Carl Erskine             Elected 1995, VetCom

Starting Pitcher
Washington Monuments (CHI)
1954-1962

Carl "Oisk" Erskine was one of the most dominant pitchers in the UL's early era and a key cog of the 1950s Washington Monuments, the league's first dynasty. A Cy Young Award winner, he was named to five All-UL Teams and the first All-Decade Team, but pitched in the long shadow of three towering legends whose greatness kept Erskine out of the Hall of Fame for three decades—until now.

A righthander from Anderson, Ind., Erskine was a late draft pick in the 1951 Inaugural Draft, going to Washington in the 26th round (201st overall).  He spent two years in the minors and one year of military service in Korea before making his UL debut at age 26 in 1954, going 14-13 with a 4.40 ERA, and helping the Monuments to their third consecutive league title.  In 1955, the torch was passed from Stu Miller, the Mons' dominant ace of the early 50s, to Erskine, who helped extend Washington's success into the second half of the decade, including a fourth league title in 1956.

Oisk's glory years were 1955-58, a four-year stretch in which he compiled a 99-27 record and 2.63 ERA. He was a three-time ERA and WHIP champion, two-time Win champion, and won the Cy Young Award in 1958, when he went 26-3 with a 2.11 ERA and a 0.90 WHIP. His 2.11 ERA that year was a league record to that point that he improved upon in 1960 (2.10), the year he joined the Colts.

In his final three seasons with Chicago, Erskine was 57-27 with a 2.49 ERA, though injuries kept him out of the Colts first two World Series appearances, including a career-ending torn elbow ligament in July 1962. At the time of his forced retirement, Erskine had the best career ERA (2.88) in UL history, the third most wins (184) and shutouts (29), and the fifth most complete games (139). Even three decades later, his .897 winning percentage is second all-time, his 1.09 WHIP is 5th, and his ERA is 6th. His 29 career shutouts in 311 starts gives him the best shutout ratio in league history. Erskine had one of the best seven-year stretches in UL history from 1955-61, going 157-61 with a 2.72 ERA and 58.6 WAR. 

All of which begs the question: how was this guy not elected? Only Gene Conley, Lew Burdette, and Johnny Antonelli had similar stretches, but here we hit upon the explanation for Erskine's absence from the Hall. Conley, Burdette, and Antonelli all had long careers—Gene and Lew pitched into the 1970s— and were the first three ULers to win 300 games. From the vantage point of 1995, those three plus Larry Dierker are the greatest four pitchers in the league's history. Meanwhile Oisk only pitched nine years and tallied a meagre 184 wins, fewer than all but one current Hall of Fame pitcher. So his short career and relatively unimpressive counting stats are what held him back in the eyes of HOF voters.

Suffering by Comparison
He also had an incredible run of back luck and bad timing when it came to his Hall of Fame candidacy. In the first five years of Hall balloting, leading up to the Hall's opening in 1970, voters chose a single player each year. When no player garnered a majority on the first ballot, there was a two-man runoff. Erskine was third to Ralph Kiner and Stan Musial on the first ballot in 1965, third to Musial and Roy Campanella in 1967, and a distant second to Antonelli in 1969. In '68, he outpolled Campanella in the first round (40-38 percent) before losing the runoff 57-43.

In his last five years of eligibility—after the Hall switch to its current 75-percent threshold voting procedure—Erskine finished just behind Whitey Ford in 1970, just behind Gene Conley and Granny Hamner in 1971, and behind Ernie Banks, Lew Burdette, Hank Aaron, Mickey Mantle, Johnny Podres, and Roger Maris in 1973-75. In short, though he was dominant, his career numbers suffered in comparison during a time when some of the league's greatest superstars were on the ballot. And by the time  that swarm of superstars was inducted and the quality of the ballot diminished, Erskine's eligibility had expired.

Veterans Committee to the Rescue
Enter the first ever UL Hall of Fame Veterans Committee, which from the distance of three decades, not only looked favorably on Oisk's accomplishments, but rated him the most deserving veteran not yet enshrined.  Erskine topped the poll with 87 percent of votes.

Mons Dynasty Lives On
Along with the election of Carl's friend and teammate Stu Miller, the 1950s Washington Monuments dynasty finally has due representation in Beachville. Despite four league titles and seven straight 90-win seasons, Washington had just two guys in the Hall from that era, compared to Brooklyn's six (Ford, Conley, Hamner, Burdette, Mantle, and McAuliffe). What's more, for a pitching-dominant dynasty, Willie Mays and Joe Adcock were the Mons' only representatives, and Adcock went in as a Chicago Colt. With Erskine and Miller's induction, that wrong has been righted. (TJS)