By John A. Tures, Professor of Political Science, LaGrange College

Amazingly, the greatest defensive centerfielder in Major League Baseball history, who just happens to have 400 home runs and 1289 RBIs, 1204 runs, and 1933 hits, is about to miss out on Baseball’s Hall-of-Fame unless the Baseball Writer’s of America Association (BBWA) come to their senses, make the right call, and enshrine Andruw Jones in Cooperstown, New York, just as the Latin Hall-of-Fame has inducted Jones into their ranks.

“Jones won 10 Gold Gloves in his career,” writes Sarah Langs with Major League Baseball News. “Here’s the full list of outfielders to win more: Roberto Clemente and Willie Mays. That’s it – two first-ballot Hall of Famers.” And yet Jones still languishes on the bench, awaiting his turn.

Langs with MLB continues to make their case for one of their best. “Overall, there have been 15 non-pitchers to win at least 10 Gold Gloves. Only four of them also hit at least 400 home runs: Willie Mays, Ken Griffey Jr., Mike Schmidt, and Jones.” The other three are first ballot Hall-of-Famers.

Stadium Talk posts data on the best defensive outfielders. No outfielder has a defensive Wins Above Replacement (dWAR) as high as Jones’, include Mays and Clemente. During his career, he had the highest dWAR of anyone who played in his era. Look at the numbers and he’s one of the best defenders of any position at any time.

Langs’ MLB article adds “We don’t have defensive runs saved or outs above average to span Jones’ career, but Baseball Reference has a stat called total zone runs, which is essentially a precursor to the idea of DRS. Jones amassed 230 total zone runs, the most by any player as a center fielder since the stat’s data begins (1953), ahead of Mays’ 176.”

According to Baseball Reference, Jones’ overall WAR was 62.7. He finished second in the MVP voting in 2005, and would have won it if defense counted for anything. From 1998-2007, he hit over 25 homes and 90 RBIs every year, all while playing more than 154 games a year every year with 630 ABs each year.

Jones has his critics, of course. As Asher Chancey wrote in 2010. “[T]he Bleacher Report Featured Columnists for baseball were asked to weigh in on the chances of certain current players for the Hall of Fame.  I participated in this poll and voted against the induction of Andruw Jones without giving it much thought….I was kind of surprised to find that most people’s opinions of Jones and his credentials for the Hall centered around the value of his once-in-a-lifetime defense in center field and deceptively low-value offensive contributions.”

Low-value offensive contributions? Again, we consult Langs and her stats and history-based case. “It isn’t solely defensively where Jones ranks well among fellow center fielders. His peak seven-year WAR — the sum of his seven highest totals, not necessarily consecutively — was 46.4. That’s ahead of the average of the 19 Hall of Fame center fielders, which is 44.7. In fact, only eight center fielders have had a higher peak seven-year WAR: Mays, Ty Cobb, Mike Trout, Mickey Mantle, Tris Speaker, Griffey, Joe DiMaggio and Duke Snider. That’s seven Hall of Famers and another who will be there one day, in Trout.”

But Chancey’s not done. He conducts a little guesswork and decides that Jones’ drop in basestealing at age 23 and decline in defensive skills in his 30s is the result of unproven steroid use. Well, Jones was never that much of a base swiper, having only four seasons with 20 SBs and none more than 30. The rest is speculation without any hard evidence.

Will Brooks, also with Bleacher Report, makes the case for Jones to be in the Hall-of-Fame. “Some may say, “Well, he’s only hitting .250.” I say, “What’s new?” Andruw has hardly ever hit for a high average, as he is just a .259 career hitter. However, it is his double-digit gold-gloves, more than 1100 RBI, and potential 450-500 career HR numbers that back up the evidence to say that Andruw should be well on his way to a Hall-of-Fame career. Not to mention, he’s done all of this during the steroid era. And has yet to be charged, or even accused, of being involved with BALCO, the Mitchell Report, or any other steroid scandal thus far.”

Keep in mind that Jones hit his historic batting marks, and ran down smash hits, off pitchers and batters that we know actually were juiced.

Civil cases are decided on the preponderance of the evidence. To any reasonable judge or jury, that evidence favors Andruw Jones getting his long overdue recognition from Baseball’s Hall-of-Fame. Voters need to stop playing games, follow the awards, statistics, and history, and ignore the single average number (a batting average of .250) and unproven allegations.

John A. Tures is a professor of political science at LaGrange College in LaGrange, Georgia. His views are his own. He can be reached at jtures@lagrange.edu. His “X” account is JohnTures2.