Hall of Fame 2010: Mike Jackson

From now until the Baseball Hall of Fame Class of 2010 is announced, The Hall is going to be breaking down each candidate. Some write ups will be lengthy…some will be the opposite. Some will be brand new pieces…some will be re-hashes of previous pieces.

Wow, it seems like just yesterday we lost the “King of Pop” and today…his namesake, Mike Jackson is awaiting Cooperstown’s call.

Now that the obligatory Michael Jackson reference is out of the way, we can continue.

Jackson is 12th all-time (among pitchers) in games played with 1005…three more than Hall of Famer Goose Gossage. Pretty impressive until you realize that numbers 1 through 11 consist of such notables as Dan Plesac and two other “Mikes”…Mike Stanton and Mike Timlin.

Here are some more fun facts about the journeyman righty…thanks Wikipedia!

Jackson’s best year in the majors was in 1998 with the Indians, saving 40 games with a 1.55 ERA! He is tied with Paul Assenmacher for most games pitched in the 1990s (644) and according to The Neyer/James Guide to Pitchers, Jackson’s slider was rated in the Top 20 of all-time.

All that aside, something tells me that Cooperstown isn’t ready for the journeyman closer/set up man yet.

Now beat it! ZING!