Phillies: Great players you forgot played in Philadelphia

Kenny Lofton (2005)

Here’s another guy who should have received more Hall of Fame consideration as one of the great players in the 1990s.

Something that might have hurt Kenny Lofton‘s Hall of Fame credentials is that he played for 11 teams in 17 seasons. He’s not associated as a “great” player with one franchise, but if he’s to be linked with a team, it would be the one where he spent a decade as one of baseball’s best young players.

Traded to Cleveland from Houston, Lofton emerged as one of the most dynamic players in the game. From 1992-96 he stole at least 54 bases and twice he stole 70 bags. In ’93 he hit .325 and followed that up with a .349 batting average in ’94 for Cleveland.

In almost any other season, Lofton would have won the MVP in 1994 and created more Hall of Fame buzz. That season there’d not only be a strike, but a lot of players put up crazy numbers. Each of the top-five AL MVP finalists hit at least .320 and the top-three had at least 36 home runs.

Lofton would finish fourth behind Frank Thomas, Ken Griffey Jr., and Albert Belle.

From 1992-2001 as a member of the Indians and Braves, Lofton had 1,627 hits. Only six other players had as many hits during that time. Three of them (Roberto Alomar, Jeff Bagwell, Craig Biggio) are in the Hall of Fame, Rafael Palmeiro is linked to steroids, and Mark Grace and Dante Bichette were among the elite hitters of their time.

After 2001, Lofton’s tour of nearly half of the league began. Strangely, he would spend no more than one season with each of the eight teams he would go on to join, playing for the Pirates, Dodgers, Phillies, White Sox, Giants, Rangers, Cubs, and Yankees.

Lofton was still a fairly productive player, mainly on the base paths with at least 20 stolen bases in five of his last six seasons.

On December 3, 2004, Lofton was traded by the Yankees to Philadelphia for Felix Rodriguez. Playing at the age of 38 for the Phillies, Lofton hit .335 in 110 games with 22 stolen bases.

In an era where power was key, Lofton did the little things and turned them into big things. Unfortunately, and somewhat criminally, he fell off the Hall of Fame ballot on his first year of eligibility in 2013.

That year no players were elected by the writers for Hall of Fame enshrinement. It was also the first year of eligibility for Palmereio, Barry Bonds, and Roger Clemens, who each received enough votes to stay on the ballot.