Why don't the Angels have any Hall of Famers? Tim Salmon has an idea

By foxsports
Published

There are five Major League teams without a representative in the Hall of Fame: the Colorado Rockies, Miami Marlins, Tampa Bay Rays, Washington Nationals and the Los Angeles Angels. The Halos' spot on that list stands out since they've been around nearly sixty years, whereas the other four organizations are relatively 'new' to the league.

Why, then, are there no Angel caps in Cooperstown yet? As team icon Tim Salmon said to MLB.com's Alden Gonzalez this week, he sees a specific reason for this: 

"When you look back over the history of the Angels, and when you think about the way the teams were put together, it doesn't surprise me," Salmon said. "Because you had great players who were on track for that but were traded away, or they moved on, or they were free agents. They left. I think that's why sometimes the Angels don't get included in that conversation, although they've had amazingly great Hall of Fame players that have played for them at various times. I just don't think there was ever enough tenure within the organization."

Gonzalez cites Nolan Ryan, Reggie Jackson and Rod Carew as a trio of players that spent time in Anaheim but donned other teams' caps in the Hall due to their achievements elsewhere. 

This week's Hall of Fame voting results also marked the only appearances by Angel alumni David Eckstein, Troy Glaus, Garret Anderson and (perhaps unfairly, considering his achievements) Jim Edmonds as all four received less than the minimum five percent of votes required to stay on the ballot in the future. 

In his piece, Gonzalez brings up Vladimir Guerrero, who will be eligible for the Hall next year. Would he pick the Angels or the Montreal Expos as his representative franchise if he garners enough votes? Salmon opined on that as well: 

"I don't know enough about [Guerrero's] years in Montreal, but I will say he got the most notoriety of his career in Anaheim, I would think," said Salmon, who received five votes from the BBWAA in 2012. "He won his MVP there [in 2004], he took the team to the playoffs. He didn't accomplish any of that stuff in Montreal. I'd like to think he'd go in as an Angel, but nobody knows the mind of those players and their experiences."

Salmon knows too well the experience of missing out on a call to the Hall, as he had his only year of eligibility fall by the wayside in 2012. 

Over the course of his 14-year career spent exclusively with the Angels, Salmon hit .282/.385/.498 with 299 home runs, 1,016 RBI and a cumulative 40.5 WAR. He had a pretty decent resume worth Hall consideration but fell short...something that's happened to the Angels frequently during the course of their existence as a franchise.