(no subject)

[reldnahkram]

Without looking anything up, guess the median year of birth for pitchers in the baseball hall of fame. If it helps, there are 62 pitchers enshrined in Cooperstown.

Answer later. Guesses are not screened.

Comments

[sildra.livejournal.com]

Well, pro baseball has been around since around the turn of the last century, I think, although the very earliest players are probably less likely to be in the hall of fame. And I recently overheard a conversation where a friend said you had to be retired for 5 years to be eligible, and people probably retire around... 35? 40? So no one born before about 1970 is even eligible, and it probably usually takes a few years of being eligible before someone is inducted, so I'll guess the youngest people were born around 1965, and the oldest were probably born around 1870, but probably most of the hall-of-famers were born later than... 1890ish.

So the question is if the baseball hall of fame skews toward the old famous people or if it's easier to get in now than it once was. But there are more players now than there were before, so in any case I'll guess on the young side.

1945

[tirerim.livejournal.com]

Given what I know about the rates of induction over time (though I only remember approximately), let's say 1905. It's possible that that's actually too low, but I'm pretty sure that the answer will be much earlier than would be expected if there were any kind of even distribution.

[uncleamos]

I agree with BDan, in part because I think pitchers used to be higher profile, what with being every-day guys and all that. But I think he's gone a little too early, given the growth of the league as a whole. I'l say:

1915

[jdh92.livejournal.com]

I'm also thinking it's early, since it seems like they've been getting much pickier about pitchers recently. The chunk of Negro League inductions recently might also skew it. I was thinking about 1910, although I actually wouldn't be surprised if it was before 1900.

[ccommack]

I would correct uncleamos's addendum and say that, back when pitchers went out every day, there were fewer of them active at any given point.

Still, I'm going to take 1922, on the gut assumption that the logic is mostly correct.