired from the Hurricanes. So far, so good.
Next seven days: @ CGY (Nov. 22), @ EDM (Nov. 25), @ SEA (Nov. 26)
0:43
Mikko Rantanen scores 300th career goal for Stars
Mikko Rantanen lights the lamp to score his 300th career goal for Stars.
Previous ranking: 2
Points percentage: 67.5%
Quarter-season MVP: Jesper Bratt. Unfortunately, Bratt and the other Devils have experience playing without Jack Hughes in the lineup. They’ll get more of it for the next several weeks following No. 86’s “freak injury” at a steakhouse in Chicago last week.
Next seven days: @ PHI (Nov. 22), vs. DET (Nov. 24), vs. STL (Nov. 26)
Previous ranking: 7
Points percentage: 63.2%
Quarter-season MVP: Mark Scheifele. The Jets’ top-line center has never hit the 50-goal or 100-point plateau in his NHL career, coming closest with 42 goals in 2022-23 and 87 points in 2024-25. He’s currently on pace for 50 tallies and 109 points.
Next seven days: vs. CAR (Nov. 21), vs. MIN (Nov. 23), @ WSH (Nov. 26)
Previous ranking: 10
Points percentage: 65%
Quarter-season MVP: Jack Eichel. Though he has fallen off of his perch atop the goals and points races, Eichel led the Knights with 24 points through 19 games, making a strong push for his first Hart Trophy nod.
Next seven days: @ ANA (Nov. 22), @ UTA (Nov. 24), vs. OTT (Nov. 26)
Previous ranking: 9
Points percentage: 63.2%
Quarter-season MVP: Sidney Crosby. Prior to the season, the trade rumors ran wild with potential new destinations for No. 87. Instead, he’s led a resurgent Penguins team to a spot near the top of the Metro Division, including six power-play goals for the NHL’s top man-advantage attack.
Next seven days: vs. MIN (Nov. 21), vs. SEA (Nov. 22), vs. BUF (Nov. 26)
Previous ranking: 14
Points percentage: 60%
Quarter-season MVP: Connor Bedard. The Blackhawks might have something in this kid, after all. With 29 points through 19 games in his third NHL season, Bedard is on pace for 118 — and Chicago is right in the mix for a playoff spot after a quarter of the season.
Next seven days: @ BUF (Nov. 21), vs. COL (Nov. 23), vs. MIN (Nov. 26)
1:18
Connor Bedard nets hat trick for Blackhawks
Connor Bedard scores three goals for Chicago on Tuesday night against Calgary.
Previous ranking: 18
Points percentage: 59.5%
Quarter-season MVP: Dylan Larkin. Larkin put the hockey world on notice with his performance during the 4 Nations Face-Off last season and has carried at least some of that momentum forward into this NHL season, scoring with 24 points (12 goals and 12 assists) through his first 20 games.
Next seven days: vs. CBJ (Nov. 22), @ NJ (Nov. 24), vs. NSH (Nov. 26)
Previous ranking: 11
Points percentage: 59.5%
Quarter-season MVP: Adrian Kempe. With a new contract extension now in hand, Kempe has been able to completely put the business aspect out of mind and focus on his on-ice performance. With 19 points, he’s the Kings’ leading scorer through 20 games.
Next seven days: vs. BOS (Nov. 21), vs. OTT (Nov. 24)
Previous ranking: 22
Points percentage: 61.9%
Quarter-season MVP: Matthew Schaefer. Honorable mention here to Bo Horvat and his team-leading 13 goals and 24 points, but the nod goes to the 2025 No. 1 pick, who leads the Isles in ice time per game (22:29), was recently added to Canada’s 90-man list of Olympic candidates, and may be responsible for a sudden positive surge in vibes on the Island.
Next seven days: vs. STL (Nov. 22), vs. SEA (Nov. 23), vs. BOS (Nov. 26)
Previous ranking: 12
Points percentage: 60%
Quarter-season MVP: Jake Guentzel. Like the team in general, Guentzel didn’t get off to the best start this season. But, he has picked it up in November (with seven goals and three assists through the month’s first eight games), as the Lightning look to climb back up the Atlantic Division standings.
Next seven days: @ WSH (Nov. 22), vs. PHI (Nov. 24), vs. CGY (Nov. 26)
1:02
Jake Guentzel completes Lightning late show with OT winner
Jake Guentzel lights the lamp to win it for the Lightning in overtime.
Previous ranking: 8
Points percentage: 54.6%
Quarter-season MVP: David Pastrnak. For the Bruins to make noise this season, a lot was going to have to go right. One of those factors was Pastrnak scoring like the top-tier player he is. So far, so good, as Pasta scored 27 points through his first 22 games, with the Bruins near the top of the division.
Next seven days: @ LA (Nov. 21), @ SJ (Nov. 23), @ NYI (Nov. 26)
Previous ranking: 6
Points percentage: 57.5%
Quarter-season MVP: Jakub Dobes. Although he has cooled off a bit after winning all six of his starts in October, the Czech 24-year-old appears to be the Habs’ better option in net this season, as he stakes his own claim in the Calder Trophy race.
Next seven days: vs. TOR (Nov. 22), @ UTA (Nov. 26)
Previous ranking: 17
Points percentage: 62.5%
Quarter-season MVP: Jaden Schwartz. The Kraken have been one of the season’s pleasant surprises, remaining in the mix for a playoff spot through the first quarter. It has been a full-team effort — only six players have double-digit points after 19 games, and no one is in double digits in the goals column — so we’ll give the nod to the venerable, 33-year-old who shared the team scoring lead through 19 games and led the team with a plus-8 rating.
Next seven days: @ PIT (Nov. 22), @ NYI (Nov. 23), vs. DAL (Nov. 26)
Previous ranking: 13
Points percentage: 54.8%
Quarter-season MVP: Nick Schmaltz. In the club’s first official season as the Mammoth, Schmaltz has led the team in scoring (22 points) and is tied for game-winning goals (two, with Clayton Keller) through the first 20 games.
Next seven days: vs. NYR (Nov. 22), vs. VGK (Nov. 24), vs. MTL (Nov. 26)
1:03
Schmaltz nets second career hat trick in Mammoth’s win
Nick Schmaltz scores a trio of goals to lead Utah to a 6-3 win over San Jose.
Previous ranking: 15
Points percentage: 60%
Quarter-season MVP: Tim Stutzle. The Sens had captain Brady Tkachuk for three games before the forward’s upper-body injury sidelined him. Stutzle answered the call to fill the scoring gap, with a point-per-game pace through 19 games and double-digit goals.
Next seven days: @ SJ (Nov. 22), @ LA (Nov. 24), @ VGK (Nov. 26)
Previous ranking: 27
Points percentage: 57.1%
Quarter-season MVP: Jesper Wallstedt. Sure, Kirill Kaprizov has been incredible, but that was expected. Let’s give some credit to rookie netminder Wallstedt, who has gone 5-0-2 in seven starts, with a 2.10 goals-against average (second in the league) and .926 save percentage (first).
Next seven days: @ PIT (Nov. 21), @ WPG (Nov. 23), @ CHI (Nov. 26)
Previous ranking: 19
Points percentage: 57.1%
Quarter-season MVP: Logan Thompson. Thompson was the last line of defense for a team that nearly won the Presidents’ Trophy in 2024-25. He isn’t winning as often this season, but his other numbers are even better: a league-leading 1.85 goals-against average, and .920 save percentage (third).
Next seven days: vs. TB (Nov. 22), vs. CBJ (Nov. 24), vs. WPG (Nov. 26)
Previous ranking: 24
Points percentage: 57.5%
Quarter-season MVP: Brad Marchand. The Panthers headed into this season defending two straight Stanley Cup championships, but without captain Aleksander Barkov (out until April) and Matthew Tkachuk (December). The team’s big trade deadline addition from last season (and playoff star) has stepped up, scoring a team-leading 23 points through 18 games; that puts him on pace for 99 points, one shy of a career high set back in 2018-19.
Next seven days: vs. EDM (Nov. 22), @ NSH (Nov. 24), vs. PHI (Nov. 26)
Previous ranking: 16
Points percentage: 60.5%
Quarter-season MVP: Trevor Zegras. Who knew that a change of scenery was all it took to get Zegras’ career back on an upward trajectory? The No. 9 pick of the 2019 draft had hit a wall in Anaheim, but is soaring in Philly.
Next seven days: vs. NJ (Nov. 22), TB (Nov. 24), @ FLA (Nov. 26)
0:18
Trevor Zegras goes five-hole for Flyers’ shootout winner
Trevor Zegras goes between the legs to score the lone goal in the shootout for the Flyers vs. the Blues.
Previous ranking: 26
Points percentage: 57.1%
Quarter-season MVP: Jet Greaves. Are we witnessing a changing of the guard in Columbus’ crease in real time? Greaves finished the 2024-25 season strong, and has been the goalie of choice for Columbus thus far this season, with 12 starts to Elvis Merzlikins‘ eight (and better stats as well).
Next seven days: @ DET (Nov. 22), @ WSH (Nov. 24), vs. TOR (Nov. 26)
Previous ranking: 21
Points percentage: 50%
Quarter-season MVP: Igor Shesterkin/Jonathan Quick. The Rangers are still trying to figure out the right formula on offense, but the goal-suppression effort has been superb. Shesterkin is putting forth another superb effort, with a 7-7-2 record, 2.43 goals-against average and .911 save percentage; Quick has him beat in both of the ratios — 1.42 and .951 (!) — though he has fallen victim to the same lack of goal support, with a 3-2-0 mark. Things would be much worse for the Blueshirts without them.
Next seven days: @ UTA (Nov. 22), vs. STL (Nov. 24), @ CAR (Nov. 26)
Previous ranking: 20
Points percentage: 50%
Quarter-season MVP: Connor McDavid. Ho hum, another season of elite scoring from the game’s greatest talent. Through 22 games, McDavid’s 32 points are six clear of second-best on the team (Leon Draisaitl‘s 26), as the Oil look to climb out of another early-season hole in the standings.
Next seven days: @ FLA (Nov. 22), vs. DAL (Nov. 25)
Previous ranking: 23
Points percentage: 54.8%
Quarter-season MVP: Macklin Celebrini. Celebrini went first overall in the 2024 draft — so we knew he’d be good. Did anyone expect him to be on pace to break the Sharks’ all-time scoring record in his second pro season?
Next seven days: vs. OTT (Nov. 22), vs. BOS (Nov. 23), @ COL (Nov. 26)
0:32
Macklin Celebrini’s hat trick wins it for Sharks in OT
Macklin Celebrini scores on the power play for San Jose Sharks
Previous ranking: 25
Points percentage: 50%
Quarter-season MVP: William Nylander. It hasn’t been the greatest season in the storied history of the Maple Leafs — what with injuries to key skaters such as Auston Matthews and Chris Tanev, and the appearance of four goaltenders on the seasonal stat sheet due to injuries in the crease. But Nylander has been Mr. Reliable, with an impressive 27 points through 17 games, including some eye-popping highlights.
Next seven days: @ MTL (Nov. 22), @ CBJ (Nov. 26)
Previous ranking: 28
Points percentage: 45.5%
Quarter-season MVP: Quinn Hughes. Rare is the team led in scoring by a defenseman, but such has been the case for the Canucks this season, with their captain leading the way en route to (likely) another Norris Trophy finalist spot.
Next seven days: vs. CGY (Nov. 23), @ ANA (Nov. 26)
Previous ranking: 30
Points percentage: 45%
Quarter-season MVP: Tage Thompson. Some day, the Sabres will return to the playoffs, providing a payoff to one of the most passionate fan bases in the sport. For now, Thompson keeps scoring goals (10 of them so far), and might earn a spot to represent Team USA at the Milan-Cortina Olympics.
Next seven days: vs. CHI (Nov. 21), vs. CAR (Nov. 23), @ PIT (Nov. 26)
Previous ranking: 29
Points percentage: 42.9%
Quarter-season MVP: Robert Thomas. Not a lot has gone right for the Blues this season after they snuck into the playoffs last season (and nearly knocked off the Jets). So, we’ll give the nod to Thomas, the only player on the roster who has played in more than one game and has a positive plus/minus rating (along with his 13 points through 16 games).
Next seven days: @ NYI (Nov. 22), @ NYR (Nov. 24), @ NJ (Nov. 26)
Previous ranking: 31
Points percentage: 40%
Quarter-season MVP: Filip Forsberg. At this point, GM Barry Trotz needs to figure out who is going to be a part of the next competitive version of the Predators and who is not. We think that Forsberg — who has been around the past few versions — will still be there when Nashville makes the playoffs again.
Next seven days: vs. COL (Nov. 22), vs. FLA (Nov. 24), @ DET (Nov. 26)
Previous ranking: 32
Points percentage: 34.1%
Quarter-season MVP: Nazem Kadri. It has been a rough season for the Flames, and this roster could look quite a bit different by season’s end (with trade rumors already circling Kadri, Rasmus Andersson, Blake Coleman and others). So, as the leading scorer, the veteran center earns the quarter-season MVP honors here.
Next seven days: vs. DAL (Nov. 22), VAN (Nov. 23), @ TB (Nov. 26)
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