Ken Boyer is on the Classic Baseball Era Non-Players Committee Ballot, a name that sounds like it as made up by a committee.
Boyer played 15 seasons in the MLB, (from 1955 to 1969) most of them for the Cardinals, but he played for the Mets, White Sox, and Dodgers over the last three seasons of his career. He hit .287/.349/.462 with 282 home runs and 62.8 bWAR in 2034 games.
He made seven All-Star teams, won one MVP, received MVP votes seven other times, and has five Gold Gloves.
Boyer had an excellent nine-year run, hitting .299/.364/.491 with 224 home runs and a 55 WAR. He peaked at an 8.0 WAR in 1961.
Like Dick Allen, he played in a very bad era for offence; the pitchers were kings that day and yet he still put up good numbers.
He was a terrific defensive third-baseman. With Brooks Robinson and his brother Clete Boyer, he was one of the top four defensive third basemen of his time. Robinson, Ron Santo. Santo and Robinson are in the Hall.
Santo is a pretty good comparison. They both played 15 seasons in the MLB and were very good defensive third basemen.
Santo played 2243 games, with a .277/.362/.464 line, 342 home runs and a 70.5 bWAR.
Boyer played 2034 games with a .287/.349/.462 line, 282 home runs and a 62.8 bWAR.
Both had 5 Gold Gloves. Santo had MVP votes seven times, finishing as high as fourth. Boyer eight times, winning it once and finishing fourth and fifth other times
Santos never played in the playoffs (he was a Cub), and Boyer won a World Series ring with the Cardinals in 1964.
I’m not sure which of the two was considered the better third baseman in the day; Brooks Robinson was clearly the best third baseman of the 1960s. Eddie Mathews was also a Hall of Fame 3B. His career was split between the 50s and 60s. He wasn’t considered a great defensive player but a fantastic hitter.
I’m torn; I think third basemen of the 60s are underrepresented, and Boyer was a terrific player. I wonder, if you could go back to the 60s which of Boyer or Santos would have have been thought of as the better player?
Boyer was on the Hall of Fame ballot for 20 years and never got more than 25.5% of the vote. And he was also on the Veteran’s ballot three times. Santo was on the BBWAA ballot 15 times and topped out at 43.1% his last time on. He was on the Veterans ballot five times.