Class of 1908

Class of 1908

Ed Delahanty and Jimmy Ryan have been elected to the BBC Hall of Fame in their first season of eligibility. Delahanty was a unanimous selection, while Ryan was named on 9 of 10 ballots.

Delahanty is one of the all-time great hitters, with a .346 lifetime average and 2596 hits, plus power as shown by a .505 slugging percentage. He batted .400 in a season three times. It's not a stretch to call him the greatest hitter of the 19th century. He spent most of his career in Philadelphia, with one season at Cleveland in the Players' League, and his last two in the AL at Washington. He led his league in OPS five times.

Ryan was a small man and very fast, ususally used in center field. He had a career .306 batting average, mostly for Chicago, although he joined Delahanty for the last two years of their careers in Washington. That was a bit of a geriatric outfield. Ryan scored 100 runs in a season eight times. His best season was 1888, when he was second in batting average, first in slugging, hits, doubles, home runs and total bases.

Voting Results

10 ballots cast:
(enough votes for election)
10 Ed Delahanty
9 Jimmy Ryan
(Not enough votes for election)
7 Tip O'Neill, Ezra Sutton and George Van Haltren
6 Charlie Bennett
5 Ross Barnes
4 Cupid Childs and Fred Dunlap
3 Jim McCormick and Hardy Richardson
2 Tommy Bond, Fred Carroll, Bill Lange, Levi Meyerle and Joe Start
1 Dummy Hoy, Charley Jones, Matt Kilroy, Silver King, Bobby Mathews, Ed McKean, Wilbert Robinson, Elmer Smith, Jake Stenzel, Mike Tiernan, Curt Welch, Jim Whitney, Ned Williamson, and Chief Zimmer.