Yankees: 3 Hall of Fame Outfielders Who Weren’t as Good as Bernie Williams

These three Baseball Hall of Famers weren’t as good as Yankees OF Bernie Williams.

New York Yankees great Bernie Williams’ Hall of Fame chances appear to be next to nil, but we’re genuinely not sure why.

A powerful hitter, agile defender, and clutch performer, Williams seems to be falling victim to whatever’s been plaguing Andruw Jones’ Hall chances the past few years (except one small difference: Williams won rings).

Bernie went Boom off the ballot in his second year of eligibility in 2013, accruing just 3.3% of the vote, but we’d like to write some wrongs. While his case is a bit less airtight than Andy Pettitte’s, the Yankees’ dynastic center fielder was so clearly better than these Hall of Fame outfielders that we feel the need to point it out.

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Bernie Williams was a better baseball player than New York Yankees Hall of Famer Earle Combs.

3. Earle Combs, Yankees CF

Long before Williams roamed center field at the old Yankee Stadium, there was a far older Yankee Stadium, with far odder dimensions, that belonged to Earle Combs.

Combs was a member of the 1927 Murderers’ Row Yankees, and was somewhat grandfathered into the Hall by the Veteran’s Committee in 1970, back when the Boys Club of former players left the door open for plenty of their friends who they remembered as being…pretty good!

The Kentucky Colonel, as he was known, hit .325 with 1,866 hits and 58 homers in just 12 years, winning three World Series in the process (though logging just a single at-bat in the 1928 affair due to a broken finger).

Very good player during a bygone era? Of course! But Bernie ranks eight spots ahead of him on the JAWS leaderboard all-time among center fielders, a solid metric for Hall of Fame induction. The more modern Yank also out-WARs Combs 49.6 to 43.9, via Baseball Reference.