The hall of very good

In no way am I encouraging the intentional lowering of expectations for any of my students here, but I will say that there's something to be said for knowing what you're going to get.

Take Bob Seger, for example. The man hasn't hit any of his albums out of the park (Allmusic.com says he's got a trio of five-star albums, but I've heard 'em, and they're not classics), but he's never going to throw down any dogs either. Rarely do I ever hear anybody say that Bob Seger is their favorite singer, but if his song's on the radio, you'll probably know some of the words and might even catch yourself singing along.

He's solid. There's no spectacularity there, but he's good for a solid 3.5 - 4.5 stars on every album at this point.

Kinda of like Eddie Murray...the man never was going to put the fear of god into an opposing team. No manager ever said "we can't let Murray beat us", but he could easily be penciled in for between 25 and 35 HR in ten of his first dozen seasons in the majors. Check his stats, and you'll see a guy who lead the league in eleven categories in his career (OBP once, games once, HR once, RBI once, BB once, sac flies once, intentional BB three times, salary once) but who was among the leaders year in and year out.

Bill James came up with a two hall of fame tests for baseball players. The black ink test is based on the backs of old baseball cards when league leaders were shown in bold, black ink. Murray scores an eleven on the black ink test, good for 209th place all time (the average HOF member scores a 27). James also added in the grey ink test a few years later, counting the number of times a player was in the top ten in the same categories. There, Murray moves way up the list to 54th place with 181 grey ink appearances (the average HOFer scores a 144 here).

Never the best player but able to be productive until the age of 40 (and play in the majors through 41), Murray was a rock. Middle of the lineup, not what anybody would call a masher but solid.

Never an MVP, but always in the top ten.

To quote Skip Bayless:

Murray wouldn't be in my Hall of Fame. Remember, it's not the Hall of Very Good. It's the Hall of Fame -- of transcendent greatness, of superstardom, of immortality.

Locally, there's Bacall's down in North College Hill. Before The Girl and I moved out the the burbs, Bacall's was our go-to dinner place. If she didn't feel like cooking, we headed up to Bacall's. If nothing else sounded good, we headed up to Bacall's. If we needed a burger, Bacall's.

We never left Bacall's marveling at the food, never paused in the middle of a bite to marvel at the fineness of the cuisine, never asked to speak to the chef.

But we never had a bad meal, either. Never had to worry that anything would be overcooked or would come out cold. Never had to ask for anything specially made. Never had to send anything back.

Solid.

When the world ends - and we all know it'll happen in Cincinnati ten years after it does everywhere else - Bacall's will still be serving up three-star food, and you'll be able to get a good burger or a nice chicken sandwich right up until the end.

And there's a hell of a lot to be said for that...