A new look at David Freese and the St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Fame

Since it’s been a while, I thought I would take a new look at David Freese and the St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Fame (HOF).

On February 23, 2023, The St. Louis Cardinals HOF announced that Joaquín Andújar, Steve Carlton, David Freese, Matt Morris, and Edgar Renteria would be on the ballot for the fans to vote on.

Between 2/25/2023 and 4/21/2023 Cardinals fans cast over 40,000 votes.

On May 3, 2023, the St. Louis Cardinals announced that David Freese, Jose Oquendo, and Max Lanier would be inducted into the Cardinals Hall of Fame.

On June 17th David Freese released his statement letting everyone know he would not be accepting the offer to be in the Cardinals HOF.

This is the “what” part of the story. I want to explore the “how” and the “why”.

As soon as this happened I thought for sure the internet would break. As a Cardinals fan and as a David Freese fan, I was watching the Twitter sphere blowing up. People were angry at Freese, the Cardinals, and anyone connected with the Cardinals Hall of Fame. Some didn’t understand how he could have been nominated in the first place. No one could understand how he could turn something like this down. I completely lost track of all the conspiracy theories. Somehow, this was something else that Ollie Marmol should take the blame for.

And it was completely understandable. Cardinal fans are some of the most knowledgeable and passionate in baseball and they have no problem expressing their opinions. After all, Mr. Dewitt may own the team but we as fans feel like the Cardinals belong to us.

The only real information we had to work with was the statement that Freese issued. Everything else was just opinions. There was so much noise after his statement was released that Freese posted this on his Twitter account.

It doesn’t matter which Hall of Fame you want to talk about there are always controversies. There are those elected that you don’t think deserve to be included. There are others that you wonder why they are not in. I still can’t understand why Curt Flood isn’t in the MLB Hall of Fame. Also, why isn’t Peter Frampton in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame?

You get the idea. Halls of Fame are there to honor those that were selected. The good feelings we get from all that history and memories in one place are just a bonus for us fans.

When all this happened I found I had several questions. Like I said earlier, I wanted to look into the “how” and the “why”.

How does someone get into the Cardinals Hall of Fame?

The first thing to know was just how someone gets elected to the St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Fame.

The MLB Hall of Fame has a long service time requirement and they also state: “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.” Simply put, you have to play for a long time and you have to be the best of the best during that time.

This is very different from what the St. Louis Cardinals HOF has as their stated requirements.

Checking the Cardinals HOF website, they list these as their requirements for ‘Modern Players” that the fans get to vote on:

“To be eligible, nominees must have played for the Cardinals for at least three seasons and be retired as a player from Major League Baseball for at least three years.”

This seemed very vague to me. Nothing about stats or ability. Surely, there must be more than just playing for the Cardinals for three years to get into the Hall of Fame.

I went to the Hall of Fame to get more answers.

First, I want to say that if you are a Cardinals fan and haven’t visited the HOF then shame on you. I have been to the MLB, NBA, college football, and the Country Music Halls of Fame and can tell you that this HOF doesn’t have to take a back seat to any of them. This museum is filled with so much history and presented so well, that even a Cubs fan would love it. A big shout out to the staff also. They were very professional, helpful, and so friendly that St. Louis should be very proud.

That said, I still came away unenlightened. The only additional information I gathered was from the brochure I picked up that stated the HOF was created to “honor the players and personalities who have had the greatest impact on the franchise.” So, 3 years and have an impact on the franchise. Got it.

I then contacted Brittany Schelp the Manager of the Museum and Tour Operations for the St. Louis Cardinals. Going back and forth with her I realized that the amazing staff at the museum was a reflection of her. She was a big help.

She confirmed that I had the three years part right and then told me this:

“A committee meets to discuss candidates. The organization puts together a stat sheet for review of eligible players and the committee discusses qualifications, stats, their knowledge of the players and any other items they think are important to consider and then votes via secret ballot. Committee members can go into detail and present a case for any players they feel passionately about for consideration.”

“Each year 1 or 2 “modern” players are elected by the fan vote from the ballot that the committee puts together via their confidential vote after discussion. 1 “veteran” player is elected each year by the committee’s vote. Sometimes the organization may opt to induct an individual who was an important figure in Cardinals history such as a coach, broadcaster or member of the front office.”

The members of this year’s committee can be found here.

So finally, I have a better understanding of the “how”. It is a combination of stats and probably just as important if not more, “impact on the franchise”, as determined by a committee.

Why David Freese?

Obviously, he meets the requirements. He was here for three years and you can’t make much more impact on a team than being one of the main reasons they won a World Series.

This is what a couple of the committee members had to say.

On the day after the nominations were released, Bernie Miklasz wrote for ScoopsWithDannyMac.com an article offering his insights on all the nominees. The title of the article was “Bernie On The Voting For The 2023 Cardinals Hall of Fame: David Freese Will Win By A Landslide.” Yes, Bernie is that good.

He started his summary of Freese by saying “Spectacular. The 2011 postseason is enough to earn a coveted red jacket for the hometown hero. “

He added “As the seasons go by without another World Series triumph for the Cardinals – 11 years and counting the more Freese stands out for his massive performance in the 2011 postseason. “

Derrick Goold in his HOF nomination article wrote “Freese, who retired after the 2019 season, would have one of the shortest Cardinals careers of any Hall of Famer. But he had one of the most impactful months in Cardinals history.”

Did he hit over 700 home runs like Albert Pujos? Win 13 gold gloves like Ozzie Smith? Steal 938 bases like Lou Brock? Not even close. However, his stats were much better than he gets credit for.

Comparing his numbers to three players that are already in the Cardinals HOF and one player that was on the ballot with him this year, shows you what I mean.

His batting average was better than Ozzie’s. Freese’s OBP was right there with Boyer, Smith, and Brock. His Slug was better than Smith’s and Brock's. Freese’s OPS was better than Smith’s and better than Lou Brock’s.

In three of the four categories he topped his ballot mate Edgar Renteria and Renteria was only here for one more year.

Addressing his short Cardinal career of only five years, we have two in the HOF already with short careers. John Tudor was here for only five years and Vince Coleman was here for six.

My point is he was not just someone that had a great month.

What he did was carry a team on his back with his heroics. Ozzie Smith’s “Go Crazy” home run was memorable, and it helped get us to the World Series. The performance that David Freese had helped us win the World Series.