Class of: 1976 (Veterans Committee)
Team: Giants
Key Stats: 138 HR, 86.2 WAR, 143 wRC+
Ah, the original Home Run King. In the early years of baseball, no one had more home runs than any player in history than Roger Connor. Then, about 20 years after retiring, Connor saw his record fall by Babe Ruth, who hit more home runs in a three-year period (1919-1921) than anyone else hit in their entire careers. After that point, no one remembered Connor as anything other than a footnote in history. Connor passed away in 1931 and in the days before the internet, faded into obscurity and didn’t return to the front of people’s minds until the 1970’s when Hank Aaron chased Ruth’s career record as people wondered “Whose record did Babe break?”. Hence why, despite being one of the best hitters of the early years, it took 45 years after Connor died to induct him into the Hall of Fame which obviously should have happened much sooner, and it’s difficult to say that it couldn’t be helped because Commissioner Landis and other high-ranking executives in baseball met several times to induct players from the early years of the game and for some reason overlooked one of the best hitters of the time.
Connor was an incredible hitter from his first season with the Troy Trojans in 1880. In his first season he hit for a 152 wRC+ and was worth 3.1 WAR in only 83 games. Extrapolated for a 162-game season (the Trojans played 83 games that season), Connor would be worth over 6.0 WAR with a slash line similar to Alex Bregman’s 2018 season (.286/.394/.532 with a 157 wRC+). After a sophomore slump in 1881, Connor was back with a vengeance in 1882 with 4.2 WAR in 81 games. From 1882 until the penultimate season of his career (1896) Connor had at least 2.0 WAR a year with a 140 wRC+ or higher. He slipped below 140 only five times in that stretch, and only below 120 once. Not to be confused as someone who could only hit, Connor had multiple seasons of 10 or more fielding runs and, when steals became an official stat in 1886, he stole at least 15 bases a season as well (though he was rated as a negative on the basepaths by Fangraphs). If there was one criticism that someone could make about Connor’s play from that period, it would be that he wasn’t a consistently high average hitter. Cap Anson hit over .300 almost every year of his career, as did Dan Brouthers. Connor, on the other hand, had a much more inconsistent batting average, spending nearly as many seasons above .300 (11) as below it (7), and since batting average was a big deal to a lot of older generations, that could be one of the reasons that Connor faded into obscurity.
The most likely reason that Connor faded into oblivion was due to the fact that, unlike a lot of his brethren at the time, Connor didn’t have the personality that a lot of the other stars of the day did. Connor was seen as a quiet guy who did his job well, but didn’t attract attention the way that Anson or Deacon White did. After Connor retired following the 1897 campaign, Connor quickly became an afterthought because his personality lacked the flair that a lot of fans and sportswriters loved for the time. That’s unfortunate because people too quickly forgot about one of the greatest hitters who ever lived.
To be remembered as the original Home Run King would be doing a small disservice to Connor’s legacy. He retired with the most triples and walks ever, and among the top five in RBI, runs, doubles, hits and WAR. Unfortunately for Connor, Anson and Brouthers were usually nipping at his heels or surpassing him in most stats that he didn’t lead, which is what pushes him down a bit in these rankings (and probably in the popular consciousness of the time). He wasn’t Cap Anson, but he didn’t need to be Anson to be great. Roger Connor was absolutely a great hitter and displayed plenty of aptitude on the field and bases while putting up one of the greatest resumes of all-time. There should be no doubt about his candidacy, despite the fact that when the Hall of Fame voting began, Ruth had more than quintupled his home run record. Whether it was a combination of Ruth’s demolition and his peers’ more memorable personalities, Connor was forgotten for far too long before the Hall of Fame made him an immortal.
Baseball From the Outside 